Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 26 June 2025

Making an Irish Free State City – A Museum Committee is Formed

Continuing on from last week’s column, in April 1942, a number of citizens – not drawn from any one section of Cork’s community life – met informally to discuss the feasibility of establishing a permanent museum for the city and county. Meeting with the Lord Mayor and members of Cork Corporation led to a plan for the return of the former museum building in Fitzgerald’s Park to being a public museum.

A souvenir booklet survives in the archives of Cork Public Museum from 1945, the year the Museum was re-opened. It is edited by P J Harnett and he describes in detail the journey in reopening a public museum and the context of the committee being formed. The committee was initiated from a historical exhibition at 97 St Patrick’s Street. The topic focussed on the 1798-1921 period of Irish political history. The exhibition was held from 15 to 29 March 1942 and organised by Coiste na Gaedhilge – a committee from representatives of the several Irish language bodies. The exhibition premises was freely loaned for the occasion by Dr T M McGrath, Manager of the Cork Examiner. Thousands of people of all ages, classes and creeds daily came to the exhibition.

According to the 1945 souvenir booklet, the purpose of the display was to raise awareness within younger generations of “sacrifices made and to show them in some degree the noble purpose of the sacrifice and to rouse them to a realization of the fact that they have a duty towards the men who made that sacrifice”.

The booklet notes that during the fortnight that the exhibition was open the organising committee had appeals from lots of people from all walks of life that something be done towards helping to provide a permanent display to include not only political history but exhibits dealing with the arts and crafts, folklore, industry of the city. Mrs Jane Dowdall was particularly enthusiastic in getting a museum up and running. An t-Athair Tadhg Ó Murchadha, Jane Dowdall and P J Harnett discussed the possibility of obtaining a museum, municipal or otherwise. They decided to invite a cross section of the various interests concerned to attend a meeting to discuss the feasibility of the suggestion.

The 1945 souvenir booklet outlines that a meeting was held at the Imperial Hotel on 1 April 1942, a large number attending. Seán Ó Coindealbháin presided. P J Harnett acted as secretary and explained the aims of the meeting. After a very full discussion, the then Lord Mayor, Councillor John Horgan, proposed that a committee of four, comprising of the Chairman and Secretary of the meeting with Mr Michael V Conlon and Mr Michael Holland, be set up. They were to have “power to co-opt as many further members as would be helpful, to explore ways and means of providing a worthy museum for the citizens”.

The group consisted of men and women with diverse backgrounds and interests. From artists to archaeologists, politicians to clergymen, they were united in their passion for the history of Ireland. Meetings were held weekly in the Presentation College, which was placed at the disposal of the Committee by the Presentation Brothers through the good offices of Rev. Brother Austin.

The 1945 souvenir booklet lists the following individuals were co-opted to the Museum Committee. The interests of some individuals can be reconstructed:  An t-Athair T Ó Murchadha, Rev. Brother Austin, Mrs Jane Dowdall, Mrs H Ryan, Miss Sheila Murphy, Miss Brigid G MacCarthy, Professor Ethna Byrne-Costigan (UCC, Romance Languages), Professor John Busteed (economics, Dean of Faculty of Commerce), Professor Michael A MacConaill (UCC, Anatomy), Professor Seán P Ó Riordáin (UCC, Archaeology), Professor Louis P Renouf (UCC, Zoology) & Messrs Seamus Murphy (sculptor), P J Hartnett, K Harty, S Hendrick, A O’Keeffe, Michael Holland, D W O’Brien, E R Rohu, Dr D P Fitzgerald, R Breathnach, Micheál Ó Cuill, Alderman Richard S Anthony and D J Ryan. Mr Michael V Conlon was elected Chairman.

At a time of limited opportunities for women, five played a prominent role on the museum committee. The driving force behind it was Jane Dowdall, who later became the first woman elected as Lord Mayor of Cork. Another member, Sheila Murphy, later became the first woman to be president of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.

The 1945 souvenir booklet highlights that the first problem, which confronted the new Committee, was the provision of a suitable building to house the exhibits. It was ultimately decided to request Philip Monahan, the City Manager, to put the old museum building in Fitzgerald’s Park into a proper state of repair with a view to having it fitted up as a museum. After a certain amount of negotiation, in which Lord Mayor Alderman Richard Anthony took a leading part, the Corporation passed a sum of money to be expended on repairing and altering the building in accordance with plans, which were drawn up by the City Engineer after consultation with representatives of the Museum Committee.

During this time also, the other representatives of the Committee set about collecting money to help defray the capital expenditure necessary for equipment. In all they got promises of almost £1,000. Subsequently Cork Corporation, Cork County Council and University College Cork were appealed to for financial aid. The Corporation levied a rate of one penny in the pound, the County Council gave an annual grant in aid of £100, and University College offered to pay a curator’s salary of £350 per annum.

The 1945 souvenir booklet further describes that the next difficulty was the provision of a statutory body with powers to control the working of a museum. It was known that the Corporation annually funded University Extension Lectures at University College. The grant scheme was operated by a body composed of representatives of the Governing Body of the College and of the Corporation.

Subsequently, the Governing Body of the College was asked to take over the management of the proposed museum and to accept the co-operation of the existing Committee in an executive or advisory capacity.

The Governing Body of the College acceded to the Committee’s request and gave the President of the College full power to take over the museum house in Fitzgerald’s Park from the Corporation, to lend necessary equipment and exhibits from the College, and to provide for the opening of the museum to the public.

After three years diligent voluntary work by the Committee with support from UCC and Cork Corporation, the museum re-opened in Fitzgerald Park in 1945.

To be continued…

Cork Public Museum celebrates its 80^th anniversary with the exhibition 1945 Uncorked: The Founding of Cork Public Museum. This exhibition opens to the public on 30 May and runs until Spring 2026.

Kieran’s historical walking tours for July 2025 (all free, 2 hours, no booking required)

Sunday 13 July 2025, Views from a Park – The Black Ash and Tramore Valley Park historical walking tour; meet at Half Moon Lane gate, 1pm.

Wednesday 16 July 2025, Cork Through the Ages, An Introduction to the Historical Development of Cork City; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 6.30pm.

Thursday 17 July 2025, Sunday’s Well historical walking tour; discover the original well and the eighteenth century origins of the suburb, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge, North Mall end, 6.30pm.

Caption:

1310a. Cork Public Museum Committee 1945 (source: Cork Public Museum).

Cllr Kieran McCarthy continues his series of summer historical walking tours for July with tours of Tramore Valley Park, City Centre and Sunday’s Well. He will conduct a walk across the area of Tramore Valley Park, formerly the Black Ash, on Saturday afternoon, 13 July. The meeting point is the Halfmoon Lane gate, 1pm. The tour is free with a duration of 90 minutes. There is no booking required.   

The Tramore Valley Park tour will explore the development of the area from being a swamp through to being a landfill and then onto being an artificial mound to enable the development of a park. Cllr McCarthy noted: 

“Cork’s Tramore Valley Park is an exciting heritage site. What is great is the rich historical archive of documents and maps, which reveal not only historical development of the immediate area, but also the surrounds of the southern suburbs.

“Historically William Petty’s 1655 map of the city and its environs marks the site of Tramore Valley Park as Ballyphehane townland, a reference to the original local environment and the backing up of the Trabeg and Tramore tributary rivers as they enter the Douglas River channel. We are lucky that there are also really interesting perspectives on the area recorded through the ages, which have been great to research. This is a site where the city’s environment has also been a regular topic of debate across local newspapers and in the city’s council political chamber”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.

Kieran’s historical walking tours for July 2025 (all free, 2 hours, no booking required) 

-Sunday 13 July 2025, Views from a Park – The Black Ash and Tramore Valley Park historical walking tour; meet at Half Moon Lane gate, 1pm.

-Wednesday 16 July 2025, Cork Through the Ages, An Introduction to the Historical Development of Cork City; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 6.30pm.

-Thursday 17 July 2025, Sunday’s Well historical walking tour; discover the original well and the eighteenth century origins of the suburb, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge, North Mall end, 6.30pm.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 19 June 2025

Making an Irish Free State City – The Quest for a Municipal Museum

Continuing on from last week’s article on the early origins of Cork Public Museum, an editorial in the Cork Examiner in the autumn of 1923 noted that Cork Corporation had been discussing the question of acquiring more office accommodation for their staff. What was available in the City Courthouse was over crowded. In 1923 the former City Hall was still a ruin after the Burning of Cork and the Courthouse became the temporary principal municipal offices.

At a committee meeting of the Council on 30 October 1923 a report was submitted with regard to the several premises offered in response to an advertisement issued seeking premises. Prices and accommodation differed considerably.  In particular one building, the Independent Chapel in Oliver Plunket Street, which was discontinued as a place of worship, was offered on specified terms. However, in early December 1923, the Fitzgerald’s Park Municipal Museum building was chosen for retrofitting as temporary office accommodation.

However, public pressure remained from those involved in the heritage sector that the City of Cork should have a public museum. The sentiment was ever present in early 1926 when archaeological discoveries in Aghabullogue in mid County Cork caused several letters to be penned the editor of the Cork Examiner articulating upset that Cork’s heritage had no where to be placed on display. University College Cork was called upon to intercede to provide a space for a museum. Cork City Gaol in Shanakiel, which has been closed by the Free State was also noted as a space for a museum by some interested parties.

Businesses in the city such as Rohu and Sons on the Grand Parade, Cork noted in their letter to the editor; “We have read with interest the correspondence on the above subject [Museum]; also your excellent article in this day’s Examiner, and can fully endorse all that has been said. It is nothing short of a crying shame that a city the size and importance of Cork has, never possessed a Museum of some kind or another to which the citizens, particularly the younger generation, should have access”.

            Fast forward to October 1930 and an editorial in the Cork Examiner highlighted the development of the Cork Industrial and Agricultural Fair on the Straight Road and the building of the new City Library on the Grand Parade and linked such events to the lost opportunity to create momentum to call for the construction of a physical museum building:

“It is a matter for regret that the Corporation, or its subsidiary body, the Library Committee, did not endeavour to make provision for a museum when the site of the new Library was acquired and when the plans for the new building were being drafted. For educative purposes a moderately well-stocked museum can just be as useful as a library. It can also be made a centre for the demonstration of civic pride. Nowhere in Cork can the ordinary resident see much that enlightens him as to the history of the municipality in which, as a member of it, he is expected to take pride. There is no place to which he can take a foreign visitor and show him any records of old Cork, though Cork folk are supposed to take great pride in the fact that their city began eleven or twelve centuries ago. If any antiquity be dug up when streets are being re-made, there is the probability that it will find its way to Dublin, or, at any rate, become inaccessible to masses of the citizens. old Cork, though Cork folk are supposed to take great pride in the fact that their city began eleven or twelve centuries ago. If any antiquity be dug up when streets are being re-made, there is the probability that it will find its way to Dublin, or, at any rate, become inaccessible to masses of the citizens”.

In mid-March 1935 a letter from a Cork citizen Mr G Barrett, Cook Street, suggested that the former museum premises in Fitzgerald’s Park, when vacated by the Corporation officials for their new quarters in the City Hall, should be given over to the purposes of a city museum. The writer suggested that there were numerous items connected with former Lord Mayors, etc., that could be housed in such a museum. The suggestion did not gather momentum.

In late March 1939 following the annual meeting of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, and a talk by Commander O’Connell, a well-known archaeologist on the archaeological excavation work that was being pursued in Kerry, Professor Seán Ó Riordáin of UCC’s Archaeology Department offered thanks for the talk. The Cork Examiner outlined that Seán also noted that his Department had a small museum in the College for the purpose of teaching, but he argued that the city deserves a museums and noted “it is a slur on Cork that there is no public museum”. He added that if a museum was founded it would have to be properly financed and properly run. He thought that the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society should endeavour to awaken public opinion on the matter. He noted; “I have looked into the question as regards other countries and I have found that Cork is one of the few cities in Europe that has not got a museum and there are cities with a smaller population in both England and Germany, which have some very fine museums”. 

In April 1942, a number of citizens, not drawn from any one section of Cork’s community life, met informally to discuss the feasibility of establishing a permanent museum for the city and county. As a result of the favourable views expressed, the Cork Examiner described that a small committee was appointed to go into detail and to invite the co-operation of all who felt that Cork, like other centres of population, ought to have a museum. A deputation was appointed to visit the Lord Mayor and members of Cork Corporation. They reported back that they were received most sympathetically. The question was then referred to the Council’s General Purposes Committee and a concrete plan for submission to the main Council body was initiated.

To be continued…

Cork Public Museum celebrates its 80th anniversary with the exhibition 1945 Uncorked: The Founding of Cork Public Museum. This exhibition opens to the public on 30 May and runs until Spring 2026.

June 2025 Historical Walking Tours with Kieran (All free, two hours, no booking required).

Saturday afternoon, 21 June, Ballinlough – Antiquities, Knights, Quarries   and   Suburban Growth; meet inside Ballintemple Graveyard, Temple Hill, opp O’Connor’s Funeral Home, 1pm.

Sunday afternoon, 22 June, Blackpool: Its History and Heritage; meet at the square on St Mary’s Road, opp North Cathedral, 1pm.

Caption:

1309a. Museum Studies students and staff from University College Cork opening their 1945 Uncorked exhibition. Cllr Kieran McCarthy deputised for the Lord Mayor (picture: Cork Public Museum).