Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, Cork Independent

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 204)

The Threads of Landscape

The notice board in the Church of St. Mary and St. John in Ballincollig highlights the importance of an upcoming parish mission. It aims to renew faith and bring the community together. However, of all the settlements I have wandered through this is one this is one that has witnessed enormous change in its community structure over the past few decades.

The prominent super-chain store such as Aldi located on the former barracks grounds has once again like the gunpowder mills connected this place to something global. However, in the mid nineteenth century, it was the gunpowder production that connected Ballincollig to the far reaches of the British empire. With Aldi, Ballincollig seems to be connected with another form of vastness and frontier building -the European Union, its complexities and its freedoms of movement of people and trade.

However, aligning the present main street in Ballincollig is architecture of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This architecture echoes another time in the settlement’s history. Local historian Dermot O’Donavan has been pursuing crucial work in researching, framing and penning Ballincollig’s social history and its evolving cultural identity for the early decades of the twentieth century. Chatting to Dermot, he enjoys the recording of memories of older people, tracing the different narratives of threads people give but also in connecting Ballincollig to wider places. In one of his books, the title is aptly titled A Vanishing Village (2008) in which he interviews several of Ballincollig’s oldest residents in a bid to record memories but also to make the memories relevant to the present.

In his work Dermot uses a number of sources to build a picture of the village in the mid to late nineteenth century. Through Griffith’s Valuation in 1852, off the main street, there was Chapel Lane East and West, Chapel Street and Chapel Road. There were five dwelling houses on Chapel Road and seventeen on Chapel Street. Chapel Road was the old name for Station Road and Chapel Street is now The Square. The Chapel referred to was the old church, now the community hall, which served the parish until the Church of St Mary and St John was built in 1866.

Fast forward thirty years and Guy’s directory of County Cork and the listing of Ballincollig reveals further insights. In 1892, Ballincollig had a post, money order and telegraph office. The postmaster was John Whelan whilst the telegraphist was Miss M F O’Leary. Ballincollig was a station on the Cork and Macroom rail line. Four trains ran to and from the village to Cork daily.

Ballincollig was in the jurisdiction of the poor law union of Cork but had its own dispensary. The medical officer, Dr James Harding opened the dispensary on Monday’s, Wednesday and Fridays from 10am to 12noon.The relieving officer was John O’Sullivan of Ballynora. The petty sessions was held every fourth Monday of each month and the courthouse was located in a detached house at the East Gate. In 1892 the clerk of the petty sessions was E C Orpen of St Anne’s Hill whilst the Civil Bill Officer was Stephen Heenan. In the constabulary district of Ballincollig John E St George was District Inspector and T Strettan was the head constable. In the constabulary station, John Black was the sergeant in charge. The acting sergeant was C Collins.

Rev. Denis McCarthy was the Parish Priest at the Church of St. Mary’s and St. John assisted by Rev M Leonard CC. At the garrison chapel, the chaplain was Ven. Archdeacon Archdall who was based at St. Luke’s Church in Cork. In the national school, the head teachers were Patrick Murphy and Mrs A O’Neill. Church of Ireland education was provided by a Miss Leake. John G Briscoe was the managing director at Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mill Co. Ltd. W.C. Sealy was the manager there whilst J McKenzie Macmorran was secretary. Daly’s Commercial Hotel was owned by J Daly. D Forde and sons were builders in Ballincollig. Four hackney car owners are listed – Daniel Crowley, Daniel Kenneally, T Kearney and F Rickman. The forage agent (supplies of animal feed) was operated by John Murphy. A number of shopkeepers are listed – grocers Anne Kelly & Jeremiah Leary, victualler Timothy O’Brien and vintners Bartholomew Maloney, Walter Murphy, Thomas Neville and Peter Whelan.

The gentry and clergy were also listed; Mrs Kate Berry, Ballncollig, J C. Briscoe, Jas. Harding of Roseville. Mrs H T M Hodder of Parknamore, Mrs Leary of Kilnaglory, Rev M Leonard CC, Rev Denis McCarthy PP, J McKenzie McMorran of Oriel House, Mrs K O’Brien, The Castle, W C Sealy of the Gunpowder Mills and John E St George, district inspector of the RIC.

The local farmers were listed as follows; James Barry, Ballincollig, James Berry, Maglin, Mrs Berry, Maglin, Cornelious Connell, Poulavone, Frederick Down, Ballincollig, Daniel Downey, Kilnaglory, Edward Fitton, Kilnaglory, Humphrey Gleeson, Ballyburden, Miss K Kiely, Lisheens, Jeremiah Leary, Ballincollig, Patrick Leary, Greenfield, George Logan, Ballynora, Edward Looney, Ravakeel, John T McElligott, Ballynora, Edward Magner, Ballincollig, Daniel Murphy, Coolroe, Julia Murphy, Greenfield, Timothy O’Brien, Ballincollig, Cornelius O’Callaghan, Maglin, John O’Connor, Coolroe, J O’Sullivan, Maglin, Timothy O’Sullivan, Ballyshoneen, Daniel J Riordan, Ballincollig and James Wise of Ballincollig.

To be continued…

Captions:

531a. View of Main Street, Ballincollig, c.1905 (source: Dermot O’Donovan collection)

531b. Dermot O’Donovan, author of A Vanishing Village, Recollections of Ballincollig in Times Past (2008, Tower Books, Cork)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 11 March 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 203)

Horgan’s Vision

In the 1860s there were 875 inhabitants in Ballincollig, with a large number of British soldiers with their families living in the town. With the creation and blossoming of the Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills came a need for housing and community services. Up to 1808, catholic families living in Ballincollig had to travel to Clash cross in Carriganarra, Ballinora or Kilnaglory to attend mass. The increase in the catholic population due to the building of the gunpowder mills made it apparent that the new church should be erected in Ballincollig. This new church became the parish church replacing Ballinora, which previously had the distinction.

The first church was commissioned in 1808 by Fr. Nicholas O’Riordan Parish Priest. The site was given by Charles Henry Leslie for 960 years at the rent of six pence per year. This man also donated 100 guineas towards the cost of building the church. The Bishop of Cork, Francis Moylan, was involved in the negotiations for the site. By 1860, the population of the parish of Ballincollig had grown so large that the 1808 chapel, which stood on the south side of the village, was unable to cope with the large attendances. Canon David Horgan, Parish Priest, started the interest in building a new church to accommodate the growing population.

After the closure of the church in 1866, the building was converted to a national school. The old church was replaced in 1866 with the Church of St Mary and St John. The new site was on higher ground less than 100 yards to the south of the old church. It was on the property of Thomas Wise who gave the site free of charge. He also very generously gave the use of a valuable quarry at his property in Coolroe, a short distance away, where all the stone was needed for the building could be got. The total cost was expected to be about £5,000, half of which had already been raised at that stage.

The 1866 church was built by Barry McMullen. It was designed by George Goldie who also was involved in the design of Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farran Church. George Goldie (1828 –1887) was a nineteenth century ecclesiastical architect who specialised in Roman Catholic churches. George Goldie was born in York in northern England. He trained as an architect with John Gray Weightman and Matthew Ellison Hadfield of Sheffield, from 1845 to 1850, and thereafter worked in partnership with the same pair. After Weightman left the partnership in 1858, Hadfield and Goldie remained in partnership a further two years. About this time, they designed Farran Church. George Goldie then practised alone until 1867 when Charles Edwin Child (1843-1911) joined him in partnership. In 1880 George’s Goldie’s son Edward (1856-1921) entered the partnership, having first been apprenticed in 1875.

George Goldie’s output included many churches in Britain and Ireland: St Mungo’s Church, Glasgow; Our Lady of Victories, Kensington in London (at the time of building, the Pro-Cathedral for the Archdiocese of Westminster); some of the interior furnishings of St John’s Cathedral, Salford including the reredos of 1853-5, together with the adjoining buildings now known as Cathedral House; and the churches of St Pancras, Ipswich, of 1861, St Vincent’s, Sheffield of 1856 and St Mary & St Augustine, Stamford of 1864/5. In Ireland, after building Ballincollig, George Goldie engaged in the design of several buildings: St. Mary’s Church Clonmel in 1867, St. Vincent’s Monastery adjoining St. Vincent’s Church in Sunday’s Well, Cork in 1873, St. Saviour Church, Waterford in 1874 and St. Joseph’s Church, Boyle, Co. Roscommon in 1876.

The ceremony of laying the foundation stone of a new Roman Catholic Church in Ballincollig was led by the Right Rev. Dr. Delany, Bishop of Cork, on 13 August, 1865. It was funded by donations from the local people of the time and officially opened on 28 October, 1866. The church is in the Neo-Gothic style, combined with some features of other periods. It is built of ashlar limestone with roof slates.

The beautiful stained glass for the windows was supplied by Messrs. Wiles of Newcastle in England. On a visit to the church there can be seen the names of the people who donated some of the windows. The stained glass window behind the statue of Mary was donated by Barry McMullen. On the window it says; “Pray for Barry McMullen Builder of the church”. The stained glass window also behind the statue of Mary reads; “Pray for George Goldie Architect of this church”. A stained glass window next to a statue erected by a Murphy family says; “In honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”. The stained glass window behind the main altar says; “Pray for the very Rev David Horgan of Cork, Priest of Ballincollig who erected the church with help of his parishioners and all the faithful- A.D. 1866.” The windows came from Newcastle in England. They are made from limestone tracery and stained glass. Four saints are represented, St. David, St. John the Baptist, St. Patrick and St. Finbarr. To the left of the main altar, a subsidiary altar was subscribed by men of the gunpowder mills in 1873. This side altar is dedicated to St. Joseph, patron of the universal church.

To be continued…

Captions:

530a. Exterior view of Church of St. Mary and St. Anne, Ballincollig (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

530b. Depiction of St Finbarre in Church of St. Mary and St. Anne

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent

Inheritance, Heritage and Memory in the Lee Valley

– New Publication

Inheritance, Heritage and Memory in the Lee Valley is my new book. It is based on the series of articles that featured in the Cork Independent newspaper from October 2007 to June 2009. It documents my explorations in the parishes of Aghabullogue, Inniscarra and Ovens on the northern valleyside on Inniscarra Reservoir, part of the course of the River Lee.

Abstract from book introduction:

Unearthing the concepts of place-making play a huge part in my journey. I like the idea of culture not as something static but as something living, a process driving people and informing the decisions of the present. I have developed interests in ideas of legacy and how certain things are selected to be remembered and others disappear. In the Lee Valley I have marvelled at how the landscape has been transformed through ventures such as the Lee Hydroelectric and how it affected the population in terms of uprooting people, providing huge employment to the Cork region and creating new attitudes, mindsets and huge debates amidst communities, challenging them to change with the times. Then there is that notion of time. I marvel at the old black and white photographs showing families from 100 years ago and then marvel at the person showing me the photograph, who is the present day representative. The collision of the old and the new can be witnessed across the valley. Sometimes the contrasts are worrying but at other times, without them, the sense of living communities would be redundant.

One aspect for certain is that the more I researched the places within the region or the more doors I knocked on, the more information came to the fore. What is also apparent is that everybody’s view of the world is different. It could be an insider’s view or an outsider’s view, such as my own. For most people I met, heritage was a personal and collective experience focusing on their own roots. In fact, the historical data played ‘second fiddle’ to their personal stories. It has been interesting to see how stories and values have been handed down, and how each successive generation has taken it in turn to hold a torch for some element of the past in the present.

One recurring aspect is how much the region’s cultural heritage runs metaphorically in ‘people’s blood’. There were a large number of people who noted, ‘my father used to say’ or ‘my mother used to say’. That sense of inheritance is important and it is more than just honouring people. It conjures up debates about achievement and loss, and it is more than just recalling the memory of a few. For each person interviewed many more are represented through their life experiences. One is allowed to ponder on the power of the individual and their contribution to society, whether at a local or international level. The evolution of ideas can be mapped.

The majority of the participants were met whilst traversing the parishes. Generally speaking, information in a library or on a map does not give you the tools for researching people and their attachment to place. Through fieldwork and talking to people, you can see that a community such as that in Aghabullogue parish or any other parish in Ireland evolved from leadership offered by individuals and families. People brought their own ideas and talents in forging a family space, which is then set in the wider community. It is interesting to note how the talents of a few can make a place or indeed reawaken one that is in decay. Some people’s stories, especially in Aghabullogue parish, began elsewhere. In particular, the commercial possibilities of the region inspired many entrepreneurs and artisan families who settled in the region through the ages.

So, Inheritance dabbles in the architecture of heritage and its interaction with life in the River Lee Valley. It does focus on a section of the Lee Valley, namely Aghabullogue, Inniscarra and Ovens parishes, but is not a definitive history of those regions. For me, the essence of the book is focussed on the beauty and structure of ordinary ‘things’ that one may take for granted but which highlight, debate and celebrate our cultural heritage.

This book is about a journey in seeking out the sense of place in the Lee Valley, a valley that has grasped my imagination and fails to let go. I have laughed, cried, wondered, been awestruck and got excited by my findings. The Lee Valley as a place has inspired in me a whole series of reactions. With all that in mind, Inheritance attempts to capture my explorations, the many moods and colours of a section of the River Lee Valley, to contemplate new ways of seeing, to rediscover the characters who have interacted with it, the major events and the minor common happenings and to construct a rich and vivid mosaic of life by and on the River Lee. Above all this book is not what we have lost but what we have yet to find.

The above text is abstracted from the introduction to Kieran McCarthy’s Inheritance, Heritage and Memory in the Lee Valley, Co. Cork. The book is available from any good Cork bookshop.

Captions:

529a. Front cover of Inheritance, Heritage and Memory in the Lee Valley, Co. Cork by Kieran McCarthy

529b. Ardrum stone wall, Inniscarra, Co. Cork (picture Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Column, Cork Independent

Article 528– 25 February 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 202)

The Familiar and Forgotten

In the year 1888, the Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills were bought by John Briscoe and soon after came under the control of Curtis’s and Harvey. The mills closed in 1903 due to the advent of the production of dynamite. The Curtis and Harvey’s mills were then absorbed into Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The site was bought by Cork County Council in 1974, which developed it into a public park.

It’s a difficult thing to compress the decline of the mills into one paragraph – that the mills failed to move with the times. Jobs were lost; the buildings were emptied of human life and began their ruin time. I think there are a lot of questions to ask of such a complex in terms of the human story itself. I personally am drawn to the idea of a mill on a river – making a product that had all sorts of meanings with it. One can destroy – destroy to gain power or destroy to build a civilisation.

It is known that most of the finished gunpowder product was exported to Liverpool before it was sent onto to Africa. By the end of the nineteenth century, the so called ‘Scramble for Africa’ had led Europeans to chart the Nile from its source and other rivers whilst also realising the vast resources of Africa. Through production Ballincollig was connected to that hub of activity thousands of miles away on another continent.

Without a guide the ruinous buildings and their shapes are strange and wonderful to engage with – the fallen rubble, their danger, their oddness, the shape of nature’s forms as trees burst through walls- the thorns which stick into you and you try to reveal something overgrown. Before even researching the mills I was particularly drawn to the frozen cog-wheels and sluice gates at the western end of the regional park. I often wondered what would happen if the mechanisms was released.  

However, doing research and fleshing out the exploration with knowledge brings a layer of understanding but also more questions. Over the years, scholars such as George Kelleher, Colin Rynne, Dermot Lucey, Catyrn Power, Anne Donaldson and Jenny Webb and the former gunpowder heritage centre (now closed) have all contributed to a renewed appreciation of the ruinous mill complex amongst the Cork public. Walking through and re-living the experience of the mills with a guide is something exciting as one now scrambles through the overgrowth to reveal the different parts of the gunpowder production. However, despite that I feel there is a tendency in the wider field of Cork’s heritage that here is a site that is suffering from amnesia – that the mill complex closed and that all its memories were chosen not to be publicly recorded in any way.

Apart from shining a torch into the darker places of the gunpowder stores –the ongoing historical work by the new generation of scholars such as Jenny Webb is more than just recovering the facts and figures of the various mill buildings. It seems also to be about recovering how it all worked, repairing the historical narrative, interpreting, re-interpreting, guarding and re-engaging it. However, for local historians such as Jenny it seems also to be about trying to find ways of re-building the story of the mills back into present day life. I have met local historians in the Lee Valley who use methods such as lectures, field walks and publications to ignite interest in a historical place or event that is usually familiar but generally forgotten. Such work I feel is crucial for building identity but also puts a meaning on a forgotten experience.

As one walks the regional park, the act of reflecting on the human experience of the site fleshes out the historical narratives and the processes themselves. The building blocks of memory are now gone. The sounds of the craftsmen, the coopers, the saw mills, the barge rowers in the canal, the family chatter in the houses at night – they can only be imagined now.

Today, the white washed gatehouse at the western section to the park provides an interesting contrast to the nearby skateboard park. The gatehouse was one of watchtowers built for security measures. Anyone entering the site was subject to a search. The danger of this leads to the explorer to ponder about the hidden away site (which possibly has contributed to the lack of memory of this site). If you worked within the walls, I presume you couldn’t talk about the layout and processes outside the complex. I wonder about the people who controlled the sluice gates to the canal and the people who used the canal carefully bringing the various processes together – whilst chatting about their own challenges in life.

The memories of the gunpowder mills are lying in pieces. For these pieces to be ever to be built up, guardians need to rise and find new strategies of integrating the heritage of this site into the fast globalised world we live in. However, this is not just a challenge for the Ballincollig site but for many heritage sites across the Irish landscape.

To be continued…

528a. Jenny Webb, local historian, leading a field walk of the Ballincollig Regional Park and former mills, winter 2006 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

528b. Exploring a magazine store on a field walk with Jenny Webb, winter 2006 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,  Cork Independent 

– 18 February 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 201)

The Industrious Landscape

A newspaper article in the Cork Constitution in 1856 gives a very important insight into the stages of gunpowder production at Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills. Once refined etc, the three ingredients of gunpowder – sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal were then removed to the mixing house.  The journalist in 1856 could not ascertain the precise proportions or parts of the final mix. He noted that the process was religiously kept and never divulged to strangers. However, the usual proportions given by chemists were 75 of saltpetre, 15 of charcoal and 10 parts of sulphur.

The mixed ingredients were then sent to the composition mills, which consisted (similar to the sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal grinding mill) of two stones vertically placed and running on a bed stone. On this stone the composition was spread and wetted. The composition mills were small buildings. Only a small quantity of composition was worked there at a time, as explosions could sometimes happen from the runners and bed stone coming is contact and from other causes.

The composition taken from the mills was sent in the form of mill-cake to another department of the manufactory, where it was subjected to a violent pressure from a powerful screw-press. The next part of the operation was the breaking up of the press-cake into fragments. This was effected by a large mallet, by which the workmen broke up the gunpowder into small pieces to render its suitable for the action of the corning mill. The gunpowder thus reduced into fragments was transferred to the corning house to be corned or grained. The corning mill consisted of a number of circular sieves, in each of which were two flat circular pieces of lignum vitae or trade wood of a tough dense nature. The sieves were made of parchment skins, having round holes punched through them. Several of these sieves were fixed in a frame. That machinery moved so that the lignum runner in each sieve struck against the powder with a quick velocity breaking the lumps of powder and forcing them through the sieves, forming grains of several sizes.

The next operation was called glazing. It consisted in putting a small degree of gloss on the powder, rendering it less liable to be affected by moisture. For this purpose, the powder was placed in a reel. The reel was kept slowly revolving for some time by which the grains of gunpowder were brought into contact with each other, producing a slight gloss. The next process was stoving or drying. The stoving house comprised of a securely closed chamber, heated by steam passing through large steam-tight tubes. The powder was spread on cases placed on shelves, rising tier above tier round the room. The heat was regulated by a thermometer placed at the door.

The gunpowder was either stored in bags (for home use), or in casks of various sizes, containing from 5 to 100 pounds. The manufacture of the casks constituted an important feature of the operations carried on in connection with the powder mills. It gave employment to about fifty coopers, besides a large number of subsidiary trades. The cutting and shaping of the staves and heads of the casks were performed by machinery. The saw mills comprised a number of vertical, straight and circular saws, worked by the new motive principle entitled the turbine. The machines were noted as long been used on the European continent and farther afield in Syria but only in the years leading up to the Constitution report began to used in Ireland.

The turbine, which was employed in 1856, was constructed by Mr. Perrott. It was of 16 horse-power and was water powered producing 100 revolutions of the shaft per minute. The rounding off the head of casks was completed by a circular saw of peculiar construction by which a skilful workman could complete as many as 250 to 300 heads in an hour.

The number of people employed in the several operations of the Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills was about 500.  When apprentices to coopers and tradesmen were wanted they were selected from the sons of the men employed on the works, as a reward for good conduct and long services. One great advantage attending the manufacture was that it furnished employment for both sexes and for every age. Indeed a man with the assistance of one or more members of his family could make upwards of three guineas per week. As a result, the men employed on the mills, the majority of whom with their families resided on the estate were deemed by the visiting journalist as amongst the most comfortable of the manufacturing population.

In addition each family connected to the mills resided in a little cottage with a small piece of ground attached rent free. The visiting journalist in 1856 described the neat and orderly appearance of the little dwellings with clean white washed walls and “trimly” kept gardens. He felt they created the feel of a traditional English village rather than the typical habitations of Irish families. However, he further highlighted that the neatness and cleanliness of the cottages was secured through the periodical inspection by an officer who was employed to check dwellings. Indeed, the walls of the buildings were whitewashed every month.

To be continued…

Caption:

527a. Sketch map of mill ruins, western section of Ballincollig Regional Park (source: Kieran McCarthy & work of Jenny Webb, Ballincollig)