Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 20 March 2025

Making an Irish Free State City – A Great War Memorial Proposal for Cork

The construction of First World memorials in Europe inspired small voluntary organisations in cities such as Cork to think about commemorating deceased veterans. A proposed Great War memorial for Cork City was championed by The Cork Legion of Ex-Servicemen and the Cork Independent Ex-Servicemen Club.

At a meeting of the committee of the Cork Independent Ex-Servicemen Club held at their premises on Marlboro Street in late July 1924, the Cork Examiner records that Mr J Kelleher presided and that the following members were present – Messrs G Byrne, T O’Neill, D Fenton, W H Wynam, M O’Brien, M Burke, and P Byrne. On the proposal of Mr D Fenton, seconded by Mr M O’Brien. Messrs T O’Neill and V Byrne were appointed joint honorary secretaries.

Several designs for a memorial were submitted for approval and on the proposal of Mr O’Neill, seconded by Mr D Fenton, the one submitted by a local ex-service man was agreed to.

The Chairman, Mr Kelleher, congratulated those present on adopting one of the designs placed before them. He noted that every city, town, and village in England could proudly boast of a monument or other token of remembrance to the men who gave their lives in the cause of justice and the rights of small nationalities. He continued; “Now, it is our duty as comrades of those lads who gave their lives so freely in a just cause, and it is the duty of every person who mourns the loss of their departed ones to give every assistance to fulfil our obligations to our dead comrades by erecting a suitable monument to their memory”. The Executive members of the Club unanimously decided to place the sum of £50 to the credit of the memorial committee.

Mr Wyman noted that it would be advisable to have church door collections and to also invite female advocates who would be interested to give their support to such collections. Mr O’Brien proposed that arrangements be made to carry out those collections immediately as they were aiming to unveil the monument on Armistice Day in November 1924. Mr M Burke, in seconding Mr O’Brien’s motion, said he was very pleased with the work done by the Committee in placing the contract for the monument in the hands of an able city sculptor, and in so doing he noted they were advocating for “local skill and manufacture”.

It was further decided to submit the plan of the monument to the Public Works Committee of Cork Corporation for the purpose of getting a suitable site in one of the city’s most prominent city public thoroughfares. A small delegation was appointed.

A week later, the proposal was discussed at Cork Corporation’s Public Works Committee. The Cork Examiner noted on the 7 August 1924 that Mr M J O’Riordan, who led the Club deputation, said that he had no need to say many words to commend such a project and highlighted Ireland’s part in the Great War. He detailed: “At the beginning of the Great War, Ireland was called upon to play her part, and she took a noble and honourable part. Her old ally, France, was in danger – France, where Irishmen always found a refuge. They took their part in the fight for small nationalities. Some of the young men who fell in the war were his comrades and playmates. If this monument were erected in Cork, it would show all the world that Ireland had done her part when called upon, and not shirked it”. Before concluding he suggested as a site for the memorial at the corner of Winthrop Street as the most central position in the city.

Cllr D Horgan, the Chairman of the Corporations Public Works Committee, said he did not think there was any need to hear the other members of the deputation or to labour the matter further. He felt the members were in entire agreement with the deputation. It was proposed and seconded that the plans and other details be submitted to the engineering officials for a report.

The Lord Mayor, Cllr Seán French, who entered the debate at this stage, said the position was a very delicate one. He was one of those who thought that the men who died in the Great European War would, if they get the chance, have fought in Ireland for Ireland in 1921. He noted: “I am not going to take away from any tribute to the dead, but I want to see the way clearly. The European war was not theirs. A lot of their men gave their lives in what they thought was the defence of small nations, and the first test of the sincerity of the ideal was in Ireland. This was not certainly carried out with sufficient justice to the men who fought for that ideal. Their memory of England’s justice was the burning of half their city and the Municipal Buildings”.

The Lord Mayor argued that he would be very slow to make a monument to the memory of the English nation. He was prepared to admit that the majority of the men who fought in Flanders would have died in Ireland fighting against England. In conclusion, the Lord Mayor said he was not going to have his name associated with anything to perpetuate the memory of “England’s tyranny in Cork”.

Club committee delegation head M J O’Riordan asserted he was not there to uphold England’s banner. He was there in the cause of the men who gave their lives in the fight for humanity “against tyranny and infidelity”. He was one of the men outside their party honoured by the Republican Corporation to form a guard of honour over the body of Terence MacSwiney. He noted; “When bringing the body across to Cork the men who were most prominent and fearless in wearing the badge of the Republic in England were the Munster Fusiliers…I am a Republican, and I am not at the meeting to uphold the banner of England, but on behalf of the men who fought and died for freedom”. The majority of the Public Works Committee assented to the development of the memorial project.

In the days and weeks that followed a site for the memorial was chosen at the intersection of the South Mall and the Grand Parade.

To be continued…

Caption:

1296a. Commemorations at First World War Memorial, South Mall, 11 November 2018 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).