Kieran’s Heritage Week Events (18-25 August 2012),
Our City, Our Town, Cork Independent, 16 August 2012
National Heritage Week is upon us again next week (18th – 25th August). It’s going to be a busy week. I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below.
Saturday 18 August 2012, Historical walking tour of Cork City Hall as part of Cork Heritage Open Day, 10.30am; meet in foyer of old building, Learn about the early history of Cork City Council, Discover the development of the building and visit the Lord Mayor’s Room (duration: 1 ¼ hours; free but ticketed, contact The Everyman Palace, 0214501673, www.corkheritageopenday.ie). One of the most splendid buildings in the city is Cork City Hall. The current structure, replaced the old City Hall, which was destroyed in the ‘burning of Cork’ in 1920. It was designed by Architects Jones and Kelly and built by the Cork Company Sisks. The foundation stone was laid by Eamonn de Valera, President of the Executive Council of the State on 9 July 1932. The building was formerly opened by Eamonn DeValera on 8 September, 1936. The building is designed on classic lines to harmonise with the examples of eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture. The facades are of beautiful silver limestone from the Little Island quarries.
Saturday 18 August 2012, Memories of the Lee Valley; historical exhibition; Discover some of the rich histories and memories of the River Lee valley. All day, as part of Water Heritage Open Day, Lifetime Lab, Lee Road, free event.
Monday 20 August 2012, Historical walking tour of Cork City; meet at St Finbarre’s Cathedral, 11am; discover the early origins of the City, learn about Cork’s development across a swamp and as a port (duration: two hours).
Tuesday 21 August 2012, Historical walking tour of Blackpool; meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 11am; Explore the rich history of the area from Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool; learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries (duration: 2 hours). The walking tour weaves its way from the North Mon into Blackpool, Shandon and Gurranbraher highlighting nineteenth century life in this corner of Cork from education to housing to politics, to religion, to industry and to social life itself.
Blackpool was the scene of Industry in Cork in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for industries such as tanning through big names such as Dunn’s Tannery and distilling through families as the Hewitts. The leather industry at one vibrant in Blackpool with no fewer than 46 tanyards at work there in 1837 giving employment to over 700 hands and tanning on average 110,000 hides annually. Blackpool also has other messages about relief in the form of the former Poor House site at Murphy’s Brewery to Madden’s Buildings to highlighting the work of Ireland’s social reformers through street names such as William O’Brien, Gerald Griffin, Daniel O’Connell and Tomas McCurtain. All these messages inject the place with memories of difficult times but also times of determination to survive against the odds.
Thursday 23 August 2012, Douglas historical walking tour; meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 11am; Discover Douglas and its industrial heritage (duration: 2 hours). The story of Douglas and its environs is in essence a story of experimentation, of industry and of people and social improvement. As early as the late thirteenth century King John of England made a grant of parcels of land, near the city of Cork to Philip de Prendergast. On 1 June 1726, Douglas sailcloth factory was begun to be built. Samuel Perry and Francis Carleton became the first proprietors, who were part of a colony of weavers from Fermanagh. The eighteenth century was the last golden age for wooden sailing ships, before the 1800s made steam and iron prerequisites for modern navies and trading fleets. It was a golden age too for maritime exploration, with the voyages of James Cook amongst others opening up the Pacific and the South Seas. Douglas in its own way added in part to this world of exploration.
Friday 24 August 2012, St Finbarr’s Hospital and the workhouse tour; meet at entrance to the hospital, 11am; learn about the life and times of the former nineteenth century workhouse on Douglas Road (duration: 2 hours). The workhouse, which opened in December 1841, was an isolated place – built beyond the toll house and toll gates, which gave entry to the city and which stood just below the end of the wall of St. Finbarr’s Hospital in the vicinity of the junction of the Douglas, and Ballinlough Roads. The Douglas Road workhouse was also one of the first of over 130 workhouses to be designed by the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson.
Saturday 25 August 2012, Views from a Park, Historical walking tour through the site of the new regional park, formerly the Kinsale Road Landfill, 11am, free event, car parking on site, meet at central marquee (duration: 1 ½ hours; (part of an open day with Cork City Council). More on this next week and updates on facebook, Cork: Our City, Our Town.
Caption:
654a. Saint George slaying the dragon, atop old Steam Packet Office, Penrose Quay (picture: Kieran McCarthy)