Monthly Archives: October 2014

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 30 October 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

766a. Sunset at Cork Docks, October 2014

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 30 October 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 92) – Wisdom and a Real Spirit”

 

 Cork’s Regional Technical College, the biggest in the country, representing a public investment of nearly £3 ½ million, was officially opened today by An Taoiseach, Mr Lynch three years after parts of the college began to be used. Since its unofficial opening the number of day students had risen to 3,000 with almost 1,000 evening class students and a teaching staff numbering almost 200 (Evening Echo, 31 December 1977, p.1).

   With the wheels of education moving, and the Cork School of Art in the process of relocating to the Crawford Tech, attention turned to having an official opening of the Cork Regional Technical College. On 30 December 1977 three years on since its first enrolments, Cork born Taoiseach Jack Lynch received an enthusiastic reception on arrival at the college. The Irish Press, Cork Examiner and Evening Echo all record a large attendance. The college was blessed by the Bishop of Cork and Ross, Cornelius Lucey. A plaque made by Cork sculptor Ken Thompson commemorating the opening was unveiled by the Taoiseach after the tape-cutting ceremony. Among the large attendance were the Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Gerald Goldberg and the principal Mr J P Roche. At a luncheon in Blackrock Castle later many tributes were paid to the retiring CEO Patrick Parfrey and among the presentations made to him was an illuminated address by Cork graphic artist Tadhg Lehane and his portrait painted by Frank Sanquest.

   Lynch in his speech at the RTC noted that the public expenditure of nearly £3 ½ million on the college was a confident investment in the future which it had to serve and to attempt to reshape. Its success would depend on “wisdom, teamwork and real spirit of teaching and leadership”. Without that vision and leadership, he pointed out, the college would not have come into existence at all. There had been the sterling work of the City of Cork VEC and its sub committee and the Board of Management. The Taoiseach paid a special tribute to the City VEC Chief Executive Patrick Parfrey who retired on the day of the opening; “His period in that post would be remembered for the earnestness, thoroughness and perseverance of his work, for the many innovations which he had inspired in a period of rapid change and for the buildings and plans which would survive as monuments to his endeavours”.

   The RTC brought technical education together into one complex. The Taoiseach made reference to the history of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute of Crawford Tech. A number of extensions were made to the building over the years to accommodate extra classes. As far back as 1963 saturation point had been reached and in that year all junior day classes were transferred to premises in Sawmill Street and Parnell Place. In addition all apprentice classes in building and furniture trades moved to the Sawmill Street complex. Other premises acquired were SS Peter and Paul’s Primary Schools, for electrical trades; the Deanery in Dean Street, for mechanical engineering and civil; and in 1972 some rooms were hired from the community centre at Greenmount for the use of mechanical block release classes.

   Mr Lynch continued by saying there would be great pressure to ensure the relevance of what the college provided for the changing needs of society and of the region. This demanded close links with industry, research, business, development agencies and, of course, with other educational institutions. Courses tailored to industrial needs were increasingly being structured by the college. Courses were put on for Chemiotic Brinny, An Foras Forbartha, the Institute of Public Administration and the accounting profession. In the late 1970s, the college undertook courses in food hygiene for the bacon industry and developed a joint course with Marathon Petroleum for the training of its personnel on the Kinsale Head production platform.

    In a wider context, the region was in a good position, economically and socially. Cork Corporation’s Development Plan Review for 1977 reveals a city with a varied industry. It had well developed commercial centre generating almost a quarter of all Munster retails sales and a concentration of important education and professional services. The Port of Cork was the major distribution centre for the south of Ireland. In 1971 Cork Port handled an estimated 40 per cent of the total port traffic of the whole State. Developments of the Corporation’s housing holdings at Hollyhill, Bishopstown and Mahon were being pressed ahead. These developments were to provide industrial sites, ancillary social facilities such as schools and shopping and residential areas with a combined population when complete of about 12,000. The City and County Authorities, CIE, the Cork Harbour Commissioners and other development agencies had come together under the aegis of the Regional Development Organisation to undertake a Land Use Transportation Study of the Greater Cork Area.

     In an Irish context, on 1 January 1978 Ireland advanced its membership of the EEC a day later after RTC’s opening. The country’s cheaper food prices were to be finally brought into line with those in the original six community countries. The New Year marked the end of a five year transitional period and the beginning of a new era in Ireland’s international relations and markets.

To be continued…

Caption:

766a. Sunset at Cork Docks, October 2014 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 23 October 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

765a. Canova casts at Crawford Municipal Art Gallery

 

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 23 October 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 91) – Premises for a College of Art”

 

    With a new RTC up and running in Cork from October 1974, attention soon turned to the future of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute. Education leaders in Cork turned their focus to converting the premises into an art college whilst creating more gallery space and a larger civil art centre at the Crawford Art Gallery.

     In the early 1970s, the Cork Vocational Educational Committee (VEC) made a policy decision, which included the conversion of the Crawford Tech into the Cork School of Art. The Irish Press on 21 February 1977 (p.6) outlines that a meeting was held of representatives comprising concerned groups and people in the School of Art. Some criticism of the proposed transfer was made but a show of hands displayed firm support for the move. The VEC CEO Patrick Parfrey referred to a special committee on art accommodation in Cork and stressed that the existing accommodation for the visual arts was grossly inadequate both for students and the public. They had found themselves unable to exhibit or even store their own paintings or to accept works on loan from other galleries; “as the second city in the State to ask for the money for an extension to our gallery, I say unblushingly that the state should have no hesitation in providing it…the galleries we have were built through the generosity of the Crawford Family nearly a century ago and they have served us all during this time”.

    Mr Parfrey detailed that the School of Art had 173 full time art students and eleven courses. Most of those who had qualified in previous years were able to get teaching jobs and he foresaw more vacancies for future teachers. Stressing the role of the school in Cork’s cultural life, he added; “we were the first gallery to run art classes for children and have been running them for over 135 years. We were also the first gallery to have lunchtime recitals”. He explained that the planned conversion into an art centre would include more “hanging and storage facilities, library space and a restaurant”. In addition there would be enough space on a site within the gallery grounds to build proper headquarters for the National Ballet Company, which was looking for accommodation; “With the Opera House adjoining us on one side and with the ballet headquarters on the other, we would be in fact and in name a real art centre – though of course, the ballet company would have to provide its own funds for its building”. Other speakers including members of the teaching staff of the school and Miss Joan Denise Moriarty supported the arts centre project. The ballet centre eventually materialised though at the Firkin Crane in Shandon.

     The move of the School of Art was critiqued though. Artist Gladys Leach reminded the meeting that the Cork School of Art was built specifically for art students and it was important to remember its past functions; “ it has magnificent rooms with northern lighting and there is an atmosphere of art her which you will not get at a technical school. It would be a crying shame if these rooms are used for other purposes other than their original purposes. There is no comparison here with conditions in the Dublin College of Art – it was only a wing of Leinster House but this is a building specially designed as an art school and gallery”. Mr Parfrey noted the concerns of Ms Leach whilst highlighting that the decision was made by the VEC and the project and the transfer were going to happen. A member of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society spoke of his concern about the changes which might take place in the physical appearance of the present school; “It is a venerable building and there are few of its kind in Ireland. I hope this will be borne in mind when any conversions are being made. We have too many bad examples around us of conversions”. Following a proposal to form a steering committee to implement the decision on the art centre and to raise funds for the alteration, the following with two members of the VEC were appointed; Art critic Hilary Pyle, architects Jim Barry and Frank Murphy, Tony Thornton, President of the Cork Chamber of Commerce and Mrs Dennis Murphy.

    Fast forward to February 1980 and the Irish Press also detailed the actual move (14 February, p.9). About £240,000 had been spent on conversion and furnishings of the new schools in the 1912 building. The Cork School of Art had always elicited respect through the quality of its work and teaching, particularly in the realm of sculpture, and two of its graduates were chosen to represent the new avant garde in a show of contemporary Irish artists being held in the Angela Flowers Gallery in London as part of the Sense of Ireland Exhibition. The two young women were both from Cork, Éilís O’Connell and Vivienne Roche. Éilís showed three works on paper, which she described as “three dimensional drawings” and Vivienne exhibited watercolours. Another graduate Dorothy Cross had gone onto study at the Leinster Polytechnic and in California, where she specialised in sculpture. All three of the latter are still artists of great repute exhibiting at home and abroad.

To be continued…

Caption:

765a. Canova casts at Crawford Art Gallery (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 16 October 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

Copy of 764a. Aerial of Cork City Centre 1975

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 16 October 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 90)

– Forty Years Ago, Cork RTC Opens”

An important occasion for the Cork Regional Technical College was how the principal James P Roche described the conferring of 135 students from eight faculties with national certificates and diplomas. The conferring was performed by Pádraig Mac Diarmada, Director of the National Council for Education Awards in the presence of a distinguished gathering (J A Cullen, journalist, Evening Echo, Tuesday 19 November 1974, p.9).

     Cork’s CIT campus celebrates its 40th birthday this month. The new college at Rossa Avenue officially began operations on 1 October 1974 with close on 4,000 students enrolled (most of them male). Those who received certificates and diplomas at the first conferring ceremony in November 1974 had pursued their studies in the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, its annexes and the School of Commerce. Remarks by the principal Mr James Roche in the Evening Echo on 19 November 1974 highlighted the important difference between the Cork College and other regional colleges – the Cork College was to be a “confluence of activities and traditions already in existence rather than a new department in technical education”.

     The Cork College was by far the largest of the regional colleges and at that point in time the college was awaiting the addition of courses in navigation studies and catering studies. The journalist reporting on the conferring noted of potential space problems going forward; “The College must be extended in the near future to provide for the development in range and level of courses, which is inevitable”. In the beginning, the role of the college extended over the region comprising Cork City, Cork County and South Kerry and embraced a population of nearly half a million people. Mr Roche detailed that in the past technical education in Cork City had provided a service mostly to people within the urban area; “the Regional College must serve and must be seen to serve the whole region in a much more extensive way, from the outset, and must not be identified as a city college”.

    Mr Roche added that the college was to provide an opportunity for young men and women in the region for obtaining an education and training over a wide range of disciplines and with a flexible and extensive award system; “The flow of students from all parts of the region to the college to take these courses was considerably strengthen the college both in size and in standard; “Also, the flow and qualified and trained graduates from the college back to all parts of the region will immeasurably enhance and strengthen these areas and help in the development and support of economic improvements. This is the real importance of the college and the real responsibility which it must face”.

 

    In the Cork RTC in 1974, there were a substantial range of courses, for example the courses for certificates and diplomas in business studies, certificated and diplomas in applied chemistry, applied biology, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and marine engineering. There were construction studies leading to certificates and to diplomas in construction economics and architecture. There were certificate courses in instrument physics, electrical engineering and medical laboratory technology. There were courses in textile technology, marine electronics and radio/television servicing. Some of these courses were new in Cork whilst others were long established with a graduate output which had made substantial impact over the previous decade in business and industry. According to Mr Roche, “this acceptance by industry of graduates is a further guarantee of the validity and relevance of the courses”. Some of the work was of particular national significance, for example the Marine engineering course. There was also a course for the training of engineers to professional level and it was hoped at the time to provide an avenue through the Diploma in Engineering on to professional level.

    Mr Roche also alluded to the perspectives of educational leaders in Tralee, who argued that the technical college there should be designated a Regional Technical College with a region comprising all of Co Kerry, South Limerick and North Cork. To Roche this represented a “major deletion from the catchment area of the Cork RTC”. The proposal was well supported in Tralee and had been canvassed for at national level as well. Roche claimed the need for standards and a large catchment area; “there is a standard for technical colleges, an international standard, and the technical colleges here are bound by that standard. There is a critical size and necessary range of activities for a bona fida college. The Cork RTC can meet these criteria but it must serve and be supported by a major catchment area”.

     Mr Roche also commented on the close link between technical education in Cork and University College. A successful example of that had been the Diploma in Chemical Technology, which was highly rated. There had also been the partnership with UCC in a food science diploma. This kind of development, said Mr Roche, was of great significance in the regional context’ “it highlights the need for a real appreciation and understanding of the importance of the RTC in providing education and training at the appropriate levels as a fundamental service to every part of Cork City, Cork County and South County Kerry”.

To be continued…

 

Captions:

764a. Aerial of Cork City Centre 1975 (source: Local Studies, Cork City Library)

 

Kieran’s Question to the City Manager/ CE and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 13 October 2014

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 

Question to the City Manager/ CE

To ask the Manager/ CE are there any plans to clean the limestone plinth of the Fr Mathew Statue to mark its 150 years at the site on St Patrick’s Street (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

 

Motions:

 

That the Council review traffic calming measures on Blackrock Road; There is a point in the road where the cars get a good run to build up speed around Rochelle apartments, and then it narrows suddenly heading to Blackrock, just at the 4 white Victorian houses (Cllr Kieran McCarthy.

 

That Cork City Council supports the call from the Restaurants Association of Ireland for the ongoing retention of the 9% VAT rate for the food, tourism and hospitality sector that has helped create one of four of the jobs in economy. That this Council ask the Minister for Finance to Keep VAT @ 9% into 2015 and beyond (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 9 October 2014

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

763a. Fr Mathew statue as depicted in the Illustrated London News, 26 December 1863

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 9 October 2014

150 Years of The Statue

 

To honour such a man is to do honour to ourselves, to your country, and to the Irish name. It is now my pleasing duty, in the names of the citizens of Cork to unveil the statue, which is to stand henceforth in your city, as an enduring memorial of its best and greatest citizen, and to present to the gaze of those whom he loved and served in life, the semblance of those features, which are so familiar to their memories and dear to their hearts (John Francis Maguire, Mayor of Cork, 10 October 1864).

The date 10 October 2014 marks the 150th anniversary of the unveiling of the Fr Mathew Statue on St Patrick’s Street. Enshrined in Cork City’s collective memory as the ‘Apostle of Temperance’, by the end of 1840, it is recorded that 180,000 to 200,000 nationwide had taken Fr Mathew’s pledge. In the late 1840s, Fr Mathew went to America to rally support for his teetotaller cause and the teetotalism cause in Ireland and England started to suffer by his absence. He died in December 1856 and was buried in St Joseph’s cemetery, Cork, his own cemetery that he created for the poor. Fr Mathew has left a legacy in this city that has been maintained and respected since his death. Of all his commemorative features in the city, the Fr Mathew Statue, erected in 1864, on the city’s St. Patrick’s Street very much honours the man. 

Soon after the death of Fr Mathew in December 1856, a committee was formed for the purpose of erecting a suitable memorial in the city. The commission was entrusted to the famous sculptor John Hogan who in his early days had been raised in Cove Street and was acquainted with Fr Mathew. Hogan died in 1858 and on his death a meeting of the committee was called. It was reported that they had on hand the sum of £900, and on the motion of John Francis Maguire MP, it was agreed to give £100 to the Hogan family in recognition of what Hogan had already done on the contract. The sculptor’s eldest son, John Valentine endeavoured to carry out his father’s work and in June 1858 another meeting of the community was held at the Athenaeum to inspect a model of a statue he brought to Cork.

However the commission was handed over to John Henry Foley. He was the second son of Jesse Foley, a native of Winchester, who had settled in Dublin. When John had reached the age of 13 he decided to follow his eldest brother in the profession of sculptor. He entered the school of the Royal Dublin Society where he soon distinguished himself by winning many prizes for drawing and modelling. In 1823 he won the major award of that school. This success induced him to follow his brother to London where he joined the schools of the Royal Academy. Within a short time he submitted a study entitled “The death of Abel”, which won for him a ten year scholarship to that establishment. Foley’s next noteworthy achievement was exhibiting in the Royal Academy in 1839, and 10 years later he was elected a full member carrying the letters R A after his name. At 40 years of age the sculptor had achieved the highest honours. Foley’s output was prodigious and his works are to be found in India, USA, Ceylon, Ireland and Scotland. His subjects were deemed classical and imaginative, creating equestrian statues, monuments and portrait busts. Two years after the unveiling of Fr Mathew statue, his Daniel O’Connell monument in Dublin was unveiled.

The Fr Mathew Statue was unveiled on 10 October 1864 amidst a concourse of people and public celebration. Both the Cork Constitution and Cork Examiner the following day carried lengthy and vivid accounts of the pomp and ceremony. The statue had been cast in the bronze foundry of Mr Prince, Union Street, Southwark, London. As well as obtaining a remarkable likeness of Fr Mathew, the sculptor posed the figure as a representation of him in the act of blessing those who had just taken the pledge. On the statue’s arrival in Cork, it was placed on the stone pedestal which had been designed by a local architect William Atkins. 

The proceedings on that 10 October began at 12 noon when it was estimated that thousands of people lined all the vantage points on the city’s streets. All businesses had been suspended for the day and public buildings and private houses were decorated for the occasion. The city remained thronged with people from 10am to 4pm. A huge procession had assembled on Albert Quay and the Park Road and moved off at 12noon headed by the Globe Lane Temperance Society of 50 members and 12 performers in their band. All the trades, societies with their banners, sashes and coloured rosettes marched with Temperance Societies from all over the county. At 2pm the statue was unveiled to a mass of public support. Henceforth it was immortalised as a landmark, defining the centre of the city and supporting the story and folklore of Fr Mathew on the great St Patrick’s Street.

 

Caption:

763a. Fr Mathew Statue, as depicted in the Illustrated London News, 26 December 1863, p.665

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 2 October 2014

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

762a. Aerial photograph of Cork Regional Technical College, 1975

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 2 October 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 89) – Planning a Cork RTC”

 

“In technical education also, good work has been and is being done…for we are entering upon a fiercely competitive era in which skills of all kinds will mean the difference between survival and stagnation. We have plans in that regard too in relation to the technological colleges and the regional technical colleges. If agriculture and industry are to flourish here and for our survival they must do so and the prime necessity for that will be technical skill” (Jack Lynch, The Irish Times, 20 June, 1967, p.7).

Speaking at the official opening of the Christian Brothers’ new national school at Blarney Street on 19 June 1967, the Taoiseach Jack Lynch commented on the importance of the new regional technical colleges. He noted of a shortage of medium grade and higher technicians and that it was for the new colleges to provide skilled men and women with roots in the country; “our national commitment to education will ensure that even if we cannot ever aspire to be numbered among the wealthier nations of the earth, every Irish father and mother can for the future say that their children will be given their chance in the world”.

Between 1965-67 investment in the State’s education was made. Over 130 schools applied for assistance under a new building grants scheme. A total of 25 sites for comprehensive schools were examined. There were over 50 projects for new day vocational schools at various stages of development. The planning of regional technical colleges, costing in total £7m, was ongoing. Tenders had been received for sites at Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Athlone, Dundalk, Carlow and Waterford.

In late November 1966 an interim architect’s report of Cork’s proposed £2m regional technical college was approved at the meeting of the Cork City Vocational Education Committee. By early January 1968, early indications appeared in the media (Irish Times, 13 January, 1968, p.13) that the Cork college would likely be sited 2 ½ miles from Cork City Centre in the south western suburbs. The CEO of the Cork City Vocational Education Committee Mr Parfrey noted that “by and large it would be post leaving certificate pupils who would be accepted by the college”. It was also planned that the college would also cater for post intermediate students. Confirmation of the site was given in late February 1968. The Minister for Agriculture agreed in principle to the granting of a site for the proposed college on the lands of the Munster Institute at Model Farm Road.

By July 1972 preliminary work had begun on the 48-acre site for Cork’s new regional technical college, near Bishopstown. According to an Irish Times reporter (12 July 1972, p.15), the proposed student population was to rise from an initial 2,000 to about 5,000. Mr Parfrey noted of a major problem that arose that of the provision of student accommodation in the college area. It was initially hoped to open in the summer of 1974 and the college was to be the biggest single modern building in Cork City. There were to be nine departments – science, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, printing, nautical studies, building, automobile engineering, commerce, general studies and catering. A total of 260,000 feet was to be covered by the college, which was to have 30 laboratories, 56 classrooms, 36 workshops, 13 drawing offices and 36 specialist rooms with close circuit television. A planned sports complex was to include a swimming pool and squash courts. Space was also to be provided for five playing fields, three tennis courts, a basketball court and a sport’s hall. It was also flagged in the media that some of the smaller schools under the VEC would close eventually. However, the Cork Municipal School of Music and Crawford Municipal School of Art would continue as they were. On 1 August 1974, it was recorded by the Irish Times that 140 CIE trailers had began moving furniture into the new Cork college.

The mission statements for the Regional Technical College in Cork were also rooted in part in the Buchanan Report. Dáil Éireann archived speeches in May 1969 reveal that Colin Buchanan and Partners, the English architects and town planners, were commissioned by the United Nations on behalf of the Government of Ireland in 1966 to undertake studies of the nine planning regions in the Republic and to provide physical development policies for these regions. The consultants’ final report, Regional Studies in Ireland, and the two accompanying technical volumes, Regional Development in Ireland, were published in 1968.

The reports covered an extensive range of topics, such as population and population forecasts, employment and employment forecasts, migration and migration forecasts, industry, tourism, agriculture, transport, utilities, power, housing, and infrastructure. However, the Buchanan Report is most widely known for its policy recommendations and particularly the proposed strategy of promoting growth centres. The Buchanan Report singled out Dublin, Cork and Limerick-Shannon as main centres and Waterford, Dundalk, Drogheda, Galway, Sligo, and Athlone as part of a second tier of growth centres. The consequent debate about this policy was extensive, and the Government finally decided upon a policy of more dispersed development in 1972.

To be continued…

Caption:

762a. Aerial photograph of Cork Regional Technical College, 1975 (source: Aerial photograph collection, local studies, Cork City Library)