Daily Archives: November 6, 2010

Cork 1920 – Enduring the Most

Cork City Events, Cork History, Uncategorized
 

CORK 1920 – “ENDURING THE MOST”

 A Programme of Civic Events to Commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the Deaths of Former Lord Mayors MacCurtain and McSwiney and of the Burning of Cork

 

This year marks the 90th Anniversary of the deaths of former Lord Mayors Tomás MacCurtain and Terence McSwiney. It is also the 90th Anniversary of the Burning of Cork. The events of 1920 are important in a national context, but carry even greater significance in terms of the civic and political history of Cork.

 

To commemorate this Anniversary, a Programme of Events has been scheduled to run next week –“CORK 1920: ENDURING THE MOST”. Details of the programme are given hereunder. All the individual elements of the Programme are open to the public.

 

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

 

Monday 8th November:

5.30 p.m.             To formally launch the Programme, at the Ordinary Meeting of Council the Lord Mayor will read minutes from Corporation Meetings of the Time at which Lord Mayors McSwiney and MacCurtain officiated.

 

Tuesday 9th November:

11.00 a.m.           Lord Mayor to formally launch a Public Exhibition by the City Archives and Cork Museum in Millennium Hall.

 

11.00 – 3.00        City Archives and Cork Museum Exhibition open to the public & Continuous Screening of films by Scoil Oilibhéir in Millennium Hall Foyer.

 

Wednesday 10th November:

11.00 – 3.00        City Archives and Cork Museum Exhibition open to the public & Continuous Screening of films by Scoil Oilibhéir in Millennium Hall Foyer.

 

Thursday 11th November:

11.00 – 15.00      City Archives and Cork Museum Exhibition open to the public & Continuous Screening of films by Scoil Oilibhéir in Millennium Hall Foyer.

 

12.30 – 13.30  Talk by Gerry White, Historian: “McCurtain and McSwiney and The Formation of the Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers.”

               

Friday 12th November:

11.00 – 15.00      City Archives and Cork Museum Exhibition open to the public & Continuous Screening of films by Scoil Oilibhéir in Millennium Hall Foyer.

 

12.00 – 13.00  Talk By John Borgonovo, Historian: “Tans, Terror and the Burning of Cork” 

 

13.00 – 14.00 Talk By Pat Poland, Historian: “The Fire Services and the Burning of Cork”

 

14th November:

10.30 a.m.           Bishop Buckley to celebrate Mass in North Cathedral, from where Lord Mayors McSwiney and MacCurtain were buried.

 

17th November:

7.00 p.m.         The Lord Mayor is to launch an exhibition “Rising from the Ashes: the burning of Cork’s Carnegie Library and the rebuilding of its Collections”, in the Central Library and is to launch a book of the same name by Thomas McCarthy. 

 

 Footnote regarding Programme Title: The programme title derives from a now infamous line from a Terence McSwiney speech “Triumph is not to those who can inflict most, but to those who can endure most.”

 

 Exhibition poster

Anti-Social Behaviour, “We Need to do Something”

Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized, Ward Events

Letter to the Editor of Douglas Post, 4 November 2010

 

Dear Editor,

 

I write this letter with total anger over the mindless damage to the children’s playground in Ballinlough by what is alleged to be teenagers “hanging out in the area”. It is appalling that a child’s playground was so spoiled last week by people who seem to want to ruin its innocent nature to make sure that young kids don’t have anywhere to play in the vicinity.  

 

I wish to send a message out to those who could be described as mindless thugs who destroyed a child’s playground. The people of Ballinlough do care about its people, do care about its amenities and how the area looks. The people of Ballinlough have worked solidly over several decades to build a confident community whose patience is now been seriously tested by some people who seem to want to destroy and blasé through their youth and destroying the positive roots of community life in Ballinlough. The community is now been pushed to the limit by some young people who could be described as mindless vandals who wish to mess around with cans of paint.

 

As a result of Ballinlough’s status as an older and settled area of the city, it is not entitled to funding for large scale youth and community projects and has admittedly been struggling to curb the growing anti-social behaviour in the area. However, that does not mean the people of Ballinlough don’t care. The recent very high attendances and pleading concerns at the area’s policing forum meeting have demanded answers from local councillors, the local community gardaí and questioned the responsibility of local parents. 

 

Physically going down to the Japanese Gardens on a number of occasions during the summer months, I was appalled and maybe more saddened at some of the behaviour I witnessed – especially the underage drinking. I was saddened on one occasion to meet three sixteen year olds drinking at 6.30pm in the evening and saddened on listening and talking to them; that this was their youth culture, that in some way drinking to get drunk and “smashed” was cool, that this was the way forward for young people in the area and the city. I wish to tell these young people that is not – continuous drinking, puking, smashing bottles, drug dealing, threatening passerbys, intimidating the great people of Ballinlough, worrying the entire community, graffitying walls and ruining a child’s playground – all because it is thought to be cool and the statement that “all young people do it” is a deluded attitude. It is not the way forward and any young person who can’t stop themselves going down this road, who is getting addicted, should seek immediate attention and get some kind of help.

 

If there are any signs of hope, it is the teenagers who I met in the Japanese Gardens who are not drinking and who genuinely wanted something to do, to be challenged in their lives. If there are young people looking to share ideas, looking to get community projects going, have ideas to do something useful with their lives, my door is always open. As a community, we will find funding. We will support anything positive that contributes to life in Ballinlough and/ or the city.

 

In addition, if there are parents who wish to come with me on walks to move on those teenagers who don’t listen; my door is open. I know there are quite a few parents in the community who realise they can’t sit on top of their teenagers and have to leave them out and trust them. I have also been told by our community gardaí that many incidents of anti-social behaviour are not been reported upon and hence certain teenagers causing trouble are not being met and challenged.

 

Juxtaposed to that, I firmly believe that in the world we live in, we need young energetic people to step forward with ideas. I would also like to appeal to young people not to condemn youth projects such as youth cafes in the area that are ongoing and to keep an open mind that such projects will ‘save’ young people’s lives and future outlook. I would say get up from the couch, do something, set up something new, get out there because in this world, it’s the person who will fight for himself or herself will, in the long run, succeed. Every person deserves a challenge; picking up a paint can and destroying a child’s playground should not be even considered as a productive way forward to spend one’s youth.

with deep respect,

Cllr Kieran McCarthy

 

Ballinlough sign

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 4 November 2010

Cork History, Uncategorized

564a. Rough plan of grounds of Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, 1932, Cork

Kieran’s Article, Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 4 November 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 235)

The Market Place of Ireland

 

“Unnecessary imports of food-stuffs and building materials into Cork, therefore account for an unduly large proportion of Cork’s incoming traffic- the imports of foreign flour alone totalling 22,500 tons for the year ended 31st July last. The only inference your council can draw from the returns of the imports is that Cork citizens are to a very large extent becoming gradually more and more dependent on the foreigners for food, clothing and shelter” (from annual report, Cork Chamber of Commerce, 1931, as published in the Irish Press, 1 December 1931, p.7).

In their address to the County of Cork Committee of Agriculture in mid August 1931, the members of the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair committee proposed to hold an exhibition or fair, which would accommodate exhibits and would illustrate native industry in Ireland. The fair committee noted that they were following the example of Denmark and Holland and believed the fair would be of great help in advertising the agricultural products of Ireland. They were also confident that the Department of Agriculture would enhance their efforts by putting up a building showcasing their own promotional efforts. The fair committee wanted the Department to show a farmhouse which would have a ten or twenty acre plot with out-offices and a suitable market garden. They also wished to have a small dairy on display to show cheese production. The fair committee noted that half the butter of Ireland was made by farmers themselves. The information the fair committee had was that much more cream could potentially be turned into cheese and sold. The committee maintained that the experiment was worth trying. It would cost a very small sum of money and if it succeeded it would have a far-reaching influence.

The fair committee were also of the opinion that horticulture should be very much advanced than it was. In 1931, there were £120,000 worth of tomatoes and only £200,000 worth of oranges imported into Ireland. Tomatoes, the committee asserted, could be produced better in Ireland because of climate, than in any other country in the world. The fair committee wanted the Department of Agriculture to co-operate with them in the matter of displaying forestry projects in Ireland. The Department had a forestry station near the city and as the fair committee intended running a road through the fair grounds they were anxious to have a plot in which each kind of native tree would be planted for display purposes. The fair committee praised the attempt to make the Munster Institute on Model Farm Road available to interested individuals who wish to gain in their farming enterprise by taking a personally conducted tour of the operation. The fair committee noted that such tours would be able to show the investment the Irish government had taken in encouraging the production of high quality eggs. The committee also hoped that University College Cork would display parts of its new creamery.

In a press statement on the 29 August 1931 in the Cork Examiner, further details on preparations for the Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair 1932 were highlighted. Over eighty acres of land just off the Carrigrohane Straight were purchased from Mr. T.Corcoran, vice-chairman of the Cork County Council and the enclosing of the site and draining of the land began  The plans of the main industrial hall were approved and tenders were to be invited. Cash and approved guarantees were accepted and these amounted to £15,300. The minimum amount of guarantees had already been exceeded by August 1931 such was the popularity of the proposed event. The lay-out of the grounds was provisionally arranged subject to definite information from the various National Government Departments as to what form which their co-operation was going to take. Approximately 18 acres were put aside for an amusement park and the “concessionaires”, as well as providing the usual plant and machinery, intended to spend £8,000 to £10,000 in material for buildings to be erected in the park.

The fair prospectus, which survives in the archives of the Boole Library, UCC, reveals that whereby the Chairman was George Crosbie, he was assisted by his vice chairman Senator J.C. Dowdall, James Dwyer and W.J. Hickey plus 54 members of committee from political and business backgrounds. The prospectus pitched Cork as “The Market Place of Ireland”. The objects of the fair were set out. The industrial objects were to “display and make known the manufactures and agricultural products of Ireland, and to foster and develop the growing importance of Ireland’s trade and commerce, at home and abroad”. The agricultural objects aimed to demonstrate the “marvellous progress that is being made in agriculture and agricultural methods, and to display the skill and energy of the Irish producer in this direction”. The educational objects aimed to “afford illustrations of the great advance in teaching methods, of the facilities of education, and of the careers open to those who take advantage of them, and of the influence of such educational training on Irish industries and agriculture”. The historical objects aimed “to record the general desire to preserve national memories and to stimulate interest amongst the Irish people for the history and literature of Ireland”.

To be continued…

Captions:

564a. Draft sketch of planned fair grounds (source: Cork County Library)

564b. Advertisement, Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, Cork 1932 (Source: Nenagh Guardian, 2 April 1932, p.2)

 

 

564b. Advertisement, Irish Industrial and Agricultural Fair, Cork, 1932