To ask the CE for an update on the progress of Marina Park? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Motions:
That the double yellow lines be returned to the corner of Park Hill and Skehard Road. Cars are parking on the corner making vehicles difficult to exit and enter with ease (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
That the City Council and the ESB work on a joint programme of works to return the sub station on Caroline Street to an art gallery/ cultural space (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
That appropriate trees be replanted at the Japanese Gardens, Ballinlough, following the recent cutting due to health and safety (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
Cllr Kieran McCarthy, speaking virtually at Strasbourg, 9 May 2021
Europe Day is upon us once again. Traditionally,
the 9 May is marked by senior European politicians recalling the history of the
EU, its treaties, coupled with the EU’s added value and solidarity, and
outlining the priorities and challenges of the EU in the modern world.
The European Committee of the Regions (COR) remains
at the heart of the EU narrative. It is an assembly of local and regional
politicians from across the 27 member states. Through my membership, I have
been involved in many discussions on the frontline role of the EU’s cities and
the 281 regions in how they approach issues from poverty to climate change,
from enterprise to connectivity and how they faced down the COVID pandemic. The
crucial role of local and regional government is plain to see. I have seen first-hand
the importance of sharing knowledge and experience to help each other, create
more sustainable cities, towns and regions and to feed into present and EU
future policy areas.
On this year’s St Patrick’s Day, Cork City Council
projected onto the old concrete R & H Hall grain silo in Cork’s South docks
an old Irish proverb. It ran – “ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na
daoine” – which means – it is in each other’s shadow we live – which
invokes the sense of community and interdependence. And it is clear that both the member state
and the local and regional authority both live in each shadow and both are
dependent on each other. Consistently
the COR asks to be partner with the European Council and seeks to bring the
idea of community back to the top table in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Resilience and solidarity, more so than ever
before, are needed across the EU in the next few months as European cities and regions
continue the massive task of organising vaccinations.
The battle with the pandemic is, of course,
not over yet and there are still many challenges ahead. In the first place, a
fine balance between, on the one hand, the measures we need to take to limit
the spreading of the virus as much as possible, and on the other, the strong
need of many of our businesses to go back to work and the long-awaited wish of
our citizens to go back to normal life and to enjoy their social life and
freedom of movement freely. We also need to look towards recovery and ensure
that it is felt across all sectors of society. It is my belief and that
of the Committee of the Regions that regional and local government needs to be
to the forefront of national recovery and resilience plans.
Local and Regional governments are on the frontline in
building the future of Europe. We are the story builders, strategy
builders, the capacity builders. We build ideas from scratch and bring them to
life. We are more than the sum of our parts. If you empower the Regions the EU
will be a success.
In the past year I have been fortunate to be
President of the European Alliance political grouping with the COR. In the past
few weeks with my secretariat, I have organised events focussing on the bigger
picture challenges of recovery in the post pandemic. Most recently we have
explored the impact on tourism and on regional airports. We also organised
a very interesting event “Preserving ‘PEACE’ on the island of
Ireland”. The PEACE programme is vital to ensure cross-community project
development in Northern Ireland and to avoid a border on the island of
Ireland.
My group’s members are continuing to focus on
topics ranging from green recovery to rural revival, from smart specialisation
to SME development, from Cohesion Policy critique to urban policy – to name but
a few. We continue to push these positive priorities for the benefit of
our regions. There is much to learn from each other.
I have also been very proud to see
Cork City Council’s involvement in an array of EU co-operation programmes. In
2019, CCC appointed a full-time EU Affairs Coordinator, Ronan Gingles, to facilitate
and fully inform access to quality engagement in EU opportunities and
initiatives. The role has a whole-of-organisation remit to support European
activity that clearly contributes to and informs Cork City Council’s objectives
and the development of Cork as an inclusive, future-focussed, sustainable, and
competitive European city of scale.
Cork City Council continues to be involved in EU projects such as URBACT, Interreg,
H2020, EU Urban Agenda, Digital Cities – they all help local government to gain
further perspective on how it is ahead or behind in thinking upon a topic or in
the provision of infrastructure. The
projects are providing opportunities to significantly broaden our horizons by
means of in-depth exchange and collaboration on specific issues.
Cork
City Council also currently maintains memberships of a number of European
networks as a means to enhance engagement in EU activity, create interaction
with peers, access to knowledge and tools, including best practice; and identify
opportunities including project bids.
Europe Day this year will also coincide
with the launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe. It needs to be
a truly bottom up approach and local and regional government and citizens are
best placed to provide clear and understandable input into the discussions. The
Committee of the Regions commits to be actively involved with this process and to
ensure that it leads to real benefits and tangible outcomes.
It is in each other’s shadow we live, but it is how
those shadows blend together to create solidarity, to celebrate diversity and
ultimately showing that the European project is leaving no one behind – that
are all crucial in the European Union of today.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy
serves on the Irish delegation to the EU Committee of the Region in Brussels
(CoR) for 2020-2024. The 329-strong body of elected representatives from across
Europe’s cities and regions provides the formal mechanism for sub-national
input into the EU policy process. Kieran is currently the President of the
European Alliance political grouping in the CoR; read more at www.web.cor.europa.eu.
“On the 9th May we will celebrate Europe day which is also the 70th anniversary of the Schuman declaration , which is the basis of the European Union we have today. When Ireland joined the European Communities in 1973, few people could foresee that it will evolve in the union we have today.
This sense of community needs to be the centrepiece of the conference on the future of the EU. The conference cannot be a top down exercise but a real participatory mechanism which embraces the needs of the citizens whether they are in Cork or Corsica; in Brussels or Białystok.
Local and regional authorities can build bridges between the EU institutions and the citizen and I hope the European Committee of the Regions can be pivotal in these discussions.
As vaccinations roll out we need to look towards the recovery in our communities and allowing people a step towards normal life. This is why we welcome the Digital Green Certificate as a step to allow European citizens to visit family and friends in different regions or allow business to recover, in particular in our tourism sector.
The Next Generation EU is now available for boosting our recovery, this needs to be made available to finance local projects. This is how we will ensure local sustainable and green jobs which will help the social and economic development of our cities, villages and local communities. The CoR is a willing partner to make this happen.
Finally, after a long way, there is light at the end of the tunnel and we need to #HoldFirm and #Staysafe,Kieran”
Much reference is given in the
newspapers of Spring 1921 to Cork Volunteers from across the batalions of the
Cork IRA Brigades being rounded up and sent to Ballykinlar Internment Camp in County
Down. Monaghan born Frank O’Duffy was interned in Camp II, Ballykinlar from
January to December 1921 and acted as Prisoners’ Commandant in that camp from
June to December 1921.
In his witness statement in the Bureau
of Military History (WS665), Frank describes that there were two internment camps
at Ballykinlar – Camp I and Camp II. Though these two camps adjoined each other
for a short distance at one end being separated only by the double fence of
barbed wire, which encircled each camp they were isolated from each other, and
communication between the prisoners in one camp and those in the other was banned.
Frank relates of this latter issue: “This regulation was overcome, however, by
the simple plan of throwing messages (attached to a stone) from one camp to the
other at the place where the two camps adjoined. To prevent these messages
falling into the hands of the British a code of signals was arranged to
indicate ‘coast clear’, and safe receipt of the message”.
Each camp was self-contained, apart
from the fact that there was only one hospital for sick prisoners. This was
located in Camp I, and this fact was availed of for discussions of important
issues of policy between the prisoners’ leaders of the two camps: a reliable
person from Camp II “went sick” and got transferred to the hospital.
It was also availed of to transfer men who were wanted by British crown forces
from one camp to the other. Though there was a British medical officer on the
staff of the Camps, the medical treatment of the prisoners was left mainly to
their own doctors, of whom there were a number among the prisoners. So, names
could be changed on documentation.
Each camp contained (when full) 1,000
(one thousand) prisoners. These were divided, for purposes of administration,
into four companies (250 men each), and each company was housed in ten huts (25
men to each hut). The companies in Camp I were described as A, B, C, and D, and
those in Camp II as E, F, G, and H. In addition to the huts, in which the men
slept, the camp buildings included large central huts for use as chapel,
dining-hall, recreation (concerts etc.), canteen, cook-house, work-shops, etc.
The sanitary arrangements were very primitive with latrines and buckets.
At first no objection was raised to
the prisoners’ drilling in the camp, and all (especially the younger men) were
drilled for some time each forenoon. A roll was made (and checked, as far as
possible) of all prisoners who were Volunteer Officers, and lectures and
training. Frank details: “Prisoners who had taken part in ambushes or other
military events gave an account of them, and discussions on tactics, etc. took
place. After a few weeks, an order was issued by the British forbidding drill
in the camp, but military training continued secretly”.
Formal classes in subjects such as Irish maths and
surveying also took place. Examinations were held and certificates issued at
the end of some of the educational courses. Lectures, debates, and discussions
were frequently held. Frank describes that historical anniversaries for Wolfe
Tone, Robert Emmet, and host of other names were faithfully celebrated.
Dramatic performances were also staged frequently. Some of the prisoners
devoted all their spare time to the preparations for these performances, (making
costumes, scenery, etc.), and the results of their work sometimes reached a
high standard.
In his witness statement Frank also compliments the Irish
classes section – who have as he notes, “the most faithful and hard-working of the Irish
teachers” – being Cork’s Cllr Micheál Ó
Cuill (of Cork Corporation). Micheál’s obituary in the Cork Examiner on
19 September 1955 describes that he was a native of the Macroom district,
he came to Cork circa 1910. He was connected with Countess Markievicz in
the founding and organising of Fianna Eireann and a few years later was largely
responsible for the formation of Cumann na mBan.
Micheál was one of the Cork volunteers who paraded at
Easter 1916 hoping to take part in the Rising. When circumstances prevented
Corkmen from playing their part he set out alone for Dublin and had got to the
neighbourhood of the city when the surrender took place. He was arrested and deported
to Frongoch.
Micheál was a close friend of Terence MacSwiney
and TomásMacCurtain and worked closely with them in the Irish
Volunteers. He became a member of Sinn Féin’s bench in Cork Corporation in
January 1920. It was he who, speaking in Irish,
proposed Tomás MacCurtain for the office of Lord Mayor on 30 January. On
Terence’s death Micheál was sent to be among the Guard of Honour to the deceased
Lord Mayor in London. He also acted tor some time as Deputy Lord Mayor
following Terence’s death before Donal Óg O’Callaghan took on the position. In
late 1920 he was arrested in Cork City and sent to Ballykinlar.
Micheál was an ardent lover ofIrish and
a fluent speaker of it, He was one of theprominent Gaelic League
organisers and teachers in the country and later in time became Vice President
of a Cork branch of the Conradh na Gaeilge. For many years he conducted classes
at An Dún, Queen Street (now Fr Mathew Street). About 1930, he joined the staff
of the Cork County Vocational Education Committee as Irish inspector. He became
very well-known at the summer courses of Ballingeary, which hesupervised
every summer.
