Attached are the maps and photomontages and the link to the planning file.
The planning number is 21/40052 and for the public to share formal concerns it’s e20 with your letter (with the planning number on it), and address the letter to the planning department, City Hall.
I have lots of serious concerns about this development.
I will be submitting the comments below in a formal objection to the City Council’s Planning Director during this week coming;
– What is being proposed is a neighbourhood centre – not a local shop – but a large scale retail development but the site is not zoned for that in the current Cork City Council development plan.
– The design and excessive height of the development is out of character with the existing buildings in the area.
– The proposal creates a very dangerous traffic junction just metres from a critical road juncture of Church Road with Skehard Road. – The proposed development would have undue and unacceptable impacts on neighbouring properties due to overshadowing.- The site needs to be developed in an appropriate and sustainable manner – what is being proposed is the complete opposite of that.
– The proposed development is aesthetically out of character with the area. Its design is very poor
– in particular the brick buildings proposed facing onto the road. The development offers nothing to the overall environment of the immediate and surrounding neighbourhood.- There are two Aldi’s already within the area – one just metres from the development and another one opening in Douglas Village, just over a mile from the site. This is overkill.
– No consultation has taken place with local residents, and it has come as a surprise to them to see such a large scale proposal and their voices not asked on the proposal.
– Overall, the proposal makes a very negative contribution to the streetscape.
1094a. Glanmire Bridge, c.1910 from Kieran McCarthy and Dan’s Breen’s book, Cork Harbour Through Time.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 8 April 2021
Journeys
to a Truce: Dug Outs and Wire Tapping
Seán Healy was Captain of A-Company of the 1st
Battalion of Cork IRA Brigade No. 1 Cork and worked in the Parcels Office at
Glanmire Road station (now Kent Station). In his Bureau of Military History
account (WS1643) he describes in detail the creation of an arms dump in
Glanmire and other reconnaissance work.
In Spring 1921 after exploring various places, A-Company
decided on a site located in Knocknahorgan Woods, Glanmire. They approached the
owner of the land whom they knew to be a staunch supporter of the IRA movement.
He readily gave them permission to use his place and assured them the necessary
assistance that he could provide in the nature of tools and digging equipment.
The chosen place was about 300 yards from the public road and was strongly
wooded. The site was also overgrown with briars and furze bushes, and there was
a running stream of fresh water nearby.
After cautious reflection, A-Company decided to
commandeer some railway sleepers and wagon covers from the Kilbarry Railway
Yard, as they had no money to purchase these requirements. The Volunteers
employed on the project, being mostly railway employees, were naturally a bit hesitant
to interfere with their employer’s property. Sean notes: “If any of us were
caught in the act of seizing the Railway Company’s property and the matter reported
to the Company we would lose our employment and the Railway Company would, no doubt,
have reported the ‘pilferage’ to the British Military authorities when we would
suffer court martial at the hands of these people with a probable sentence of a
long number of years of imprisonment”.
A-Company proceeded to Kilbarry, after making arrangements
with Mr Duggan of Dublin Pike, to have a horse and cart in waiting near the
railway yard. They commandeered about two dozen sleepers and three wagon covers
without incident and then transported the material to Knocknahorgan.
Seán describes that it was not the company’s intention to
use this dug-out as a permanent hide-out. It was to be used only for emergency
purposes, on such occasions as when it would not be safe to sleep in the City,
or when a big round-up was taking place. It was also to be used as an auxiliary
arms dump. They already had an arms dump at The Fisheries on the Lower Road.
The keeping of all their guns and ammunition in one place was unsafe.
As quite a number of A-Company men had now been deprived
of their employment, there was no shortage of manual labour. Six men took part
in the construction of the arms dump. The work had to be swiftly carried out, as
the men had to reach their homes each night before the curfew hour approached.
The work of excavation was difficult as they had to dig
into the ground to a depth of about eight feet. When completed, the dugout was
about eight feet deep by ten feet wide and ten feet in length. They used the
railway sleepers as side walls, placed one wagon sheet on top and another on
the base, a third was used to lap over the mouth. To enter and leave, it was
only necessary to raise the overlapping wagon cover, which was supported by a
frame on the inside. The mouth was well camouflaged with overhanging branches.
It took about a week to complete the job and, when it was finished, it was
reasonably comfortable and dry and able to accommodate about six men. Candles
were used for lighting.
Seán describes that A-Company often passed some hours in
this arms dump structure where they censored captured British mails, cleaned
and oiled guns, and played cards. It proved a haven of rest on nights when they
had to sleep there. He describes: “The ventilation was good as we were
fortunate in securing some broken drain pipes as ventilators. No noises from the
Curfew lorries disturbed our slumbers; no tramp, tramp, of heavy boots of the
marching hordes, and no list of names of the occupants, hung on the door by a
landlord…It was a complete change to sleeping in a city house which had to
conform to martial law regulations; but, of course, we always slept with one
eye open, so to speak, with loaded guns within reach”.
Seán also provides insights into the tapping of telephone
lines. Post Office linesman Tom Walsh ran a wire from a telegraph pole on
Albert Street, which linked up the lines leading into the Black and Tan
Headquarters Barracks at Empress Place on Summer Hill North. The pole was
adjacent to the Metropole Laundry, and close to the stables of John Wallis
Sons, in Railway Street, Cork.
The staff employed by Messrs Wallis Sons and the caretaker
in the Laundry, were all helpful. In order to avoid the vigilance of crown
enemy forces, A-Company could only operate after business hours or during weekends.
The British authorities were well aware that the IRA had some staunch workers
in the ranks of the post office staff, and therefore they were very cautious
about sending important messages over the public telephone. A-Company worked at
it in pairs, always armed and ready to fight if we were trapped, as there was
no back-door for escape.
Seán outlines of the messages; “The service messages sent
and received were usually of a routine nature. Calls for reinforcements to be sent
to different police stations passed fairly frequently. Loyalists and others
used the phone for the purpose of reporting suspicious movements of what
appeared to be IRA men”.
Caption:
1094a. Glanmire
Bridge, c.1910 from Kieran McCarthy and Dan’s Breen’s book, Cork Harbour
Through Time.
1093a. Cork Dublin Railway Terminus (now Kent Station, Cork, c,1910 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 1 April 2021
Journeys
to a Truce: Intelligence Work in Spring 1921
Documenting the activities of Cork IRA
Brigade No.1 in the spring of 1921 is well covered in the witness statements in
the Bureau of Military History. In Joseph Kelleher’s account (WS1675), he
describes his time Captain of E Company of 1st Battalion, Cork IRA Brigade No.1.
He carried out activities of a very varied nature against British crown forces
in Cork.
In the spring of 1921 E Company’s made
frequent raids on mails with postmen being held up and letters taken away for
censoring. Anything found of interest to the IRA intelligence service was
passed on to the battalion intelligence officer. Raids on railway premises for
military stores were carried out. Petrol lorries were held up and large
quantities of petrol captured. E Company brought the petrol by horse and car to
Killeens on the Blarney Road where it was placed in a dump for use by the company
and brigade. The dump also contained revolvers, rifles, bombs and explosive
materials.
Another important dump was located on the premises of
Messrs. Harrington, Goodlass, Wall Ltd, Paint, Oil and Chemical Merchants on
Commons Road. This dump was created in 1918 and continued until 1923. It
contained explosive materials (procured mainly on the premises) such as nitric
acid, acetone, patent turpentine, yellow phosphorus, guncotton, manganese and
other material used by the brigade for the manufacture of explosives.
On various occasions E Company waited in ambush for
military and Black and Tan patrols. On one such occasion, Joseph recalls that about
fifteen of them, armed with revolvers, rifles and grenades, remained all night
on the alert in the house of Miss Peg Duggan (a prominent member of Cumann na
mBan) at 49 Thomas Davis Street. They had received word from the brigade that a
reprisal attack by crown forces was anticipated on the house of the late Tomás McCurtain,
former Lord Mayor of Cork, and Brigadier of the Cork Brigade. Miss Duggan’s
house was almost opposite that of the McCurtain house. The family of the latter
still resided there. E Company waited all night for the coming of crown forces,
but they failed to put in an appearance and they withdrew from Peg Duggan’s the
following morning.
In May 1921, Joseph’s home was raided at night by British
military and his brother John (also a member of E Company) were taken to Cork Military
Barracks. After some time, there he was removed to Cork Gaol and from there to
Spike Island.
Seán Healy, Captain of A Company of the 1st
Battalion of Cork IRA Brigade No. 1 Cork (WS1643) worked in the Parcels Office
at Glanmire Road station (now Kent Station). During the early weeks of the
spring of 1921, Lieutenant Eamon O’Mahoney, who was then employed as a railway
clerk in the Goods Depot at the station informed him that Seán’s name, as well
as his own and the names of other members of the railway company’s staff, were
included in one of the ‘murder’ lists of crown forces.
Seánfelt that his accommodation on Alfred Street
was too exposed and too easily kept under observationby Crown agents.
This house could be watched from the Soldiers’ Home, which was situated on the
opposite side of the street. He describes: “This house was originally opened as
a place the British military forces could spend their hours of leisure, but it
was now a rendezvous for all Crown agents. Spies and informers frequented the
place at all this of the day and night. The front entrance was on the Lower
Road and it had a rear entrance from Summerhill. An attack with bombs was made
against it by the men of A Company a few months later, a couple of soldiers
being seriously wounded and the premises badly damaged”.
Seán moved to an address on the Lower Road at
the other end of the railway station. With the knowledge that the British
Intelligence Officers were now aware that he was a prominent IRA officer, he
had to take every precaution to see that he was not shadowed when going to or
coming from work at the station, or when carrying out my duties as a fighting
man.
Seán describes that sniping, decoy tactics,
tapping telephone wires and subversive activities generally were regular
features of A Company’s war efforts. They frequently received orders to carry
out decoy operations such as the interruptions of communications and blocking
of roads at places outside the city.These were usually night operations,
which meant that they could not return to the city. On hiding out near Glanmire
village Seán describes: “We would billet on some friendly household when
convenient and when there was any serious danger of getting their friends into
trouble we took shelter in outhouses or hay barns. There was a large house in
Sarsfield Court where we hid. This house was vacant for a long time and was in
a bad state of repair. A part of the upstairs floor collapsed one night, when I
got a bad fall. I suffered injury to one knee which put me out of action for
about a week”.
Caption:
1093a. Cork Dublin
Railway Terminus (now Kent Station, Cork, c,1910 (source: Cork City Through
Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen).
