Wednesday evenings, 12 & 19 July 2023, Cork and the River Lee, An Introduction to the Historical Development of Cork City; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 6.30pm (two hours, free, no booking).
Thursday evening 13 July 2023, From Canals to a Mayoralty Chain, The Making of Eighteenth Century Cork, meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 6.30pm (two hours, free, no booking).
Friday evening, 21 July 2023, Shandon & its History; meet at North Main Street/ Adelaide Street Square, opp Cork Volunteer Centre, 6.30pm (Two hours, free, no booking).
Saturday afternoon, 29 July 2023, Views from a Park – The Black Ash and Tramore Valley Park & Surrounds, meet at Halfmoon Lane gate to Tramore Valley Park, 2pm (two hours, free, no booking).
1208a. 1922 pamphlet from a Cork IDA supported project that of Irish International Trading Corporation (Cork).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 29 June 2023
Recasting Cork: The Cork IDA and its 20th AGM
By late June 1923, the Cork Examiner records the 20th year of the Cork Industrial Development Association (Cork IDA), a body, which emerged out of the Cork International Exhibition in 1903, and which promoted Irish products in the Cork region. They had not been able to host an AGM for two years due to the War of Independence and Civil War.
The secretary, Michael Ryan, in his report on 27 June 1923 gives interesting insights into the work of the Cork IDA. He outlines that during the struggle for independence the Cork IDA played no small part in formulating and carrying out successful schemes for the economic rehabilitation of the country. Without the co-operation of the Association, the Irish consuls resident at New York, Paris and Brussels would have been very much restricted in their consular activities on behalf of the trade and commerce of Ireland. Important national work was conducted through the agencies of these consuls, for which the Association got but little credit.
Mr Ryan outlines that the national and public activities of the Association were many and varied. Co-operating with the governments of the first and second Dáil, they highlighted that during embargoes during the War of Independence many articles had but a very limited sale in Cork or Munster, viz.- agricultural machinery, biscuits, boot polishes, soap, margarine, pictorial calendars, preserves, medicated wines, and proprietary ointments.
The effects of the embargoes imposed on such imports were such that Irish manufacturers found it necessary to install much additional plant and machinery and to employ many thousands additional workers to enable them to meet the requirements of the home market.
For example, the import of soap into Cork – one of the excluded articles totalled 1,075 tons for 1920. In 1921 and 1922, the imports dropped to 540 tons and 333 tons respectively. On the other hand, exports of Irish soap through the Port of Cork, for the three years under review (1920, 1921 and 1922) were 13 tons, 82 tons, and 209 tons, respectively. Whilst British soap was being excluded, American and French soap was being allowed in freely, and direct trade between this country and the Continent was, as a result, promoted.
The imports of foreign agricultural implements through the Port of Cork dropped from 280 tons in 1920 to 52 tons in 1921 to 11 tons in 1922. During the three years Irish manufacturers of agricultural implements, margarine and jams were profitably employed in meeting the requirements of the home market.
The Association articulated that Irish industries were being slowly but surely stymied by the dumping of competitive goods on the open Irish market. The core point was that Ireland’s valuable resources remain undeveloped;
“Ireland being the butt of the economic forces of the world brought into play by the legislation of outside governments. Irish business men find themselves powerless to promote an industrial revival with any degree of even moderate success. To remedy our present economic instability, the great aim of an Irish Government should be the inception and application of a fiscal system, designed so to increase the productive capacity of the nation…Under present conditions, industrial effort is being strangled, and economic progress blocked”.
Over 1920, 1921 and 1922, seventy-two meetings of the Executive and general councils of the Association were held and matters of public interest were duly noted by the reporting staff of the Cork Examiner and the Cork Constitution. Twelve special conferences were held to enquire into the cases for the huge volume of unnecessary imports into and through the port of Cork. It was recognised that to deal effectively with the problem of curtailment of such imports, legislation would be necessary.
There was also the pursual of much practical work. In additions to answering lots of queries about Irish manufacture, the Association successfully organised three Irish weeks and published and published and distributed, at a nominal cost, 10,000 hand books of household and personal articles in Ireland. Messrs Dowdall & Company Shipping Agents of the Direct Lines to US and French Ports and the Irish International Trading Corporation (Cork) Ltd grew out of the work of the Association. Dowdall & Company had pursued much for the promotion of direct trade, and the second named company built up much business by purchasing from and selling direct to continental and American firms. The Corporation made it a business rule to introduce no goods into the Irish market, which would compete unfairly with the products of Irish industries.
The Washington Clothing Factory – two productive factories – also directly grew out of the work of the Association. They also assisted Kanturk Hosiery Factory and St Marie’s of the Isle Hosiery Factory. Several firms thanked the Association for the assistance afforded to them in securing important contracts. The Irish Products’ League was inaugurated in Cork at the suggestion of Ald. Liam de Roiste when acting as Secretary of the Association. The work of the League was at that time being re-organised and the Association was issuing silver badges stamped on the outside “CIDA”.
For many years the Association advocated for the establishment of public utilities such as the dead meat trade, a tannery and cement works in Cork. It spoke with members of Cork Corporation on the question of opening public marts for the auctioning of fish, fruit and vegetables. It was noted that re-organisation of the fishing industry of the South and South West depended for its success on the provision of a public fish market in the city of Cork.
When serious difference arose between the lessors of the Cork Park, the Cork Corporation, and Messrs Henry Ford, the lessees, the Association successfully intervened with the result that an arrangement was come to which permitted the Ford Works to extend its operations without further interference on behalf of the lessors.
By arrangement with the Munster Agricultural Society the Association decided to co-operate in organising an Irish Industrial Section for the exhibition of home products during the summer shows. Owing to the Civil War in the country in 1922, it was found impossible to hold the show. Mr J Rohan of Tullaghreine Concrete Utilities Works at Carrigtwohill in 1922 built on the grounds of the showgrounds an office made of Irish materials.
Caption:
1208a. 1922 pamphlet from a Cork IDA supported project that of Irish International Trading Corporation (Cork).
Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Kieran McCarthy has called on the executive of Cork City Council for a more hands on future proof strategy for Cork’s historic English market In a recent format visit to the market. Several traders noted to the Lord Mayor of their concern of empty stalls lying vacant for too long, the need for repairing the roof and an overall business plan development.
The Lord Mayor noted: “It is an annual tradition for the Lord Mayor to engage with English Market traders in the first few days of office through a meet and greet. The market is a historic gem down down through the ages and dates back to 1788 – just one year after the Mayoralty chain was created – and has had many high end publicity wins and events in recent years. The market is a civic space all Corkonians can be proud of and I know many Corkonians make weekly attempts to support the SMEs within the space. I am regular punter there as well.
On my formal walk around this week, the traders I met had many questions on a small number of vacant stalls. In recent times there have been a number of retirements of stalwart stallholders, who occupied large stall space and with such retirements have left noticeable vacant spaces. The northern aisle in particular needs a plan with a small number of stalls vacant.
There is a big opportunity to have more foodie start up stalls. Cork City Council does have a food strategy and through the Council’s involvement in the local enterprise board it promotes SME development. Unit 3 within the Market is a start-up stall for foodie SMEs but there is much scope to support more foodie start-ups. I have made my comments to the Council’s management team on the market and have asked them to present a strategy for the market at the Council’s finance committee.
And when I say all of this I say it in the context of future proofing the trade of the market. And above all, it is crucial for all of us in Cork to support the Market or to rediscover it if one has not bought from there in a while”.
St Finbarr’s Cathedral, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
“Got Cork” – Adventures in the Southern Capital
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Kieran McCarthy,
23 June 2023
The Diary Entry:
Dear colleagues, [dear TDs, senators], dear Chief Executive, dear family, dear Lady Mayoress, dear Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends;
Cork 1863 – A letter is dispatched to the UK to a young architect letting him know he was successful with his design proposal for a new cathedral.
William Burges, the newly appointed architect of a new St Finbarr’s Cathedral, immediately and proudly remarked in his diary, “Got Cork” and with that embarked on a remarkable piece of building work, a voyage of discovery into the origins of Cork history. He created an iconic structure relevant for his time and forged a structure as it was seen at the time as [quote] “worthy of the name cathedral” [end quote].
And proudly I can write in my diary this evening also “Got Cork”.
Mar sin ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom mo fíor buiochas do mo mholtóir Comhairleoir Des Cahill agus do mo thaiceoir, Comhairleoir Terry Shannon, an bheirt iar-Ard Mhearaí Chorcaí, agus a chomhghleacaithe daor as do mhuinín a chur ionam, agus as bronntanas dom an noiméad seo “Got Cork”.
Many thanks dear colleagues for your trust in me here this evening.
Such a term “Got Cork” has always stayed with me through many years since my first reading of them.
And this diary entry by William Burges leads to many questions on what it is to “Got Cork”.
William was tasked to be a guardian of a key part of the city’s heritage – to carry out a project, with multiple roles – some of which included remembering and representing a legacy, projecting and re-animating the origins story of the city’s patron Saint Finbarr.
He built upon past legacies of former churches, He assembled striking architectural designs in a historic medieval style. He managed a team, and most interestingly conducted archaeological excavations and move skeletons and burials because the new cathedral was twice the size of the church it was replacing.
Whereas this evening, you are not entrusting me to build a Cathedral or to move graves [I hope not, but I cannot confirm I have read all of the terms and conditions with the role!].
But we are, I feel, in our own political cathedral where “Got Cork” takes on new meanings– we are in a space of guardianship, representation and inheritance.
In our ancient ceremony of handing over the chain at our annual general meeting this evening from Cllr Forde to myself – that strong sense of guardianship is ever present. There is a guardianship over the chain as an object of high symbolism – firstly a gold medallion with the city’s coat of arms and its Latin inscription Statio Bene Fida Carinis or translated A Safe Harbour for Ships,
Secondly a portcullis showcasing the ancient water gate of the medieval walled town of Cork thirdly the SS chain links symbolising sacredness and guardianship, and lastly the medallion inscription where 1787 marks its creation.
There is the guardianship of how this chain links the past to our present, almost seamlessly – that one could argue that the chain links are not just physical links but if it could speak it has seen the highs and lows of Cork history from boom to bust and vice versa. The chain has been a witness to it all in its over 230-year history;
…to the creation of the term of Lord Mayor in 1901 with Daniel Hegarty to the tragedies of office holders such as Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney and then woven into a myriad of personal connections by those who have engaged with office holders.
…and then there is the guardianship on how its essence the chain projects the city into the future as debated during the recent boundary expansion scheme. That of all the elements of those contentious debates, which emerged a few short years ago was that the chain and its societal connection meant much to the people of Cork.
And indeed, when you mix the guardianship elements of the past, present and future, one gets a strong mix of high emotion and a deep attachment to the title of Lord Mayor of Cork.
Lord Mayor of Cork’s chain (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
A Personal Journey:
And for someone like me, it’s not lost on me what this chain means.
I was the child on the annual Lord Mayor school visits who felt a deep attachment to the essence of the chain and its connection to the sense of place and pride in Cork– something that made me feel proud, made me connect to my city, driven by proud parents and teachers of Cork. Thanks Mum and Dad, and to my sister Deirdre and my brother Aidan for everything.
I was someone who likened the Lord Mayor’s visit to a form of Christmas and that they had some sort of super powers and that the medallion of the chain was an actual key to a rich box of stories and papers of my city. I look forward to seeing it later.
I was the child who wanted to be Lord Mayor when I grew up
I was the teenager who pursued civic education projects of former Lord Mayors– someone who began to research and photograph the city – its buildings and public spaces – and someone who consumed history books written about the city.
I became a someone who has studied and written on the high and lows of Cork history across time encountering mayors and Lord Mayors like ghosts walking across my research of historic books and newspapers;
A someone who created walking tours, a someone who wrote books on this historic city, and ultimately an epic voyage that has led me straight into this hallowed political gladiatorial space to meet and work with you good people,
to work with different Lord Mayors of differing political hues and interests, to learn more about how this city ticks and develops,
to work in the European Committee of the Regions and now this journey has come to this enormous moment this evening.
So, what my 11 year old self engaged with 35 years ago has brought me on a voyage of epic personal proportions where “Got Cork” has a very high emotional value.
Kieran and his fifth year local history project, Colaiste Chriost Ri, 1993
A House of Democracy:
But perhaps it is my journey since I joined the Council in 2009 that has been the most enriching.
I have had wow factor memories, deeply worrying memories and very proud memories.
I have been very fortunate to work with colleagues who care deeply about Cork’s communities – its essence and people, who represent its people and neighbourhoods, where every meeting is a chance to make a difference. In my time, some evenings we have won incredible things for this city and during other evenings, we remain pushing forward inch by inch, or stuck, or we have gone back to the drawing board, but we have always remained true to a forward-looking path.
Indeed, in the past four years of this Council as a significant house of democracy, we have achieved so much.
In this Council term alone, we have gone through many challenges – the expansion of the city’s boundaries, which feels like years and years ago, brought us many nights of debates.
In 2019 in a special booklet to mark the boundary expansion of the city the Council commissioned poet Theo Dorgan to reflect on the winds of change and the related challenges and visions. He wrote:
[quote]:
“Great changes are coming, the worst of the old ways are dust in the wind and the new energies are crackling with light and variousness of daring thought and music. Go on, said one of my brothers, give us a mad vision of Cork in the coming years. That’s Easy I said, it will be the Athens of a new republic, the dream city where a noble past will give birth to a glorious future. He looked at me and said, would you ever cop yourself on. Fair enough I said – getting a bit carried away…but all the same though. What if”.
[end quote].
Again, a sense of “Got Cork” but little did we know what was ahead of us.
We pushed forward through the significant challenges of Covid. We created an online digital platform to enable us to interact. We created a strong Climate Action team. We established a strong Women’s Caucus. We hosted a strong and rich commemoration programme. We passed an ambitious development plan. We found new ways forward to serve in more ambitious ways our respective local electoral areas or neighbourhoods, to placing a focus on our City of Welcomes paradigm, and much much more.
We kept the Council’s work on the road.
This has been due in no small part to your dedication dear colleagues and our strong Executive led by our CE Ann Doherty.
At this juncture I would like in particular like to thank our former Lord Mayors of this Council Cllr Dr John Sheehan, Cllr Joe Kavanagh, Cllr Colm Kelleher and the outgoing Lord Mayor, Cllr Deirdre Forde for leading us through days ranging from “is this our life now sitting 2 metres away from people” to re-opening the city sprinkling it with hope, positivity and charm, to beginning our journey on the development plan, to championing the rebooting of business and community life” and much much more.
We kept this house of democracy going – the importance of guardianship, democracy and representation never wavered.
I am reminded of the words of Tomás MacCurtain in his Lord Mayoralty speech in late January 1920 where he noted:
[quote]: “I expect from the members of the new Corporation a sacrifice of time and a sacrifice, perhaps, of personal interest…that no self-interest would be put before the interest of the community at large”.
[end quote].
And in our time to each member of this chamber you have made sacrifices to your personal lives to make sure this chamber forges paths forwards through its multitude of its work programmes.
The Hope for Tomorrow:
And so now as we face into the last final 12 months of this Council, there is still much to do. There is much work to finish and much work to start.
And when I say all of that I am very conscious that our citizens and their voices and requests must continue to be listened to, new ideas forged and implemented, and need to be the bedrock of Cork’s DNA building into the future.
In our City, democracy matters. It is renewed every time we have a meeting. It will be renewed with the impending local elections next year.
Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney in his book Principles of Freedom spoke about people gifted with certain powers of soul and body. That it is of vital importance to the individual and the community that one be given a full opportunity to place a value on developing one’s talent, and [quote] “to fill one’s place in the world worthily” [end quote].
He also wrote about the citizen and a hope for tomorrow. As he noted:
[quote]:
“The citizen will fight for that ideal in obscurity, little heeded – in the open, misunderstood; in humble places, still undaunted; in high places, seizing every vantage point, never crushed, never silent, never despairing, cheering a few comrades with hope for tomorrow. And should these few sink in the struggle the greatness of the ideal is proven in the last hour”.
[end quote].
And in a similar vain Eamon de Valera opening this City Hall building and our chamber on 8 September 1936. Addressing the masses, he noted:
[quote]
“I am sure the people will not shrink from the work that is necessary so that the efforts of the past are not to be in vain. The people of this city have clung tenaciously to their nationality with courage and hope even in the darkest hours. Surely that courage and that hope will not sway them now when the dawn is at hand”.
[end quote].
We will have myriads of meetings ahead of us in our final year where the “hope for tomorrow” can make sure our citizens are the front and centre of our priorities such as reducing homelessness, making sure our construction of our new social housing projects keeps on track, as well as keeping our affordable housing programmes on track, to making sure we are put on a firm footing to be Climate Neutral as part of the EU led Horizon Mission,
We need to keep adding to sustainable mobility plans; we need to keep enhancing the offering of the city centre; we need to make sure we keep creating new amenities, and we need to continue to make sure our communities are future proofed by weaving them with the sustainable development goals and the WHO Healthy Cities project. The list is a long one.
And then we need to sprinkle all those priorities with the energy and ambition that a second city brings or what I call Ireland’s southern capital and one gets an exciting future for our city by the Lee.
Cork City Council is on the frontline in building the future of communities in Cork. The Council is a story builder, a strategy builder, and a capacity builder.
In addition, one would be hard pressed to find a community within the city’s boundaries and in its outliers that doesn’t have a strong sense of place and identity – where building community capacity, family nest building, ambition and creating opportunities matter, and when compiled create a very strong Cork Inc.
Without doubt my Lord Mayoralty will champion these many priorities but in particular I would like to offer a voice to many of our citizens through my theme of Building our Communities Together and through a pet project I will be calling the Voices of Cork. My interests in heritage, history and education will be at the heart of this project.
So, at our Annual Meeting this evening, we continue to carry with hope, with confidence, with passion, with wit, with leadership, and all of that bound to the city’s hopes and dreams, which burn brightly for the future. This great city keeps moving and the tests of our time demand continuous action.
And so this evening I can proudly inscribe in my diary “Got Cork” with its multitude of meanings that we all continue to explore, engage and push forward with.
To conclude, I am also reminded of the words of two famous composers, Rogers and Hammerstein who once penned the most beautiful lyrics.
“Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I got a wonderful feeling, everything is going my way,
eh, O what a beautiful day”.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh arís ar an onóir seo.
[Ends].
Sunset at St Anne’s Church, Shandon, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
1207a. Ex-Service Men Housing, unveiled June 1927, in Ballinlough, Cork (source: Cork City Library).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 22 June 2023
Recasting Cork: The Ex-Service Men Houses
One hundred years ago, references are made in an editorial in the Cork Examiner on 20 June 1923 to the challenges associated with the construction of First World War ex-servicemen housing. Concern was noted in Cork that there was a delay in providing housing for ex-soldiers and sailors.
In many districts throughout County Cork and across Munster, schemes of a limited nature had been in progress. In many cases these houses were already occupied. However as far as Cork itself, with its large population of ex-service men, the editorial describes that the public had not “so far been aware of any steps being taken to provide a suitable scheme of houses for these men”.
The context to the latter concerns was connected to an eight-year old housing programme for ex-servicemen of the First World War. After the war providing cottages & agricultural small holdings were key aims of the British Government’s programme for reconstruction and national reform. Historian FHA Aalen writes in his history article entitled Homes for Irish Heroes, that initially under the Small Holdings Colonies Acts 1916 and 1918, the goal was to settle ex-servicemen on the land in experimental colonies of cooperative smallholders. The scheme was not successful due to a myriad of problems including high prices of buying good agricultural land and constructing housing. That being noted, over 16,800 applications though in England and Wales, out of a total of 56,000 were received.
In the Irish context, providing land with housing though was deemed political interference by Westminster in Irish land speculation. However, through the legal mechanism of the 1919 Irish Land (Provision for Sailors and Soldiers) Act, the Local Government Board could promote co-operation among those settled on the land and it was hoped to create newly established colonies of ex-service men all over Ireland with the guidance of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Over 10,000 acres were allotted, which made up 360 holdings to ex-servicemen. Initial housing was located in rural areas but also nearby to cities and towns, where ex-servicemen could find work.
Many ex-servicemen’s cottages were constructed along roadsides, either singly or in smaller groups of perhaps four to ten houses. Their important compact estates and garden suburbs, some of them carefully planned, were also built on the outskirts of cities.
Many ex-servicemen’s cottages had a living room, a kitchenette and three bedrooms. Bathrooms were provided when a municipal water supply was available. The bulk of the cottages were two-storeyed with a total area of 600 to 700 square feet, some slightly exceeding 1000 square feet. Concrete block walls, then an innovative method of construction, were widely used in the construction of the cottages. In general, the had a front and back garden.
As a result of the foundation of the Irish Free State, the new measures were short-lived. That being said by the end of 1923, expenditure had exceeded £2 million and almost 2,000 houses had been built (1508 in the Free State and 408 in the north) and several hundred more were under construction. There was a limit of a cost of £400 for a labourer’s cottage of 500 square feet.
The Cork Examiner records that by June 1923 in Charleville 59 houses had been built and occupied, 26 in Mallow, 50 houses in Midleton rural district, including Ballycotton, 19 in Kinsale rural district including Crosshaven, 13 houses at Frankfield, six at Rochestown, four at Passage West, 46 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, and ten in Ardfinnan, County Limerick. Colonel Kirkwood had been busy in Cork inspecting what may be suitable sites for the scheme in the city. He had received valuable assistance from a Captain Penny and Councillor M J O’Callaghan, who is taking a very active interest in seeing the scheme brought to fruition. It was hoped to build a number of houses on three or four sites in the suburbs, which had been provisionally selected.
Post Irish Independence through a unique trust was set up by the governments of the Irish Free State, the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland. The trust came into being legally on 1 January 1924. In the Irish Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Land Trust, first report, 1924-1926, it is noted that the Trust comprised of a non-political body comprising five members – three appointed by the British government, one by the Government of Northern Ireland, and one from the Irish Free State.
The Trust, once established, sustained the pace of building. By March 1926, 1692 cottages had been completed in the Free State and 733 in Northern Ireland, making a total of 2425. Amongst these over 200 houses were built in and near Cork city – Fairhill Villas and Kerryhill Road in St Mary’s Parish formed the largest development with 62 houses in blocks of either four or six units along straight avenues.
Considerable estates were also built at Friary Gardens (30 houses) and Friary Road (54 houses) in St Nicholas’ Parish, and at Whitehorn, Douglas Road (44 houses). Smaller developments included Bryan Terrace, Haig Gardens, Knockrea Gardens and Douglas Terrace, all in Ballinlough.
Caption:
1207a. Ex-Service Men Housing, unveiled June 1927, in Ballinlough, Cork (source: Cork City Library).
Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the takeover of ownership by Cork City Council from the HSE of All Saint’s Cemetery in Carr’s Hill.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “It is really great to see the City Council take ownership of this really historic and very important graveyard in Cork’s and in Ireland’s history. There have been many calls in the City Council Chamber and from the general public during the last few years for the graveyard to have a proper maintenance and conservation plan. Whereas the HSE have pursued successful conservation projects in Cork, I feel when it comes to historic graveyards, Cork City Council has more experience; it has concentrated teams focussing on amenity development, heritage and archaeology. Access, the collapse of the historic entrance and stone walls as well as adding to the information history panels need now to be addressed through utilising local heritage City Council funding and drawing down national conservation funding”.
Cllr McCarthy continued; “The graveyard’s history goes back to 1847. As St Joseph’s graveyard could not cope with increase in burials during the Great Famine, Fr Mathew suggested to the Cork Union Workhouse Guardians that a new burial ground should be acquired. As a result, land was attained from George Carr, a workhouse official on the road between Douglas and Carrigaline. Thousands of poor men, women and children are buried there with no headstone. This sacred, sad and hallowed ground needs to be cherished, respected, given dignity. It’s a historically sensitive area which needs TLC”.
