A great day was held recently at Ballinlough End of Summer Festival; well done to the fantastic organisers from Ballinlough Youth Clubs. And Congrats to the new Belle of Ballinlough Aoife O’Sullivan!
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 27 August 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 27 August 2015
Kieran’s Heritage Week Tours, 22-30 August 2015
We’re into the final few days of National Heritage week. I have two tours left this week:
Friday 28 August 2015 – Cork’s Elegant Suburb, historical walking tour of Sunday’s Well, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge on the North Mall side, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Saturday 29 August – Park Stories, Historical walking tour of Fitzgerald’s Park, meet at band stand in park, 2pm (free, duration: two hours).
With regard to the Sunday’s Well tour, I am a big fan of St Vincent’s Church. The site of the church was donated to the Vincentian Fathers by a Miss Mary Mac Swiney of Sunday’s Well. The plans for the church were prepared by Sir John Benson whose other works, included the building of thirty bridges in County Cork, the re-construction of the North Gate Bridge, the city’s Athenaeum which was later converted into the Opera House, just to mention a few. The original plans of the church were to be dominated by a large ornate spire. However, owing to its cost of construction, it was not incorporated into the building. Instead, twin turrets were added.
The proposals also set out designs for the building of a house for missions and retreats. The funds were collected by the very Rev. Michael O’ Sullivan, who was Vicar-General of the Diocese at the time and who had become a Vincentian on 1 February, 1848. The foundation stone was laid on 24 October 1851 on the Feast of St Raphael, by Rev. Dr. Delaney, Bishop of the Diocese. Two years later in 1853, disaster struck. The walls had now been built and the church was partially roofed, when a terrible catastrophe occurred. On 4 November 1853, a powerful storm swept away the roof and stonework. This provoked the sympathy and support of the people of Cork and many friends in the south of Ireland. At a public meeting in the city, the Vincentians collected £700. A bazaar was organised by the Ladies of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and this raised £600. The Archdiocese of Dublin sent £100 and the dioceses of Munster also sent a large contribution. Subsequently, the church was soon re-built and opened.
On 20 July, 1856, St. Vincent’s was re-dedicated. Dr. Delaney performed the ceremony and celebrated the Solemn High Mass while the sermon was said by the most Rev. Dr. Dixon, Archbishop of Armagh. The Archbishop of Dublin and seven bishops were present. The church itself was only consecrated on 14 October 1906. The old High Altar, which has been replaced by a modern liturgical altar, was of marble and Caen Stone. The Tabernacle was surrounded by a decorative canopy and spire. Today, a small ornate altar exists.
The Passion Altar is also of Caen stone and varied marbles. The story of the Passion is carved behind the altar. The left hand side altar (facing the main altar) displays the Pieta, Mary holding Christ in her arms. The right hand side altar is dedicated to Mary, mother of Christ and is comprised of Cobh and Midleton Marbles, with Connemara green. This contrasts well to the rest of the Church’s silican white, black and gold marble. It was in the 1960s that the old High Altar was changed to a new more modern altar.
One of the main features of St Vincent’s Church is its stained glass windows. For example, the eastern window has the Blessed Virgin in the centre; St Joseph and St Patrick stand on her right and on her left hand, St Vincent and St FinBarre. The rest of the window represents the life of St Vincent. Another feature is the organ, which was originally built by Messrs Telford, Dublin in 1859. This was divided into two sections by Messrs Magahy and Son, Cork, in 1904.
The sacristy was a gift from Fr Sean Campell C.M., was opened in 1900 and is composed of two pictures, St. Patrick and St. FinBarre on its side walls. Both are of the Munich School of Art. The Stations of the Cross were presented in 1856, to the most Rev. Dr. Gilooly, Bishop of Elphin, who as a young priest worked as a builder of St. Vincent’s Church. Indeed, it is noted that the main body of the church was not completed until 1886 under the direction of new plans by Samuel F Hynes. Hynes was part of a wider group of late nineteenth-century architects employed to create new symbolism for the Catholic Church which was growing in strength since the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. Hynes was an architect of great experience, and had been involved in the re-building or design of additions in several churches within the Cork area and wider afield. He re-interpreted a smaller version of Cormac’s Chapel for Gougane Barra. Samuel Hynes, who completed much work for the Diocese of Cork and further afield. He was involved in the design of eight churches over a sixteen year period. The eight churches, somewhat similar in design, created a forum for engaging with the Catholic Church and its character.
Captions:
807a. Interior of St Vincent’s Church (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
807b. Samuel Hynes, architect, who prepared the plans to finish off the interior of St Vincent’s Church in 1886 (source: Cork City Library)
Beaumont Quarry Summer Picnic, Sunday 23 August 2015, 12-3pm
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 20 August 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 20 August 2015
Kieran’s Heritage Week Tours, 22-30 August 2015
National Heritage Week is upon us again at the end of next week (22nd – 30th August). It’s going to be a busy week. For my part I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below. There are also brochures detailing other events that can be picked up from Cork City Hall and Libraries.
Cork Heritage Open Day, Saturday 22 August 2015 – Historical Walking Tour of Cork City Hall; Learn about the early history of Cork City Council; discover the development of the building and visit the Lord Mayor’s Room, 11am, free but ticketed, contact The Everyman Palace, 0214501673 (duration: 75 minutes). The current structure, replaced the old City Hall, which was destroyed in the ‘burning of Cork’ in 1920. It was designed by Architects Jones and Kelly and built by the Cork Company Sisks. The foundation stone was laid by Eamonn de Valera, President of the Executive Council of the State on 9 July 1932 (www.corkheritageopenday.ie).
Monday 24 August 2015 – Tales of the City’s Workhouse, historical walking tour, meet at entrance to St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
The Cork workhouse, which opened in December 1841, was an isolated place – built beyond the toll house and toll gates, which gave entry to the city and which stood just below the end of the wall of St. Finbarr’s Hospital in the vicinity of the junction of the Douglas, and Ballinlough Roads. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.
Wednesday 26 August 2015 – From Market Gardens to Architectural Eminence, historical walking tour of Turners Cross and Ballyphehane, meet at entrance to Christ the King Church, Turners Cross, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
This is a new tour that hopes to bring the participant from the heart of Turners Cross through to Ballyphehane. The tour will speak about housing developments in the 1920s through to the 1950s but also touch upon the earlier history of the two areas from Friars Walk, the story of the Botanic Garden, Christ the King Church to some information on the market gardens. All are welcome and any old pictures and documents that people on these areas, please bring along.
From a social housing perspective in March 1925, Commissioner Philip Monahan pitched that he would invest £70,000 for the provision of 200 houses in Turners Cross in the immediate interim. He also put down his marker that he was to build efficiency in the local public sector. Indeed with the threat of using direct labour, he pursued an agenda to reduce the wage of Corporation workers to 4s. 6d. per week. In the summer of 1925, property was acquired by Cork Corporation in what was to become known as the Capwell Project by deed of transfer from Richard Morgan. In the Christmas of 1925, 20 men were employed on relief work for 2/3 weeks clearing the site, preparatory to the actual building. By April 1928, 148 houses were ready for occupation by tenants. During the construction of Capwell Housing, on 19 March 1926, further property for housing was acquired from Abina Hyde in a deed of transfer to Cork Corporation. In late September 1926, during a luncheon of Cork Rotary Club, Philip Monahan proposed to raise a loan of £100,000 for a further 200 houses in Turners Cross. In June 1929, applications were invited from intending occupiers.
Friday 28 August 2015 – Cork’s Elegant Suburb, historical walking tour of Sunday’s Well, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge on the North Mall side, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
This new walking tour begins on the gorgeous North Mall and explores the area’s medieval origins and the Franciscan North Abbey. In such a small corner of the city, industrial Cork and the story of the distilling can be told, as well as stories of George Boole, St Vincent’s Bridge. Walking along Sunday’s Well there are multiple stories to be told of former residents and of the beautiful St Vincent’s Church.
Saturday 29 August – Park Stories, Historical walking tour of Fitzgerald’s Park, meet at band stand in park, 2pm (free, duration: two hours)
Looking at the physical landscape of the Park, there are clues to a forgotten and not so familiar past. The entrance pillars on the Mardyke, the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, the museum, the fountain in the middle of the central pond dedicated to Fr Mathew and timber posts eroding in the river were once part of one of Cork’s greatest historical events, the Cork International Exhibitions of 1902 and 1903. Just like the magical spell of Fitzgerald’s Park, the Mardyke exhibitions were spaces of power. Revered, imagined and real spaces were created. They were marketing strategies where the past, present and future merged; aesthetics of architecture, colour, decoration and lighting were all added to the sense of spectacle and in a tone of moral and educational improvement. The entire event was the mastermind of Cork Lord Mayor Edward Fitzgerald, after which the park got it name.
Hope to see you on some of these tours…
Captions:
806a. During construction, Capwell Road, circa 1927 (source: Cork City Library)
806b. Summer sunshine in Fitzgerald’s Park (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 13 August 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 13 August 2015
Cork Heritage Open Day 2015
Another Cork heritage open day is looming. The 2015 event will take place on Saturday 22 August. For one day only, nearly 40 buildings opened their doors free of charge for this special event. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military, the civic to the commercial and the educational to the ecclesiastical. This event was greeted with great enthusiasm by building owners and members of the public alike in 2014 with an estimated 25,000 people participating in the day.
It is always a great opportunity to explore behind some of Cork’s grandest buildings. With the past of a port city, Cork architecture is varied and much is hidden amongst the city’s narrow streets and laneways. Much of its architecture is also inspired by international styles – the British style of artwork pervading in most cases– but it’s always pays to look up in Cork and marvel at the Amsterdamesque-style of our eighteenth century structures on streets such as Oliver Plunkett Street or at the gorgeous tall spires of the city’s nineteenth-century churches.
Cork Heritage Open Day is eleven years in the making and with 40 buildings it is almost impossible to visit them all in one day. It takes a few goes to get to them all and spend time appreciating their physical presence in our city but also the often hidden context of why such buildings and their communities came together and their contribution to the modern day picture of the city. The team behind the Open Day do group the buildings into general themes, Steps and Steeples, Customs and Commerce, Medieval to Modern, Saints and Scholars and Life and Learning – one can walk the five trails to discover a number of buildings within these general themes. These themes remind the participant to remember how our city spreads from the marsh to the undulating hills surrounding it, how layered the city’s past is, how the city has been blessed to have many scholars contributing to its development and ambition in a variety of ways and how the way of life in Cork is intertwined with a strong sense of place.
The trail Steps and Steeples is a very apt way to describe the topography of our city. The Steps and Steeples walk encompasses not only some of the amazing buildings on the North Side of the city, but also some of the most spectacular views. Admire the frontage of the Cork Baptist Church on McCurtain Street, re-examine the crooked but limestone inspiring spire of Cork Trinity Presbyterian Church, gorge on the stained glass windows of St Luke’s Church, re-imagine past hospital treatment at the Ambassador Hotel, revel in how many barrels of beer have been exported from the former Murphy’s Brewery, now Heineken Ireland, reminisce of Cork’s North Infirmary at the Maldron Hotel, attempt to count how many barrels of butter were weighed at the Firkin Crane, ring the bells of St Anne’s Church, Shandon Military and read up about the military history underlining the city’s and harbour’s development.
Open for Heritage Open Day, the military museum at the Barracks has three themes – the history of the Barracks, Michael Collins and Peacekeeping. The core collection consists of memorabilia associated with Michael Collins and also has displays from donated private collections. The Heritage Day brochure remarks that the Barracks building is a fine example of Georgian Architecture. It is also significant from a historic perspective. The fine limestone gateway has been the focal point of historic events in Ireland since the time of the Crimean War in 1856 with the return of the 17 Lancers after the Battle of Balaclava. It was the location for the handing over of the Barracks from the British Government to Commandant Sean Murray of the Irish Army in 1922, and was visited by President Kennedy in 1963.
Meanwhile down by the river, the Customs and Commerce walk follows the Lee and showcases some of the old and new commercial buildings in the city. These buildings track the commercial history of Cork City and highlight its many industries over time. For the more energetic walker this route can be combined with the Medieval to Modern walking route. Re-imagine the turning of the wheels of the trams at the National Sculpture Factory, learn about local government in the City Hall, think highly of the multiple stories of the city’s masons and carpenters at the Carpenter’s Hall, feel the energy of the steam ships in the maritime paintings in the city’s Custom House, and look at the fine details on the pillars within AIB Bank on the South Mall. The flagship AIB Bank, former Munster and Leinster bank building at 66 South Mall, designed by Henry Hill, celebrates its centenary this year. It is an iconic nine bay 3 storey building, built between 1909 to 1914, in the heart of the financial district of Cork. It is Edwardian – Italinate in style. The distinctive building façade is in stunning local silver limestone, and the main façade upper floors are articulated by giant order fluted lonic columns – very striking and beautiful indeed.
See www.corkheritageopenday.ie for more information on the city’s great heritage day and then followed by Heritage Week.
Captions:
805a. Beautiful and imposing building, 66 AIB, South Mall (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
805b. Interior of 66 AIB, South Mall at this year’s launch of the Cork International Choral Festival (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 6 August 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 6 August 2015
Cork Harbour Memories (Part 30)
Colonising a Swamp
President of the Munster Plantation George Carew’s Map of Cork circa 1600 shows the town wall of Cork encompassing an oval shaped settlement on a swamp. His emphasis is on showing off the infrastructure. He depicts the town as a spacious, strong and prominent settlement, complete with the protection of drawbridges and the eastern portcullis gate called Watergate. The mechanics of raising up of such structures must have got damp and noisy, must have creaked, and must have irked the visitors to the town. Maybe many of the citizens didn’t hear those sounds, being so used to them. The town was there for several centuries. Access was through these points and people were used to their everyday function in giving and refusing access to the town.
The walled defences, 1,500 metres in circumference, were to provide security for its inhabitants up to 1690. They also controlled light and shade, the wall overlooked and in a sense organised the lives of citizens. On the map, the buttress walls and its drawn lines that rise from the marshy ground give the structure a striking strength and depth of foundation, physically, spatially and culturally. The hardness and indestructibility of the stone has a noble look to it and fitted Carew’s idea and vision of a colonised landscape. Much of the town wall survives beneath the modern street surface and in some places has been incorporated into existing buildings. Carew presents a wall on his map almost mass concrete looking – as in he doesn’t show the reality of the use of multiple stones in its construction– as seen in the wall on display in Bishop Lucey Park. The wall comprised two stone types, limestone and sandstone,. The engineering involved in its construction was substantial. The citizens must have had problems in laying foundations into the swamp. Their timber scaffolding must have collapsed at times. The courses of the stone must have collapsed. It was a jig-saw puzzle in its construction.
In a present day context, echoes of the ground plan of the walled town survive. If one starts on the corner of the Grand Parade and the South Mall, on the city library side, the walls of the medieval town would have extended the full length of the Grand Parade, along Cornmarket Street, onto the Coal Quay, up Kyrl’s Quay to the North Gate Bridge. From here they would have extended up Batchelor’s Quay as far as Grattan Street, then turning southwards, the walls would have followed the full length of present day Grattan Street as far as present day Clarke’s Bridge. The walls then followed the course of the River Lee back to the starting point.
Some of the wealthier merchants formed the corporation and lived in tower houses or large two to three storey castle-like structures. They were as important as the infrastructure and many were the key agents of governance for centuries. These families included the Roches, Skiddys, Galways, Coppingers, Meades, Goulds, Tirrys, Sarfields, and the Morroghs. Their names were all involved in the running of the town from its inception in the late 1100s to the seventeenth century. They also controlled large portions of Cork’s trade and rented out numerous plots of land to other citizens – Irish natives and English colonialists. Carew’s depiction shows two tower houses within the precincts of the medieval core, Skiddy’s Castle and Roche’s Castle. Skiddy’s Castle was located in the north east sector of the town over-looking North Main Street, close to North Gate Drawbridge while Roches Castle was located at the eastern end of middle bridge, the structure that connected the enclosed medieval islands together.
Carew also places emphasis on other public buildings in this walled town. The corporation of the town conducted public business in the south west quadrant of the walled town or to the west of South Main Street. The council tower, armoury, the town’s court house, the commandant’s house and the treasury were all in this location. In the south west quadrant of the town, the town post office was located, evidenced from present day Post Office Lane situated today adjacent to the Grand Parade. In addition, Christ Church existed in this section, which was rebuilt in 1720. The merchant’s hall was also present in this area and at the western end of Middle Bridge on the southern island side was the location of the custom house or Exchange. All ships docking at the quay inside the town had to report their goods to this building. In the north west section of the town or to the west of North Main Street, a garrison was located for soldiers just south of Skiddy’s Castle. The governor’s house was situated in this area along with St. Peter’s Church, which has taken the form of the Cork Vision Centre. The other main feature in the north west section was the market square from which the town crier shouted and communicated to the population of the town. Carew only depicts two citizens in a boat fishing near South Gate Bridge. But for every house shown in the town, families lived their lives and made the walled town of Cork their home.
To be continued….
Captions:
804a. Section Map of Cork, late sixteenth century as depicted in Sir George Carew’s Pacata Hibernia, or History of The Wars in Ireland (1633), vol. 2, opp page 137.
804b. One of the recent Medieval re-enactment days in Bishop Lucey Park (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
