Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Ballintemple Historical Walking Tour
Thursday 10 October 2013
With the autumnal weather quickly coming in, change can be seen on The Marina’s trees with a mirth of colour beginning to form. I have been researching a new walking tour of the adjacent Ballintemple area for a while (Saturday, 12 October, 2pm, meet at Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free).
It forms part of a set of ten tours I’ve developed in this side of the city, an experiment in one way in one corner of the city before beginning to look at other suburbs. There are several suburban local history books within the local studies in Cork City but there a feeling on the ground that much of the history remains unexplored. Each tour I try to focus on the significance of landmarks, such as big houses, modern housing, graveyards, monuments, churches and in Ballintemple’s case convents as well but also telling the story through archives such as government reports, diaries, census reports, statistical reports, sketches, maps oral histories and even headstones.
Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knights Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”. The graveyard is impressive in its collection of eighteenth century and nineteenth century headstones. It has a series of low uninscribed gravemarkers in its south east corner. There are also many inscribed headstones with smiling faces with one inscribed with Remember Death. The graveyard remains an undiscovered corner of the city with much of its family histories unresearched and unpublished.
There is also much to discover within a short space in Ballintemple and its role in the wider city as an architectural conservation area. Various architectural styles can be noted Norman, Gothic, Renaissance, Georgian, Victorian, Italianiate, French, and Oriental. The houses can boast such architects such as Bro Michael Riordan, Sir John Benson, Deanes, Morrisons, Richard Brash, Hargraves, Walkers and the Hills. The architectural DNA comprises local stone, sand, brick, slates from Killaloe, Rosscarbery and Wales, timber from Canada and Scandinavia, cement from Portland in England and ironwork for railings obtained from Scottish foundries.
In the nineteenth century there was an increasing tendency in Cork for the middle classes to live in suburban homes and for the work-place to be separate. Your social circle saw your house a lot. It was important that the house was impressive that is was designed in the latest fashion. The house of a successful Victorian family was more than merely a home. It was a statement of their taste, wealth, and education. The Victorians drew deeply from history, nature, geometry, theory, and personal inspiration to create their designs. At the top end of the market, builders employed employ a reputable architect. Private Houses were an important status symbol – detached house allowed privacy, comfort, convenience, spaciousness, order and warmth. There was an increasing diversity in house styles, a detached big house to a row of terraced houses. Many interiors were done in the grand manner reflecting their owners and builders. Interiors of the Renaissance mode included smooth plastered walls often in light colours, marble fireplaces usually with heavy gold mirrors above, elaborate ceiling cornices, elaborate pediments over doors, frescoed ceilings, and chandeliers.
West of Ballintemple on Blackrock Road, the area also has the presence of personal monuments. For example Daniel McCarthy erected the McCarthy Monument near the former Diamond Hill quarry (a quarry of white quarts or rock crystal. It was built in honour of his brother Alexander McCarthy in 1871. Alexander was a junior, Butter Merchant plus was an MP for Cork in 1846 and became High Sheriff of the County in 1856. McCarthy was a fine public speaker and a supporter of Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal movement. He died on 2 January 1868. The memorial, a column of limestone, 25 feet tall, was designed by William B Atkins. Richard Evans built the monument and the sculptor was Samuel Murphy. Bronze plaques, showing scenes from the history of the McCarthy clan, have been lost from the monument over the years.
As for the architect William Atkins, he was was born at Firville, near Mallow, circa 1812. Between 1845 and 1869 Atkins entered at least thirteen architectural competitions, gaining first place in five of them. In time he became a prominent architect in Cork and further afield in Co Kerry. Some of his prominent works include The District Lunatic Asylum on Lee Road (1847-1852), the priory at Mary’s Dominican Church on Pope’s Quay (1861), the completion of the interior of Holy Trinity Church (1850), St Marie’s of the Isle Convent of Mercy (1850), St Patrick’s Orphanage, Greenmount (1855), and the Lindville Private Lunatic Asylum (1855 and which is part of the walking tour) and the base of the statue of John Hogan’s Fr Mathew Statue on St Patrick’s Street (1864).
Caption:
712a. Ballintemple Graveyard (picture: Kieran McCarthy)