Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,
Cork Independent, 17 July 2014
“Technical Memories (Part 83) –Stylising the Landscape”
“Outside the little stream, where the cart wheels were shod I meandered idly by. And the circular platform was still in place. It looked as if the owner had one day got weary of the struggle…then he closed the doors of the little social centre, where the neighbours had met and discussed happenings, far and near, through the generations…some of the craft had survived by adapting their forge to the art of welding and the repair of the new agricultural machinery used in farming: but they were only a minority” (John T Collins, “The Deserted Forge”, Hollybough, 1963).
In October 1967, as related in last week’s column, Taoiseach Jack Lynch at the opening of the £2m investment into the Ford Factory on the Marina marked not only change for Ford but also for the motoring population. Lynch during his address related that his government had to cut back on the country’s loss making railway system and spent vast sums on the Irish road networks; “we have had to impose speed limits and complicated systems of traffic control in our towns and cities, while the need to cater for the projected increase in car numbers has been a major factor in the planning of future towns and rural development”. Newspapers like the Hollybough (see above quote), the Cork Examiner and Evening Echo commented on change regularly since the first motor car rolled across the Cork street in the 1910s all the way through to the problem of parking and traffic movement in the 1960s. One I came across recently was the installation of the first set of traffic lights in July 1954 at the junction of Washington Street and the Grand Parade (60 years old since this installation this month). Erected by Messrs Siemens, London, the lights were of a similar type to those being used in some other Irish cities, except that in Cork pedestrian lights were introduced to work in conjunction with the regular lights.
Car dealerships spread and grew with the growth of Irish motoring and there were 87 main Ford dealers in the country in 1966. Fords could record that 11,041 out of 39,546 new car owners chose one of the 12 cars Ford had to offer. The Ford Cortina, introduced in 1962, during its production run was the biggest selling model ever on the Irish market. Next on the range were the Ford Corsair and the Ford Anglia followed by the new range of Ford Zephyr and Ford Zodiac models. The Cork Examiner in October 1967 commented on their affect on the urban and rural landscapes of the country; “Mechanical refinements of independent rear suspension, along with sophisticated styling.. these new cars have become as much of the social scene as their imposing size and impressive appearance would suggest”.
Then there was the sister factory Dagenham in east London, which was the largest motor exporting factory in the world. The first vehicle, a Model AA truck, rolled off its production line in October 1931. In the post war years Dagenham turned its interests to the revolutionary Consul and Zephyr range of cars. Major expansion in the 1950s increased floor space by 50% and doubled production. By 1953 the site occupied four million square feet and employed 40,000 people. An article in the Hollybough in 1954 related that 75 per cent of the Irish in the Dagenham area, circa a total of 3,300 men, were employed there. An old North Monastery boy, Michael J Ronayne, with more than 30 years experience with the company in Cork and Dagenham, was the Chief Engineer in Europe of the Ford organisation. His brother jack was engineer in charge of the building of Gurranabraher and Spangle Hill houses.
As the swinging 60s took hold, Dagenham moved on to a car destined to become one of the favourites – the Ford Cortina. By the time the last Cortina left the line in 1982, the plant had built over three million. In Cork and Dagenham and further afield, Ford technologists, in the search for higher standards, contacted Swedish experts in industrial ventilation and air-handling, Svenska Fläktfabriken. They were world leaders in the complex problems of mining ventilation, they took up a leading role in the equally difficult task of providing the highly specialised conditions for car-body finishing.
The opening of the Cork factory extension in 1967 coincided with ceremonies celebrating the advent of first a tractor factory which sent machines to all parts of the world. With such heritage, service was also of vital importance to the farming community. The ready availability of spare parts from the 38 Ford Tractor Dealers strategically placed throughout Ireland ensured rapid and efficient service for owners and operators of Ford Tractors. In addition, the Agricultural Colleges National Ploughing Championships were initiated in 1966 and sponsored by Henry Ford & Son Ltd., Cork with the intention of stimulating interest in a wider understanding of the skills and values of good ploughing and tillage methods. Prizes of £300 and £150 were awarded to the winners of the Championships. After competitors from all the agricultural colleges had completed qualifying tests under National Ploughing Association rules the successful candidates contested the finals at the National Ploughing Championships.
To be continued…
Captions:
751a. Consul Cortina Ad 1962 (source: Cork City Library)