Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 24 April 2014
“Technical Memories (Part 78) – The Prosperous Region”
“Altogether the capital investment in the Cork area during the last two years exceeds £20m and factories under construction or already planned involve further capital expenditure of some £8m. It is significant that much of this investment includes capital which came from foreign sources in Britain, the USA, Holland, Germany, and France. In no other part of the State has such a considerable industrial development taken place” (John J Horgan, The Irish Times, 17 October 1961).
The eighty-year-old John J Horgan, Chairman of the Cork Harbour Commissioners wrote at length in his Irish Times editorial of 1961 describing the remarkable development which took place in the previous years. He had been chairman of the Commissioners for 35 years and had played his own part in developing the bustling port. He was an authority on Irish history, a lawyer and writer, and chairman of a company that had department stores in Cork and Belfast. In his 1961 editorial he describes the key developments of late 1950s – the Cork ESB plants (hydro and steam), Whitegate Oil Refinery, Verolme Dockyard, Gouldings Fertilisers – these were all large scale industrial projects, which brought Cork industry to a whole new level of expansion. In addition to the large developments, smaller factories had been built in Cork, on the Kinsale Road. These included Kincora Carpets Ltd., O’Brien Brothers (Spinners) Ltd., and Seafield Fabrics, Ltd. Additions had also been made by 1961 to the large Sunbeam-Wolsey factory in Blackpool, Harringtons and Goodlass, Wall, Ltd, and the Cork Shoe Factory, Ltd.
There were also several developments of note in County Cork. Cor-Tex Proofers, Ltd were producing for upholstery and similar use. A flourishing pottery at Carrigaline, which was in existence for many years, had transformed the district economically, and had manufactured earthenware and tiles. In Youghal there were several textile factories, subsidiaries of Sunbeam-Wolsey. In Kinsale a fish cannery under French management, an American cotton clothing factory, and a German metal works had successfully started operation, while at Bantry an English firm had opened a factory for the manufacture of clothes dryers and washing machines. There were factories that were started at Mallow, one by the Irish Sugar Company for the accelerated freeze-drying of food, and another by the Borden Company of America for the production of dried milk.
Industrial expansion also had a knock on affect on the population of Cork City and suburbs, which was 115,506, being an increase of 3,000 as compared with 1951. Since the end of the war Cork Corporation had built 3,485 houses, mainly in new housing estates around the city’s edges. In 1961, the plan was to build another thousand houses in the early 1960s. A modern public lighting system had been installed. North Gate Bridge or Griffith’s Bridge was rebuilt on an enlarged scale at a cost of £70,000. Two new reservoirs were constructed to increase and improve the city’s water supply. A proposal by the Corporation to bring the suburbs within the city boundary was under consideration at a local government inquiry.
John Horgan in his editorial also highlighted infrastructural developments in the Port of Cork. The Harbour Commissioners during the previous ten years had improved facilities. In 1919 the Cork Harbour Commissioners acquired from the Board of Trade 153 acres of slobland at Tivoli for the purpose of pumping dredged material ashore, thus creating new land for industrial purposes. This happened over several decades. In the early 1950s oil storage depots were developed on the site. A further ten acres were made available for development circa 1960. The principal quays in the city were reconstructed and renewed. The reconstruction of the South Deep Water Quay involved providing re-inforced concrete as well as riverside railway sidings, cranes and mechanised grain discharging plant for the rapid unloading of ships into railway wagons of the adjacent mills. The reconstruction of Anderson’s Quay and the North Custom House Quay was completed as well as the construction of the North Deep Water Quay, which included the provision of a swinging basin. In 1961 the river channel to Cork was in the process of being deepened to a minimum depth of 18 feet at low water, and it was planned to increase this depth to 20 feet at low water.
A complete survey of the lower harbour, led to a major improvement in the entrance channels been made. Two modern tenders were built to service the Atlantic liners. The cost of these improvements was over £1.6m and was financed out of the Commissioners’ own resources with the aid of government grants amounting to near £900,000. In 1960 the total tonnage entering the port of Cork, including liners and tankers, was just over 4 million tons. These were not only the highest annual tonnage figures ever in the history of the port but also the highest total tonnage entering any port in the Republic during that year. In his editorial, Horgan commented on the tonnage figures, which to him reflected not only the prosperity of Cork and its hinterland, but also the growing importance of the harbour; he noted; “In large part this increased prosperity is due to the enterprise, intelligence and courage of the people of Cork”.
Caption:
738a. Aerial photograph of Cork Docks, 1968 (Source: Cork City Library)