Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the ongoing progress of Cork City Council’s Climate Adaptation Strategy and has created and posted a new web page on the Council’s climate action work on his website www.kieranmccarthy.ie. The Council’s Climate Action Committee and the Climate Action Team provide governance and management for all climate actions for which Cork City Council is responsible, including the 66 implementation actions from the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2019-2024 and actions contained in the Climate Charter. The majority of these actions are being implemented or ongoing.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “I often get regular requests from students and interested locals on what kind of strands and projects Cork City Council is working on in terms of climate action. The existing and developing programmes are helping to increase resilience on the ground and do tie in with National Climate action programmes. There is a lot going on. There is also some really interesting and innovative partnership work going on in an array of diverse areas from energy, food, green schools, biodiversity, lifelong learning, park development, to funding and supporting Tidytowns and exploring and implementing the sustainable development goals”.
Cllr McCarthy continued; “The City Council’s Climate Action Unit has worked recently with the Glucksman and the Planning Department of UCC to deliver a programme that asked school children what they would do if they had ‘Freedom of the City’. The unit is working with the Public Participation Network and Cork Environmental Forum to support local community groups to develop their own climate action plans”.
“In essence, what I describe as a more innovative urban agenda for Cork is emerging through the lenses of climate action programmes. Such thinking is also emerging as frameworks in the new draft City Development plan. My new web page I have created and posted up on kieranmccarthy.ie pulls together an array of over 30 ongoing City Council led projects, which are very positive for Cork society, provide new innovative angles for Cork’s economic development, and showcase the importance of partnership and leadership”, Cllr McCarthy concluded.
1141a. Michael Collins at St Francis Church, Broad Lane, Cork, on Sunday, 12 March 1922, before the rally at the Grand Parade; (left to right) Diarmuid Fawsitt, economic advisor during the Treaty negotiations; Commandant Cooney, Michael Collins, T.D. Padraig O’Keeffe T.D., Fr Leo Sheehan, Very Rev. Fr Edmund Walsh and General Seán Mac Eoin (picture: Cork City Library).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 17 March 2022
Journeys to a Free State: Deputations and Expectations
The pro Treaty rally hosted by Michael Collins on Cork’s Grand Parade on Sunday 12 March was deemed a success. The following day, Monday 13 March, before taking the afternoon train back to Dublin, Michael took the time with Diarmuid Fawsitt from the Provisional Government’s Ministry of Economics to visit and take a tour of the Ford factory.
The Cork Examiner describes a 9am start. Michael was met with an enthusiastic reception along the route to the factory. Even the quay workers paused to cheer his presence. At the Ford works, the party were received by the factory’s managing Director Edward Grace. He showed Michael the extent of the works including the machinery, the moulding shops and casting shops. In the casting room Michael cast four motor-car cylinders. On the short journey returning to the city centre, Michael was recognised and was acknowledged by labourers working on roads in south docklands.
At Turner’s Hotel on Oliver Plunkett Street Michael Collins received several deputations. The proceedings were in private, but the names of the groups were published in the Cork Examiner. Not only was the lobbying of support for the Treaty, but there was also a job of work to do to resolve economic and social challenges, which faced cities such as Cork. The city had 8,000 people unemployed with a large proportion of whom were artisans, mechanics and unskilled labourers.
A deputation of the Legion of Irish Ex-Servicemen waited on Michael Collins. The position of the ex-service men under the Irish government was gone into, the matters touched upon relating to award granted the dependents of the men killed in the First World War and the question of civil employment.
A deputation on behalf of the Unpurchased Tenants Association urged Michael to complete the land purchase programme and directed attention to the action of certain landlords in threatening bankruptcy proceedings against the tenants. They also urged a temporary reduction pending the completion of land purchase.
Mr George Nason, President of the Cork and District Labour Council, brought matters to the notice of Michael Collins affecting the interests of the trades and the workers generally, with special reference to the unemployment problem.
A deputation on behalf of the Evicted Tenant’s Association was also received in the course of the day by Michael.
John Kelleher (Lyons and Company), John Biggane (Munster Arcade), John Cashman (Cashman & Sons), Michael J Mahony (John Daly & Co), Patrick Crowley (Moore and Co.), William Roche (Roches Stores), and John Rearden, Solicitor, appeared as a deputation about the question of rebuilding the premises destroyed in the Burning of Cork, and to clear up certain remarks regarding the advancing of money for the purpose or rebuilding. Some building owners and architects were ready to start their plans.
The latter remarks were a reference to a meeting of representatives of Cork Corporation and Michael Collins on 22 February 1922. At this meeting Michael noted that the Provisional Government would be in a position to arrange to grant to the extent of finance of £250,000 over a period of time. It was suggested that a sum that a sum of £50,000 would be made available in late Spring 1922 to five or six firms that were ready to pursue contracts. On the 4 March, a Cork Corporation sub committee of nine members was appointed to formulate a scheme for the administration of the available grants and discussion began on the vouching of the claims and the distribution of funding. Diarmuid Fawsitt represented the Provisional Government. By early April 1922, a sum of £10,000 was placed at the disposal of the committee. The money was to be placed to the credit of the City Treasurer.
Michael Collins was interviewed shortly before his departure from Cork on 13 March by the Cork Examiner and asked for his impressions of the Cork meeting. He called the rally a great success, which he deemed the further highlighting of support for the Treaty. He noted “The demonstration was unexpected in its dimensions and enthusiasm. The people came out of their own free will to express their feelings, and then came out without canvassing and without organisation. Of course, I knew that Cork was for us. I knew I was as good an interpreter of the desires of the people of Cork, as anyone, and I am glad my interpretation was confirmed…and everywhere I have gone there has only been approval and assent of the action of the plenipotentiaries”.
Michael continued to speak about how the crowd was not daunted by the gun shots fired at the rally; “The thing that was most marvellous was the coolness displayed by the women – old and young – when a few young men fired shots. I do not blame the men who pulled the triggers. I do blame the people who organised those young irresponsibles, for those people, expected to get a stampede. They know how easy it is to create confusion at a meeting where 50,000 people are assembled, and they got those unfortunate puppets to fire those shots in the full knowledge that if there had been a stampede women and little children would have been trampled under foot. But there was no stampede, everyone stood still, calm, and confident, and the. magnificent altitude of the people prevailed against the intentions of the disruptionists…The will of the people must prevail in spite of these things”.
Caption:
1141a. Michael Collins at St Francis Church, Broad Lane, Cork, on Sunday, 12 March 1922, before the rally at the Grand Parade; (left to right) Diarmuid Fawsitt, economic advisor during the Treaty negotiations; Commandant Cooney, Michael Collins, T.D. Padraig O’Keeffe T.D., Fr Leo Sheehan, Very Rev. Fr Edmund Walsh and General Seán Mac Eoin (picture: Cork City Library).
To ask the CE about the use of Boole House on Batchelor’s Quay and why it remains not in use? The project was undertaken in conjunction and partnership with UCC who co-funded the project with City Council. The property was handed over to UCC who are now in ownership of the building and responsible for its completion. The building remains unfitted out (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
Motions:
That Silverdale Avenue and Aisleigh Gardens be added to the re-surfacing list for the South East LEA (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
That the long run of footpath lying adjacent the boundary wall of St Finbarr’s Hospital opposite the Tesco Express on Douglas Road be repaired (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
That Cork City Council are shocked at the Russian regime aggression and military attack on Ukraine, which goes against all international agreements and norms. The loss of life through this unprovoked attack and act of war is unacceptable. We call on the Irish government and the EU and its allies to take the strongest sanctions possible against the Russian regime. The people of Ukraine are sovereign and our support is with them at this exceptionally difficult time. That this motion be forwarded to Minister Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
1141a. Film still from British Pathé of Michael Collins and the crowds on the Grand Parade, Cork, Sunday, 12 March 1922.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 10 March 2022
Journeys to a Free State: Collins’ Rallying Call
The first political rally that Michael Collins attended outside Dublin to promote support for the Treaty was in Cork City. All of the regional newspapers of the time including the Cork Examiner had media spreads on the rally. On the second weekend in March 1922, Michael Collins travelled from Dublin to Cork by train, accompanied by Fionán Lynch TD, Commandant Seán MacEoin or MacKeown TD, Seán Milroy TD, and J J Walsh TD.
Michael Collins and Commandant MacKeown briefly addressed the large crowds that had foregathered at some of the railway stations – at Gould’s Cross, Thurles, Limerick Junction and Mallow. Long before the arrival of the train people before to assemble in large numbers in the vicinity of the Cork Terminus, admission to the platform was strictly limited to ticketholders.
On that Saturday afternoon, 11 March, Michael and colleagues were taken through the city in triumph, behind a number of bands. Not everyone was content to see them. A number of armed Republicans halted one band who has set out to meet Collins. They took their instruments at gunpoint and flung them into the River Lee. One band member leapt into the river to retrieve a drum, which was floating down the river. Gunshots were also fired in the air as Collins passed in his car through St Patrick’s Street towards his accommodation at Turner’s Hotel on Oliver Plunkett Street.
During Saturday evening, the two platforms set up on the Grand Parade for the rally the following day were damaged. The wooden planks were hurled into the river. In the area around Turner’s Hotel, Republican slogans were posted as well as several white flags in very visible places. The white flags were a message to Treaty supporters to consider surrendering their stance.
On Sunday morning 12 March, before the rally, Michael Collins and his colleagues, and now joined by other supporters attempted to visit the Republican Plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery. They were met with twenty armed men telling them if they entered the plot area they would be shot. Meanwhile the special excursion trains from Youghal, Fermoy and Newmarket were raided by armed Republicans. Engine drivers and firemen were kidnapped. The passengers were left abandoned to fend for themselves.
Circa 50,000 people turned up on Cork’s Grand Parade for the rally. Every vantage point was used. At platform no.1, which was nearer to the National Monument Cllr Barry Egan presided as chairperson. The first speaker was Liam De Róiste, who was followed by Michael Collins. The core of Michael’s speech was basically a rebuttal of many of De Valera’s ideas he had presented in previous weeks at his own Anti Treaty rallies across the country. Michael noted: “The Irish people have not disestablished their democratic right to rule themselves. They have claimed that right and fought for it through many generations. They have now at last established that right. They have done more. They have secured recognition of that right by the power which through, all the centuries had denied it. The departure of his forces is the real recognition of that right. It was those forces alone that prevented the Irish people from exercising their right”.
Michael went onto comment on the Treaty negotiations and the success of the British army leaving the south of Ireland. He highlighted; “That interference has come to an end—that interference, the absence of which Mr De Valera lays down as the condition necessary for the existence of a Republic. We took a certain amount of government out of the hands of the economy while he was here. We took as much as we could. But we could not grasp all of it, because he used, the whole of his force to prevent us from doing so, and were unable to beat him out of the country by force of arms. But the enemy is going – will soon be gone, if, indeed Mr DeValera and his friends will but allow them to depart”.
Michael Collins was followed by Seán Hayes, Commandant Seán McKeown TD, Commandant Seán Hayes TD, and Diarmuid Fawsitt. During Seán McKeown’s speech shots were fired during his speech and continued interruptions of shouting was heard all the way to the end of the programme of platform no.1.
At platform no.2, the proceedings had scarcely started when elements of hostility were displayed right in front of the platform. A party of young men, numbering about twenty or thirty, congregated just under the rostrum on which Seán Jennings, Pro Treaty supporter and Chairman of the Cork Board of Guardians, had appeared to open the proceedings. They raised shouts of “Up the Republic”, sang the Soldier’s song, and generally created a din, drowning the voices of the speakers. Within a minute or two, revolver shots were fired into the air. Seán kept speaking but the interruptions drowned him out. At this point Commandant McKeown stood, who had moved over from platform no.1 stood up to take control of the deteriorating situation.
Booming at the crowd, MacKeown declared; “I am not going to be hounded down by four or five men. yes, we sung that when there was danger in singing it. We sang that when we fought for what it meant, and when there was danger in singing it. If Miss MacSwiney called us murderers we fought for the flag, and we are not going to be dictated to by Miss MacSwiney”. Pointing to the group from where the interruptions came, McKeown noted “These men are afraid to hear the truth; they are afraid to let the truth be told even in Cork.
At this juncture a photographer who said he was from an American News Agency appeared on the platform, and endeavoured to take a snap from near where the pressmen were seated. There was immediately an angry rush from the group of interrupters who focussed a revolver at the camera man. The photographer immediately backed down and disappeared from the platform.
Revolver fire became more intense and numbers of people congregated round the platform became alarmed, and there was a slight stampede. The din of the interrupters continued right throughout the meeting and the speakers, Seán Milroy TD, Fionán Lynch TD, J J Walsh TD, Pádraig O’Keeffe TD and Michael Collins TD (who had moved over from platform no.1) were heard with great difficulty.
Over the ensuing six weekends Michael Collins held political rallies from Skibbereen to Waterford, Wexford, Castlebar, Tralee, and Naas.
On the British Pathé YouTube channel there is a film piece entitled “Great Cork Treaty Meeting. Mr Michael Collins receives enthusiastic reception from the huge gathering despite salvoes of shots from a few malcontents”.
Captions:
1141a. Film still from British Pathé of Michael Collins and the crowds on the Grand Parade, Cork, Sunday, 12 March 1922.
1141b. Film still from British Pathé of Michael Collins speaking on the Grand Parade, Cork, Sunday, 12 March 1922.
1141b. Film still from British Pathé of Michael Collins speaking on the Grand Parade, Cork, Sunday, 12 March 1922.
“You and Your Mental Health” booklet was launched recently. This booklet was produced by Cork Healthy Cities, Mental Health Services and Health Promotion & Improvement.
This booklet is for the adult population and contains really good tips on what you can do to improve and maintain your mental health and wellbeing by building healthy habits daily.
It also introduces the Five Ways to Wellbeing, which are evidence based actions to support our mental health and wellbeing.
1340a. Ford Factory, Cork, c.1930 (picture: Cork City Library).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 3 March 2022
Journeys to a Free State: The Henry Ford Motion
During simmering tensions amongst Treaty and anti-Treaty factions in February and March 1922, a motion passed by eighteen members of Cork Corporation created another stream of tensions amongst Cork citizens. The motion concerned the Ford factory in The Marina and a call to Henry Ford that the target of 2,000 employees as set out in the lease agreement between the Corporation and the company be put in place within two months of the motion.
Henry Ford’s journey to create the tractor factory from first negotiations in 1916 to the first tractor rolling off the production line in mid-July 1919 was not straight forward and ultimately required significant investment on his side. The site of the proposed factory was fully in the possession of Cork Corporation but a racecourse committee held a lease of the land. In 1916, there were 35 years of an agreed lease still in play to the committee at £175 a year. Fortunately, the lease contained a clause that at any time the Corporation could retake possession of the holding, if it was required for factory sites.
The Ford company also required a strip of land on the docks from the Marina to R & H Hall. This was a very valuable site. Henry Ford’s team agreed to pay 7s 6d per foot per annum, which was on par with what R & H Hall and Furlongs were paying to Cork Corporation.
Fords also needed a portion of land that was in the hands of the Cork Harbour Board. It consisted mainly of a wharf that had been erected a few short years before Ford’s arrival. It was built as a docks site to discharge timber and was 500 feet in length. At that point as well in the south docks area, there were also limitations on turning long vessels in the river. Vessels could be no longer than 420 feet long. However, for the four years of the wharf’s existence no vessel of any kind used it. Initially it cost £8000 but the Henry Ford & Son Company paid £10,000 for it to buy it outright.
In addition, to the money that the Henry Ford and Son Company paid down for The Marina site, certain guarantees also had to be signed up to. A total of £200,000 needed to be expended upon the site and buildings and 2,000 men at 1s an hour were to be employed at a minimum – making a total investment in wages alone of over £,4,800 per annum.
For the Ford company, the total spent on the land and buildings ended up close to £275,000. A further £485,000 was spent on equipment and machinery. By early 1920, the company were employing 1,500 men with a weekly wages bill far in excess of anything contemplated at that time at between £8,000 and £9,000 weekly. The rates paid by the company to the Corporation were also substantial.
There were four outside firms in Cork doing sub-production work for the Ford company. One of them was employing 40 men solely on Ford work. In addition, hundreds of men were working indirectly for the Ford company, such as carters, dockers, etc being employed by transport companies in the conveyance of the company’s goods and products. In short, the Ford investment annually into the Cork economy was quite substantial.
Edward Grace, Managing Director of Fords in Cork, wrote to Lord Mayor Donal Óg O’Callaghan and the members of the Corporation re-iterating the company’s significant investment in Cork and asking them to rescind the motion. The letter was published in the Cork Examiner on 2 March 1922. He described that before Ford’s arrival only 10 per cent of the tractor was manufactured in Ireland; in 1922 it was over 90 per cent, principally in Cork and its neighbourhood. In addition, they were manufacturing the complete engine of a Ford car, a part which was bound for the Ford Trafford Park Factory in Manchester. In early 1922, the company suffered from the general economic slump between Britain and Ireland and had to restrict its employment of staff from a high of 1,500 men employed in 1920 to 940 men in February 1922. However, the 1922 workers were on a rate of 2s 1d per hour, which was double the wages stipulated by the Corporation lease agreement.
The Corporation motion also upset hundreds of Ford workers who met en masse outside the factory on The Marina on the evening of 3 March 1922. They all agreed upon a motion to be sent to the Lord Mayor; “That this meeting of Ford workers strongly protest against the ill-advised and ill-judged action of a section of Cork Corporation, and hereby call on the Corporation as a whole to take immediate steps to rectify what may easily become a serious calamity to us, our families, to the City of Cork. A second motion was also put forward and agreed upon to be cabled to Henry Ford; “That Ford workers, Cork, disassociate themselves from action of section of Corporation. Taking steps to have recent mistake rectified. Your position appreciated and endorsed by the workers”.
Henry Ford was livid receiving the Cork Corporation motion and by 6 March 1922 had ordered the shutting down of his Cork factory. The workers presented themselves to the city’s labour exchange. The exchange already had 8,000 people on its books and telegraphed the Dublin Labour Exchange for extra administration support.
By 9 March 1922, Diarmuid Fawsitt of the Ministry of Economics of the Irish Provisional Government visited the Ford factory accompanied by Liam De Róiste, TD and James C Dowdall, President of the Cork Industrial Development Association. As secretary to the Cork IDA, Diarmuid was associated with the coming of the Henry Ford firm to Cork. At the conclusion of their visit, they strongly called for Cork Corporation to rescind the motion.
A day later on the 10 March, members of Cork Corporation met and the motion was rescinded. Another agreed motion at the meeting set out a call for a resolution; “That the city solicitor confer with the legal representatives of Messrs H Ford with a view to an amicable settlement. That a delegation of two members of council be appointed to wait on Mr Henry Ford and explain the matter fully to him on receipt of his reply to cable of the Lord Mayor”. Ultimately the Ford factory immediately resumed its work under its own terms of progress and through several weeks of negotiation the legal binding element of 2,000 workers was waived by Cork Corporation members.
Caption:
1340a. Ford Factory, Cork, c.1930 (picture: Cork City Library).
Earlier this month the award ceremony of the Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Project took place outdoors at the Old Cork Waterworks Experience. A total of 25 schools in Cork City took part in the 2021/22 school year, which included schools in Ballinlough, Beaumont, Blackrock and Douglas and with a reach to Glanmire, Bishopstown, and inner city suburban schools as well. Circa 800 students participated in the process with approx 220 project books submitted on all aspects of Cork’s local history and it cultural and built heritage.
The Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Project is in its 20th year and is a youth platform for students to do research and write it up in a project book on any topic of Cork history. The aim of the project is to allow students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage in a constructive, active and fun way.
Co-ordinator and founder of the project, Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted that: “It’s been a great journey over twenty years of promoting and running this project. Over the years, I have received some great projects on Cork landmarks such as Shandon and Nano Nagle Place but also on an array of oral history projects – students working closely with parents, guardians and grandparents. I’ve even seen very original projects, such as this year I received a history trail on fossils on Cork’s buildings and on public pavements. The standard of model-making and in recent years, short film making – to go with project books – have always been creative”.
“This year the Project technically had two award ceremonies – an online YouTube video presenting winning projects to the Lord Mayor of cork Cllr Colm Kelleher, and an informal and outdoor prize-giving event at the Old Cork Waterworks Experience”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
The Project is funded by Cork City Council with further sponsorship offered by Learnit Lego Education, Old Cork Waterworks Experience and Cllr Kieran McCarthy. Full results for this year’s project as well as the YouTube award ceremony are online on Cllr McCarthy’s heritage website, www.corkheritage .ie. This website also has several history trails, his writings, and resources, which Kieran wrote up and assembled over the past two years.
Irish Water working in partnership with Cork City Council, are undertaking vital water network improvement works on the Douglas Road, Cork City, to ensure a safer and more reliable water supply to customers in the area.
These improvement works are being carried out as part of Irish Water’s national Leakage Reduction Programme. This is a programme underway to provide the community with a more reliable water supply, improve water quality, remove old damaged pipes from the water network and reduce leakage.
The works are due to take place for 5 nights from Monday 28 February through to Saturday morning 5 March. In order to safely and efficiently complete these works they will be undertaken at night and under a road closure as granted by Cork City Council in consultation with An Garda Síochána. The road closure will be in place from 7pm to 6am with the road re-opening outside of these hours.
Due to the location of the existing water mains and requirement to cross both lanes with excavations, closure of one lane to maintain traffic flows is unfeasible and therefore a full road closure is required.
The Douglas Road will be closed from the bottom of the Southern Road at the Infirmary Road/Old Blackrock Road/Langford Row Junction to the junction of the Douglas Road and Tramore Lawn. The recommended vehicular diversion will be via Langford Row, Summerhill South, Evergreen Road, South Douglas road to the turn for Tramore Lawn where traffic will re-join the Douglas Road. The diversion will be signposted on approach.
