Monthly Archives: July 2016

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, Mother Jones Festival, 28 July-1 August 2016

July 23, 2016Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

854a. Mary Harris, Aka Mother Jones

**Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,**

Cork Independent, 28 July 2016

Mother Jones Festival, 28 July-1 August

The 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival/ Summer School will be held in Shandon over five days in Cork city from today, Thursday 28 July until Monday 1 August 2016, designated by Cork City Council as Mother Jones Day. This event celebrates trade union activist, Corn born Mary Harris, known as Mother Jones, and it is “dedicated to inspirational people everywhere who fight for social justice”.

This is the fifth annual summer school/festival organized by the Cork Mother Jones committee since 2012, when the committee erected a plaque in Shandon to honour “the most dangerous woman in America”. She was born in Cork in late July 1837 and baptised in the local North Cathedral on 1^st August that year. She lived through the famine in Cork and later left with her family for Canada. She later emerged as one of the most celebrated and feared union leaders in the USA and was a passionate defender of miners and the rights of workers and those discriminated against everywhere.

The 2016 Summer School will be spread over five days with talks, discussions, films and music each evening. According to Jim Nolan of the Cork Mother Jones Committee; “The 2016 festival and summer school will again see a wide variety of talks, films and music associated with social justice issues, the history of the labour movement, and human rights. We are extremely proud that this is the fifth festival and we have managed to retain the unique, convivial and informal character of the summer school located as it is in Shandon the very heart of Cork city. These two speakers will recreate the atmosphere of Cork city at the time a young Mary Harris lived here. Our full five day programme of talks, films, music and exhibitions will be announced shortly”.

The Cork Mother Jones Committee is delighted to confirm the attendance of author Laurence Fenton, who has written an account of the visit of Frederick Douglass to Cork in 1845, when a young Mary Harris lived in the city. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and later anti-slavery campaigner spent 3 weeks in Cork city in October 1845. It is certain that the later Mother Jones would have been influenced by Douglass in the USA afterwards. Laurence Fenton will present a lecture on the visit of Frederick Douglass to Cork also at the Maldron Hotel on Friday morning 29 July at 11.30.

The Cork Mother Jones Committee is also delighted to announce that the historian Dr Sean Pettit will appear at the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones festival and summer school. Sean will speak about the Cork in the eighteenth century and also Shandon, at a time when the young Mary Harris was born and who afterwards became the trade union leader Mother Jones. Sean will speak on Friday afternoon 29 July at 2.30 at the Maldron Hotel.

The programme of events begins on this evening, Thursday 28 July at the Firkin Crane in Shandon when the President of SIPTU, Mr Jack O’Connor will deliver the 2016 Mother Jones Lecture entitled “Organising to win – what is to be done!” Jack O’Connor is probably the best known trade union spokesperson in Ireland and is a passionate and straight talking speaker. He will discuss the future of the trade union movement.

Among the confirmed participants for 2016 are journalist and author Justine McCarthy, who argues passionately for the underdog in her newspaper columns and in her television appearance. Writer and BBC correspondent and award winning journalist Fergal Keane, and former Cork resident, will discuss human rights across the world. historians such as Luke Dineen and Laurence Fenton will also contribute to various topics.

Former Supreme Court Justice Catherine McGuiness will debate the ongoing use of Direct Provision, where over 4000 people still remain trapped in a lecture entitled “Direct provision – not the Answer!” Mrs Catherine McGuinness will speak at the Firkin Crane on Friday 29 July at 7.30pm.

The story of extraordinary Wallace Sisters will be told by Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History Group on Saturday 30 July at 2.30pm at the Maldron Hotel. Now a lifeless vehicular short cut, St. Augustine Street in Cork City is barely noticed by many people these days. One might be surprised to learn that many of the most famous names in the revolutionary Ireland 1915 to 1922 came and went with regularity through this street. For at number 13 Brunswick St (later 4 St. Augustine St.) was located the small shop of Sheila and Nora Wallace. During the War of Independence these firm engaging sisters went about their day to day shop keeping business and provided a perfect cover for what was a vast beehive of revolutionary activity emanating in their shop.

Located behind their small traditionally fronted tobacconist and newspaper shop with holy pictures and statues in the window and labour pamphlets on the shelves lay nothing less than the Head Quarters of the Cork No 1 Brigade of the Irish Volunteers and I.R.A. It was effectively the intelligence centre of the IRA where messages were efficiently received and delivered by a huge network of women and men – it was in effect an IRA intelligence General Post Office!

Events as they are confirmed can be viewed on www.motherjonescork.com

Captions:

854a. Mary Harris, aka Mother Jones (source: Cork City Library)

854b. View from St Anne’s Church Shandon of Firkin Crane and Shandon area, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

The Network of Networks, July 2016

July 20, 2016Improve Your Life, International, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

Across the Digital Landscape: The Network of Networks

Kieran McCarthy,

Member, Committee of the Regions, EA/ IE

A River of Opportunities:

Bratislava, Slovakia, put quite simply, lingers in the mind.

The newest capital of the EU Presidency can truly and honestly refer to itself as an international crossroads of ideas and people. Located near the state borders of four countries – Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, this geography, as well as intensive trading considerably influenced the assembly of nationalities living in the town. Two traditional long-distance European merchant roads crossing this region had a decisive impact. Like two crossed wires they kick-started the engine for Bratislava’s development. The Danubian Road linking the cultures of the Mediterranean and the Orient (as an extension of the legendary Silk Road) with the inlands of continental Europe. The second, the Amber Road, linked countries by the Baltic Sea in the north with southern Europe. Both merchant roads crossed the Danube river by ford and both created the basic pattern of the main city thoroughfares of Bratislava in the Middle Ages. A thousand years later, the focus on themes of connection and transnational have been renewed on a European scale in Bratislava and within the surrounding country of Slovakia. The Danube, still an international waterway, provides the metaphor for a river of diverse opportunities, which flows through these regions.

In Bratislava’s rich eighteenth century architecture and cobbled streets you can see the influences from adjacent countries. The stamp of European funding can be seen in many aspects – the trams, which meanders through its centre and suburbs – on which is stamped Eurotram. The stamp of European Regional Development Fund on an older university wall show that the regional and local governments of this capital mean business in embracing transformation. It continues to transform into one of the EU’s notable capitals. Just like the EU, Bratislava is a work in progress – complete with EU branding, vision, a narrative, solidarity and a modern identity stamp.

The 7th EU Summit of Cities and Regions sought to harness Bratislava’s historic and modern edge, hosting the themes of connect and invest. Connect is perhaps a more positive paradigm to talk about and negotiate than invest. It is easier to connect and provide ideas than negotiate the whys and where-to-fores of financial investment. It was the moment though that Jeremy Rifkin walked out onto the Opera House Hall stage, which added to the game changing thought processes of the Summit. Rooting his two feet in the carpeted stage, the large stage did not deter his confident stage presence. Pausing before he began – in his hand a half a dozen pages complete with notes – he did not look at – he was ready – he drank his glass of water and began his tale centre stage – holding his audience as he bended and flowed, softly and enthusiastically through his narrative. From the beginning, he unfolded and wove a story of intrigue, questions, opportunity and what-ifs. He presented an overview of a global landscape infused by the opportunities of a third Industrial Revolution – a landscape of digital infrastructure – one, which laterally exists across human and computer networks – one where the winds of change will beckon in new business opportunities globally and one, which ushers in cultural transformations in how the world is viewed and life itself is lived.

Across Professor Rifkin’s hour long narrative he questioned the advancement of science and transportation in the twentieth century in the second industrial revolution – building on this he assembled new arguments – a new and modern landscape overview – an elaborate chessboard of sorts complete with moving complex and chaotic parts. He unfurled familiar global problems of climate change, rising energy costs, geo-politics, global migration patterns, unemployment and poverty – all infused with a global society struggling to move these issues on towards solution. His initial thoughts were familiar paradigms – the rising forcefulness of climatic storms, declines in traditional industries, and inflation and economic downturn. He presented all the ingredients to create a troubled second decade in this early twenty-first century. This troubled world searches for changes amidst the quickening pace of globalisation. It is true to say that our regions, town and cities have become globalised – glocalities – whereby survival on your own, is almost impossible. Technology has sped up the need for even further interconnection. One must reach out and interact in a network of networks – where ideas come fast and quick in the world of the internet, all leading to what Rifkin’s calls the “Third Industrial Revolution”.

Thinking Smart:

The Third Industrial Revolution, pitches a case about thinking smart – smart in the use of energy, smart in productivity, smart in the business sense, smart in the use of ICT and its accumulation of big data and smart in its approach to the citizen; the citizen is now the producer and consumer in a smart economy– a “prosumer” as Jeremy Rifkin notes. The smart economy champions the smart citizen agenda. It heralds a kind of restoring of democratic power to the individual – it spearheads a quest to help change the troubled world – a power to feel wanted – a power to embed citizens into lateral networks of communities – a power to test and create ideas with little cost and a power to create frameworks in collaboration in creating the sharing economy – to create a global and lateral sense of place and identity – whereby identity crosses virtual borders with ease and whereby time and space have compressed at rapid rates. We are all connected. Communication has become paramount through mobile phone devices. Failure to have one makes you feel disconnected. People are connected more than ever before in human history.

For years, ICT has been hosting a kind of ‘taking back’ programme in democracy and equality – a move from top-down to lateral government – one of a shared future – a future where courage to change leads as well as ideas – where cultural transformation is at its heart. The digitisation agenda connects to buzz words such as watershed, internationalisation, scaling up, transnational, cohesion, the innovation agenda, a world of networks, synergies, ecosystems, pathways of progression, clean energy, sustainability, the living lab, the discovery process. With such words alone the emerging nodes of how we perceive place-making will release new journeys of discovery into our lives, families, communities, regions, towns and cities.

Our way of viewing of the world has been changing but is to now change further. Those who are connected to the digitised landscape have access to billions of bytes of data, harvested to be used. Just like those who sat in the train carriages during the nineteenth century, those travellers got access to new ways of looking at their enterprise models, stories, local landscapes and regions. They got access to landscapes – physical and mindscapes – they normally would not be allowed to travel across. Physically travellers could look into the backyards of others and see how others lived and survived. They experienced new speeds and began their interest in being connected between town, city and region. Indeed, the tramway system in Bratislava belongs to the oldest systems in Europe. It was in operation two years earlier than the similar ones in Vienna and Budapest. The contribution of Bratislava to developments in aeronautics is also significant. The first attempt at flying a balloon took place here in 1784. Ján BahúR introduced his invention of a helicopter before a military committee, and that was arguably earlier than the Wright brothers. In front of the Bratislava airport building, there is a statue of Stefan Banic, the inventor of the early parachute. Petrovia brothers sold their airship concept to the Duke of Zeppelin. From a height, the scientist could see the bigger picture of urban and rural divides, capturing agricultural practices en mass and recognising potential for crops and regional development. The first electric bulb in Bratislava was switched on in 1884, five years after its invention by Thomas Edison transforming the dark into a form of semi daylight, giving people more choice in staying in or out and engaging longer with their city and communities. The first telephone connection was put through in 1877 bringing people together and further compressing space and time. This part of the world is all about connecting people and places.

Fast forward to modern times and during the Summit delegates heard about the the Hyperloop company. Hyperloop is a futuristic transportation project allowing passengers to travel with the speed of sound – around 1200 km/h. The initial concept has been introduced in 2013 by Tesla’s founder Elon Musk. The first ever cities to be connected by hyperloop are Vienna – Bratislava – Budapest. While it currently takes 1 hour to get from Bratislava to Vienna by bus or train. They aim to cover this distance in 8 minutes by year 2020 According to the Hyperloop company, the travel ticket should not be more expensive than e.20. The system is designed to be earthquake and weather resistant, with each pylon capable of supporting seven passenger Hyperloop tubes and one for security purposes – transporting an estimated 3,400 passengers per hour, and 24 million people each year. Bratislava is a city which envelops and develops opportunities.

Back to the Future:

Being Smart has lit an enterprising fire in Bratislava. However, this ancient city is not alone. The advent of the third industrial revolution brings the principles of smart specialisation to many of the EU’s regions. It brings thought processes rooted in vision and openness, in values of exchange and citizen interaction. It aims to break the silo mentality and putting faith in co-operation and cohesion. Regions become collaborators, enablers of strategies, leaders, recognisers of change, champions of fresh narratives, corporate responsibility and environmental sustainability, and utilisers of sources of energy such as solar and wind.

Regions face re-alignment of their outlook and strategies, from vertical – national to local political agendas towards a lateral movement – an inter-regional agenda. International diplomacy becomes a must. Regions learn from each other. The network of networks puts a value on communication as a must. Concepts such as e-government, e-business and discovery-led programmes make regions livings labs. The alignment of the quadruple helix of government, business, academic and civil society creates a fifth addition or a glue to the helix, that of social inclusion. Young and old can drive the shared economy, and maybe the foundations of global growth will not be just based on economic arguments but will partner with the social as a key to unlocking the EU’s future.

By the time Jeremy Rifkin offered his conclusions to the summit, the audience had been led on a journey through time and space along the paradigms of a new industrial revolution, which will change all aspects of our lives and our place in the world.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 21 July 2016, Historical Walking Tours

July 18, 2016Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Eventsadmin

**Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,**

Cork Independent, 21 July 2016

Summer Historical Walking Tours

Summer is well and truly upon us. So the first set of walking tours are set out below. Don’t forget that Heritage Week begins on Saturday 20 August. Put it in the diary if you have a passion for all things Cork history.

Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).

The earliest and official evidence for settlement in Blackrock dates to c.1564 when the Galway family created what was to become known as Dundanion Castle. Over 20 years later, Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. In the early 1700s, the prominent Tuckey family, of which Tuckey Street in the city centre is named, became part of the new social elite in Cork after the Williamite wars and built part of what became known in time at the Ursuline Convent. The building of the Navigation Wall or Dock in the 1760s turned focus to reclamation projects in the area and the eventual creation of public amenity land such as the Marina Walk during the time of the Great Famine. The early 1800s coincided with an enormous investment into creating new late Georgian mansions by many other key Cork families, such as the Chattertons, the Frends, the McMullers, Deanes and the Nash families, amongst others. Soon Blackrock was to have its own bathing houses, schools, hurling club, suburban railway line, and Protestant and Catholic Church. The pier that was developed at the heart of the space led to a number of other developments such as fisherman cottages and a fishing industry. This community is reflected in the 1911 census with 64 fisherman listed in Blackrock.

Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour with Kieran, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).

This tour begins at the elegant house at the junction of the North Mall and Wise’s Hill, which was the residence of the distiller Francis Wise. It is a beautiful detached five-bay three-storey former house, built c. 1800, now in use as a university building. The building retains interesting features and materials, such as the timber sliding sash windows, wrought-iron lamp bracket arch, and interior fittings. The North Mall distillery was established on Reilly’s Marsh around 1779, and by 1802 the Wise brothers were running the firm. Whiskey production was another significant industry in Cork from the late eighteenth century.

Across the river channel, the complex of buildings known as the Lee Maltings, now the home of the Tyndall National Institute, forms one of the most significant surviving industrial sites in Cork city dating back to the eighteenth century. They were the largest water-powered flour and corn milling installation to become established on the north channel of the River Lee, and was also the last flour mills within the city to rely solely on water for milling.

Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From the heart of Ballinlough along, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).

With 360 acres, Ballinlough is the second largest of the seven townlands forming the Mahon Peninsula. If you think of its geographic location on a limestone ridge over-looking the river and harbour and the name Baile an Locha – settlement of the lake – that is where the name could come from, a settlement overlooking the nearby Douglas estuary. There is a lot of early history in Ballinlough from the standing stone in Ardmahon Estate to the Knight’s Templar church and graveyard site to the former big houses of the area, the last remnants of the market gardens. Then there is the sporting heritage such as Flower Lodge and Cork Constitution.

Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Kieran, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).

The walking tour weaves its way from the North Mon into Blackpool, Shandon and Gurranbraher highlighting nineteenth century life in this corner of Cork from education to housing to politics, to religion, to industry and to social life itself. Blackpool was the scene of industry in Cork in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for industries such as tanning through big names such as Dunn’s Tannery and distilling through families such as the Hewitts. The leather industry at one vibrant in Blackpool with no fewer than 46 tanyards at work there in 1837 giving employment to over 700 hands and tanning on average 110,000 hides annually.

Captions:

853a. Sunday’s Well, c.1900 (source: Souvenir of Cork & Killarney: with 19 illustrations, complete with letterpress, see Cork City Library).

853b. The Marina, Cork, c.1900 (source: Souvenir of Cork & Killarney: with 19 illustrations, complete with letterpress, see Cork City Library).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 14 July 2016

July 14, 2016Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

852a. Train at Youghal Station, 1920s

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 14 July 2016

Remembering 1916, Children’s Excursion Day

In continuing to commemorate the year 1916 and the wider social history of Cork City and region, this week one hundred years ago a meeting of the Poor Children’s Excursion Committee was held on 12 July, in the Council Chamber, Municipal Buildings or the old City Hall. The committee oversaw an annual and impressive practice whereby on one day each year over 4,000 poor children were brought to Claycastle Beach at Cork’s Riviera town of Youghal. The annual event was established sometime circa 1893. It was run by Cork Corporation and funded by Cork businesses and the committee was chaired by the Lord Mayor of the day. The event seems to have fallen away circa 1923/1924 but the interest in the education and well-being of impoverished children in the city remained in the Council Chamber – in terms of developing a children’s library in the City Library and the discussions that ensued about the provision of playgrounds in new social housing estates in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Lord Mayor who presided for the 1916 excursion event was Thomas C Butterfield. At the 12 July meeting in 1916, Mr H Dawson acted as honorary secretary in the absence of Mr J Hackett. Mr Dawson announced that the railway company had written to say that they would be able to provide the trains for the excursion on Wednesday, 26 July, on the same terms as the previous year. He further stated that the collection of subscriptions from local business so far had realised £80, but they required £200 more.

The minutes of the July meeting, available in the Cork City and County Archive, record that the Lord Mayor noted that he hoped that citizens would respond as generously as in the past to their appeal for funds; “Anyone who had ever seen the joy and genuine pleasure, which the excursion gave to the thousands of little children could scarcely help subscribing. Most of the people in the city whom I would expect to contribute, spent a good deal during the summer months on many excursions to the seaside or other places. If all these deprived themselves of just one of the pleasure trips, and gave the money they would spend on it to the Poor Children’s Excursion, they would be doing a real good deed. It should be remembered that all kinds of food stuffs were very much dearer now, and for that reason more money was required than when the excursions were first held. The circulars and cards had only been recently distributed, and I hope before their next meeting that they would have many favourable replies”. Mr Fawsitt was asked by the Committee to organise the sports activities for the children in connection with the excursion, and agreed to do so. Beamish and Crawford had agreed to give £5 towards the costs as well as 24 complimentary cases of minerals. Messrs Thompsons Bakery had committed to providing 2,000 buns. Mr Carey, a resident in Youghal, annually provided the event with drinking water at the beach. The committee was also heavily influenced by a Ladies Committee, who prepared food for the 5,000 children – sandwiches, cake and sweets.

Nearly two weeks later on 25 July 1916 after 2-3 more committee meetings, the Lord Mayor arrived at the Model School at Anglesea Street to help with the ticket distribution. It commenced at 11am and continued over two hours in which time close on 5,000 boys and girls had secured their pass to the seaside. It is recorded in the Cork Examiner that there was enormous eagerness to secure the “green ticket”, which meant so much to them. From an early hour in the morning the children gathered in the vicinity of the school. Appeals for order were all in vain, and the assurance that there was plenty of time and enough tickets for all had no effect in quietening their excitement or lessening their anxiety of not securing one. The children were arranged into a single file to pass by the gate at which the tickets were handed out by Alderman Meade, assisted by Mr Hackett, Honorary Secretary, and Mr Lyons. The Assistant Bishop of Cork, Daniel Cohalan was also present and followed by Messrs Colburn Fawsitt, O’Leary, Higgins, Lyons, J J Sexton. D Horgan, ex-Alderman, and firemen and police, they soon marshalled the children. At 1pm close on 5,000 boys and girls had been given their tickets. It was regrettable that five children were injured at the distribution of tickets. They were taken to the South Infirmary, where four had to be detained. Their names were – Thomas Callaghan, Shandon street; Bridget Malloy, Monks’ School Lane; Eily Whelan and Victor Hurley, both of St Vincent’s Place. They were badly bruised from the crushing, and suffered from shock.

The following day, Wednesday 26 July, favoured by gloriously fine warm weather, the thousands of poor children were to have a day at Youghal by the sea. The trains ran as follows – 8.50am, 9am, 9.20am, and 9.45am. In these four special trains the excited children could not be quiet, as the steam driven locomotives with their carriages chugged along the northern side of Cork Harbour, through Midleton and onto Youghal’s golden sands, which was a far cry from the slum ridden lanes of Cork’s inner city.

Captions:

852a. Train at Youghal Station, 1920s (source: Cork City Library)

852b. Youghal beach and Railway Station, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)

852b. Youghal beach and Railway Station c.1910

Historical Walking Tour Programme with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, July-August 2016

July 13, 2016Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Eventsadmin

July 2016 Historical Walking Tours with Cllr Kieran McCarthy

Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).

Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).

Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From the heart of Ballinlough, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).

Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm(free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).

Kieran’s Heritage Week, 20-27 August 2016

Sunday, 21 August 2016, Eighteenth Century Cork, Branding a City: Making a Venice of the North; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; meet at the City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Monday 22 August 2016, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Tuesday 23 August 2016, Cork Docklands, historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; Discover the history of the city’s docks, from quayside stories to the City Park Race Course and Albert Road; meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Thursday 25 August 2016, The City Workhouse, historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841 (the year 2016 marks the 175th anniversary of the site), meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Friday 26 August 2016, The Walk of the Friars; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, explore the local history from Red Abbey through Barrack Street to Friars Walk; meet at Red Abbey, Mary Street, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Saturday 27 August 2016, Fitzgerald’s Park; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the story of the Mardyke to the great early twentieth century Cork International Exhibition, meet at band stand 2pm, note the afternoon time (free, duration: two hours)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 7 July 2016

July 7, 2016Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorizedadmin

**Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,**

Cork Independent, 7 July 2016

Remembering 1916, The Case for Irish Agriculture

In the press in early July 1916 focus was placed on the importance of labour in agricultural activities. Grass was being cut and in a time of World War 1 labour was scarce. The need for labour was also an issue, which kept the organised conscription of Irish people away from being a reality in Westminster statute books. Despite this, many labourers had volunteered to go to the frontlines. One body, which promoted the importance of agriculture, the interests of its community and its multiple facets was the Munster Agricultural Society. They are still going strong and just after finishing their successful summer show this year in their contemporary grounds in Curaheen.

However, on this week, one hundred years ago – on 4 July 1916 – the members of the Society opened their annual two-day Summer Show in Ballintemple. The show opened under glorious weather conditions. The Cork Examiner reported of the day; “it is indeed very gratifying to find that its sphere of usefulness continues. No doubt many obstacles and difficulties had to be overcome in the past by the members of the Society as they worked in the most untiring fashion and a few years ago the institution became not alone one of the most important in the country, but also one of the most successful”. The newspaper journalist continues to comment on the worries connected with the war. It was feared by the society that the fixtures conducted at different periods of each year would have to be abandoned, but with the “enterprise which has always characterised their work, the members of the Society decided in the interests of the agricultural community, and with the object of advancing their pursuits to continue the shows. It was only natural with the shortage of all classes of stock in the country, that entries were small at the fixture due to the war”.

From 1891 onwards, as the County of Cork Agricultural Society developed its home in a corner of the Cork Park Racecourse, it was dependent on the success of its shows and the subscriptions and voluntary contributions of its members. They worked in close association with the Department of Agriculture and the County Cork Committee of Agriculture and received grants from them for prize funds. In 1908 the name of the County of Cork Agricultural Society was changed to the Munster Agricultural Society.

Arising from World War I, the minutes of the Munster Agricultural Society (in the Cork City and County Archives) reveal several issues raised at committee meetings. There was a high dependency on exporting livestock, dairy and poultry produced for the British market. However, in 1915 the detained cattle at the ports was of serious concern for Irish agriculture creating serious hardships for farmers across the country. Instability in transport routes set in as sea channels became blocked and boats harnessed for military operations. The previous agricultural boom was reversed as declining prices set in. The war brought unemployment amongst agricultural labourers and less work for small farmers. The society struggled during the war years to attract farmers to their shows and sales. As an incentive, in the same year 1915 a sale of bulls was introduced into the spring show of cattle, and the total sales amounted to £800. In the year 1917 it was decided to amalgamate the cattle and horse shows and to hold it in the summer and to hold a show and sale of bulls and pigs in the spring.

The aims of the Munster Agricultural Society though were set against the national backdrop of change in Irish agriculture. The Department of Agriculture reports from 1916, available to read in the Boole Library in UCC, reveal that the decline in tillage farming began after the Great Famine. Ploughed land reduced from 4.4m acres in 1849 to 2.4m in 1916. Cultivation of cereal crops, mainly wheat, oats and barley, went from 3m acres to 1.3m acres, with the greatest decline of wheat growing in Leinster and Munster. Acreage under grain was halved, while at the same time, land in pasture doubled, alongside the growing numbers of horses, mules and asses. Land use shifted from crops to livestock. By 1916, 79 per cent of the average income for farmers came directly from livestock and only 20 per cent from crops. Cattle numbers rose from 2.7m in 1848 to 5m in 1914, and the livestock sector accounted for 75 per cent of total agricultural output in that same year.

Between 1910 and 1914 cattle numbers increased by twenty per cent, enabling the development of creameries to over a 1,000 throughout the island. Dairy co-ops also grew with around 350 operating in 1914. Agriculture in Ireland was also influenced by increasing commercialisation. Changes in transport, rail, shipping, technological progress in machinery such as milk/cream separators, and the growing use of statistical information for rationalisation and policy initiatives, moved farming toward an industrial pursuit.

Increasing urbanisation also encouraged a more market-led approach. Between 1845 and 1914 the ratio of the population living in towns of 1,500 or more doubled. Production and prices became connected with supply and demand, and Irish agriculture also contended on international markets with countries such as the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Captions:

851a. Cork Showgrounds, Ballintemple, c. 1929 (source: The Story of the Munster Agricultural Society by Kieran McCarthy)

851b. Call for support for Farmers Red Cross Fund during World War I (source: Munster Agricultural Society Archives)