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

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 222)

From Russia with Hope

Of all the graveyards I have passed through in the Lee Valley, Currykippane is one where humanity teems from it. The multiple signs or love and affection for loved ones stand out in this cemetery. Couple that with its location overlooking the river’s entrance to Cork City and views eastwards along the valley and south to the lush fields makes this an enormous site of memory.

As well as individual and family plots, there is a large famine burial pit in the eastern part of the graveyard. There is a plot for students of UCC and a plot where many of the burials are 1950s. However, I was unable to ascertain who the plot represents (any answers to Kieran?).Outside the south eastern corner a Jewish burial ground can be seen.

According to UCC historians, Dermot Keogh and Diarmuid Whelan in their tribute to Gerald Goldberg, the Jewish community in Cork have had a presence in Cork since at least the early eighteenth century. The first wave of Jewish emigration to Cork was in 1772 with the influx of a small community of Sephardic Jews from Portugal. Relatively little is known about this first community. Although they did not have a synagogue, a burial ground was discovered at Kemp Street, to the back of the present synagogue on number 10, South Terrace, Cork City.

Geraldine Healy in research in the Northside Folklore Project’s The Archive reports that in Cork records for 1801, Isaac Solomon was one of the few Jews in Cork as the new century opened. He traded as a silversmith and jeweller, on St. Patrick’s Street, specialising in small items, such as spoons and cream jugs. There was a Solomon Hymes (Hyams) umbrella maker, working in Blackpool, in the year 1810. His son carried on the family business in 1845 and transferred the business in 1870 to 64 North Main Street.

There was an increase in Jewish immigration to Ireland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1871, the Jewish population of Ireland was 258. By 1881, it had risen to 453. Most of the immigration up to this time had come from England or Germany. In the wake of the Russian pogroms there was increased immigration, mostly from Eastern Europe (in particular Lithuania). The pogroms of the 1880s took place during the period of unrest which prevailed in Russia after the assassination of Czar Alexander II by members of the revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya on March 13, 1881. Anti-Jewish circles spread a rumour that the czar had been assassinated by Jews and that the government had authorized attacks on them. The pogroms at first also received the support of some revolutionary circles, who regarded this action as a preliminary awakening of the masses which would lead to the elimination of the existing regime. The Jews of Russia were the victims of three large-scale waves of pogroms. These occurred between the years 1881 and 1884, 1903 and 1906, and 1917 and 1921.

By 1901, there were an estimated 3,771 Jews in Ireland, over half of them residing in Dublin. By 1904, the total Jewish population had reached an estimated 4,800. New synagogues and schools were established to cater for the immigrants, many of whom established shops and other businesses. Many of the following generations became prominent in business, academic, political and sporting circles.

Circa 2,000 Jewish people arrived in Ireland between the years 1880 and1910. Many were of Lithuanian origin from districts such as Vilna and Kovno and Ackmeyan. A revived congregation in Cork was formed at the close of 1881 and Meyer Elyan of Zagger, Lithuania was appointed Shocket, Reader and Mothel. The community had close links with those of Dublin and Limerick. The initial group of Jews worked mostly as peddlers, selling door-to-door. They were known, amongst each other, as the vicklemen (vickle means weekly in Yiddish, and their door-to-door rounds took roughly a week). They would travel around Cork City and its hinterland knocking on doors and selling various things to the local Catholic farming community.

Several of the earliest arrivals from a cluster of shtetls in north-western Lithuania settled in a group of recently constructed dwellings called Hibernian Buildings, Monarea Terrace and Eastville off the Albert Road, c.1880. Much of the streetscape is as it was more than a century ago when the first Litvaks arrived. Hibernian Buildings, built by the O’Flynn Brothers who were based in Blackpool, was a triangular development of a hundred or so compact and yellow brick on street dwellings. Each unit consisted of four rooms, including a bedroom up in the roof. Seventy Jews prayed in a room in Eastville. About the year 1884, a room was rented in Marlborough Street from the Cork Branch of the National League. A synagogue was fitted up in the offices there. Premises were finally acquired at 24 South Terrace. The number of Jews in the city and county combined rose from twenty-six in the year 1881 to 217 in the year 1891. The Cork Jewish Community acquired the ground for the Jewish Cemetery in Currykippane in 1885 to serve the growing immigrant community.

To be continued…

Captions:

550a. St. Mary’s Cemetery, Currykippane, July 2010 (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

550b. Hibernian Buildings, Albert Road, Cork

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Column, Cork Independent, 22 July 2010 

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 221)

A Just Tribute

 In the Cork topographical notes of Colonel Thomas A. Lunham in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society for 1904, he states that Currykippane Parish consists of eight ploughands and was formerly the inheritance of Donogh, the Earl of Clancarty. It subsequently passed into the hands of the Hollow Sword Blade Company and then Currykippane East and West was purchased by William Dunscombe.

William Dunscombe was the great grandson of Edward Dunscombe who settled in Cork as an eminent merchant in 1596. He was from London and died in 1631. Edward’s son was Colonel Noblett Dunscombe whose son also called Noblett was born in 1628. Noblett was a merchant but also a city councillor and was Mayor of Cork in 1665. In 1686, the Corporation of Cork granted him the south east marsh or the Great Marsh (just east of the walled town of Cork). The North Strand was leased in 1686 for 399 years to Noblett at the rent of £2 10s. yearly. This location is where St. Mary’s Church, Pope’s Quay. A portion of the north east marsh was also granted to Noblett. He also invested in the north west marsh but surrendered it after the Siege of Cork in 1690. The Pike Family eventually developed the marsh here. (Henry Street area, Cork City)

After the Siege of Cork in 1690, the Great Marsh was surrendered by Noblett Dunscombe and a new grant was made in 1691, reserving a rent of £10 per annum. Dunscombe’s Marsh comprised that portion of the city now bounded as follows; Grand Parade on the west, Patrick’s Quay to the north, Parnell Place on the east South Mall on the south. Dying in 1695, his titles passed to his son William. William in 1699 built a stone bridge on the western end of the marsh to connect it to Tuckey’s Quay owned by the Tuckey family. He commenced leasing plots on the marsh in 1710 and in 1715 George’s Street was laid out (later re-named Oliver Plunkett Street).

As for Currykippane, the Dunscombes were still resident at Mount Desert a century and more later – The Post Chaise Companion or Traveller’s Directory through Ireland for 1804 records “One mile from Cork, on the R. is Glasheen, the seat of Mr Patten; and about a mile father to the R. is Mount desert, the seat of Mr Dunscombe”. Thom’s Irish Almanac and Official Directory for the Year 186’ shows “Nicholas Dunscombe of Mount Desert” as a Deputy Lieutenant and Magistrate. “Landowners of County Cork 1876” shows Nicholas Dunscombe owning 1,126 acres at Mount Desert.

The notes of Richard Caulfield were also highlighted in the 1904 journal. He notes that one of the oldest gravestones at Currykippane is to the memory of Ellen Callaghan who departed this life in 1753. Some of the tombstones to the Callaghans do not have the prefix “0”. Richard Caulfield highlights that there is one in the south west quarter which has a history whose details were related to him many years ago by an aged gentleman, to whom the occupant of the grave was known.

The inscription is as follows “I.H.S. to the memory of Edward O’Callaghan, late Lieut. Of the Royal Navy, who departed this life March 1^st, 1808, aged 34 years. As a just tribute of her affection, an attached friend has placed this stone over his remains.” Lieutenant O’Callaghan received his education at St. Peter’s School, Cork. A Miss Parks, a lady known for her generosity and charity in forwarding the interests of the school visited the school daily. She became interested in the O’Callaghan family and witnessed that Edward’s mother was poor. As soon as young Edward O’Callaghan received his education, his friend and patroness, got him a job at sea.

Edward was introduced to a London firm and sailed from Cork to take up his new post. From London he set sail for the East Indies, and nothing was heard of him for nearly two years. At last Miss Parks received a communication from his employers, speaking of Edward in the highest terms, accompanied with a considerable sum of money for his mother’s support. The Captain of the ship in which Edward sailed was so impressed with integrity of character that he recommended him to the commander of one of the naval ships then going on foreign service. The next account of him was that he was engaged in The Battle of Trafalgar (October 1805). The sea battle was fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy.

In 1807, Lieutenant O’Callaghan was forced to return to Cork after contracting a fatal disease. On his death bed he handed over his hat, sword and medal to his old patroness as remembrances of his undying gratitude. The emblems of his rank and rank were borne on his coffin to Currykippane churchyard. Six trees were also planted surrounding the grave as a “just tribute” by an old school friend to mark his friend’s grave. Today the trees are long gone. The headstone may survive but I was unable to read many of the older headstones at Currykippane.

To be continued…

Captions:

549a. Currykippane church ruin (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

549b. View looking west along the Lee from Currykippane, Carrigrohane Castle can be seen in the centre.

 Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, Cork Independent, 15 July 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 220)

Fragments of Antiquity

On a beautiful view-point on the northern side of the River Lee Valley, near Cork and overlooking the approach of the River Lee to the Lee Fields, stands the jagged ruin of Currykippane (also spelt Curraghkippane), which gives name to its surrounding burial ground. Writers differ as to the origin of the placename. Many explain it as Coradh-Ceapchain, Currykippane or ‘Homestead of the Little Clearance’. In the distant past, a dense wood crowned the hillside, on which a clearance for a church or dwelling would be necessary. Other accounts attribute ‘Cora’ to the weir or ford which for­merly crossed the river at the foot of the hill, and served as an approach to the ‘ceapchain ‘ or ”little clearance”. In fact, it is told that at the nearby Clogheen Calvary site during Ireland’s penal days the priest waited in secret to meet funerals on their way to Currykippane.  The funeral cortege stopped and the priest recited prayers for the dead.

Of the church described “Corkapan” in 1291 A.D. little is known. Obviously, it was founded at a much earlier period, and belongs to the group of smaller pre-reformation churches and associated internments. Currykippane ap­pears to have been restricted to families and their descendants long resident in the neighbourhood. The building appears to have needed repairs in the 1600s and reputed to be abandoned by 1693, but in 1860 only the eastern gable, some fragments of the south wall, and part of the west gable remained. The form of the perpendicular window in the chancel, as well as the stone credence in a niche in the eastern wall and a piscina in the south wall, highlight the date of the church.

Today the fragmentary remains of the rectangular church exist. Only fragments of the north and south walls survive. The west wall is now featureless and ivy-clad. The eastern wall stands tall with a narrow central window ope. The interior of the church is now crowded with burials, some recent. The earliest noted inscribed headstones in Currykippane date to 1794. 

Apart from its antiquarian interest, Currykippane is revered by Corkmen as the resting place of, Jerome J. Collins, a distinguished scientist and journalist. Cork historian Ronnie Herlihy and a descendant of Jerome’s Amy Johnson have highlighted much of Jerome’s work. Jerome was born at Cork in 1841. His father, Mark Collins, was a merchant and manufacturer in the city, and a member of the Town Council for twenty-two years. At the age of sixteen young Collins became a pupil of Sir John Benson, then City and Harbour Engineer. Jerome Collins by his ability, soon became assistant en­gineer, and had charge of important works in the river and harbour, notably, the erection of North Gate Bridge. On emigrating to America he engaged in several important municipal works, and be­came Street Commissioner of Hudson City in 1869.

The, possibilities of a general weather service had a fascination for him, and. owing to his articles on the subject he became attached to the editorial staff of the New York Herald. His idea being to make collected information of practical use, and after careful experi­ments extending over an entire year, he began in sending the famous storm predic­tions for the “Herald” to Europe. Not­withstanding, the criticism of the English Press, he persevered and perfected the organization of a weather bureau. In 1878, Jerome Collins attended the Meteorological Congress in Paris, where he received high honours and contributed two papers on the rationale of storm warnings. 

When Cordon Dennett organized an expedition to the North Pole, Jerome Collins became attached to the exploring party as scientist and correspondent. The Jeannnette, a steamer acquired from the British Government, left San Francisco on the 9^th July 1879. In June I851, the “Jeannette” was abandoned in the icepack in northern latitudes. Two boats, however, were sound, and served in exploring for land and food. During a storm one boat with its crew became se­parated and both were lost. Collins, with the captain and others, secured a lauding in a desolate region, where they endured great privation. A small party went in search of food, and failed to return. Meantime, while waiting an opportunity for further expedition, the party became exhausted, and died of starvation. Commander De Long was the last to sur­vive. His diary entry dated the 30^th October 1881, states that Collins was dying by his side.

His last communication, dated 27 August 1879, from Behring’s Strait closed worryingly:

“All before us now is uncertainty, be­cause, our movements will be governed by Circumstances over which we have-no con­trol. We are amply supplied with fur clothing and   provisions…we can go forth, trusting in God’s protection and our good fortune. —Farewell!”   

Three of the party, who lost their way from camp while endeavouring to secure food, reached Siberia, where a mes­sage was sent to the United States Government. A search party was immediately dispatched from New York to join them, and after a long and hazardous search the bodies were recovered.  On the 8^th March 1884, the remains of Jerome J. Collins landed at Queenstown for burial in Currykippane graveyard. The funeral procession, which passed, through the streets of Cork during terrible weather was long remembered for its impressive display of public honour.

To be continued…

Captions:

548a. Ruins of Currykippane Church (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

548b. Jerome Collins (picture: Cork City Library)

                Today, Spike Island was handed over to Cork County Council for development as a heritage resource.

Spike Island (Irish: Inis Píc) is an island of 42 hectare in Cork Harbour. It was significant in the French intervention following the French Revolution, and was later purchased by the British government in 1779 – becoming the site of Fort Westmoreland. Later a prison and convict depot, it was used to house “convicts” prior to penal transportation. It gained a reputation as “Ireland’s Alcatraz. It remained in use as a garrison and prison through the Irish War of Independence, when IRA prisoners were held there. Richard Barrett was among those detained there, but escaped during the truce of 1921.

Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the island remained as one of the Treaty Ports, and was only handed back to the Free State in 1938. Upon its handover to the Irish state, the island’s installations were renamed Fort Mitchel (after John Mitchel, nationalist activist and political journalist).^[2]

The island remained the site of a prison and military base (for both the regular Irish Army and the FCÁ) for some time. Most recently it was used as a correctional facility for youth, when in 1985 it became mildly notorious when the inmates mutinied and briefly controlled the area; one of the accommodation blocks caught on fire and is known as the Burnt Block. This facility closed in 2004.

The island also had a small civilian population, which was serviced by a small school, church and ferry (launch) service to Cobh. The civilian population has since left the island however, and the island is now vacant, with many previous residents moving to nearby Cobh. In May 2006 Minister for Justice Michael McDowell announced plans to build a new prison on the island; however on 25 January 2007, it was decided to explore an alternative site. In 2007 a local task group was set up to re-open Spike as a historical tourist site, and in 2009 it was announced that ownership the island would be transferred (free of charge) to Cork County Council to enable its development as a tourist attraction. The Council subsequently formed a steering group to explore how Spike Island might be developed as a tourist site.