Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 

Cork Independent, 3 October 2012 

“Technical Memories (Part 29) Passing under a Shadow”

“It has been a triumph for Ireland and there is no part of it which has proved itself with more success than the statutory committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction… at a time when the name of Ireland is passing under a shadow, a shadow from which it will emerge, I point to this actual experience, taking the rough with the smooth, during more than twenty-five years of our committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction” ( Thomas Patrick Gill, Department Secretary, Cork Examiner, 10 April 1923, p.8).

Returning to the theme in this column of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, it continued to function during the Irish War of Independence. Certainly the reports that exist in the journals of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction focus more on food shortages and the efforts to turn the sod of 800,000 acres into a national food supply. Very little documentation survives to tell the story of the Institute during those years straddling the 1910s and early 1920s. Nationally, during the Irish War of Independence, the consequences were a shortage of teachers and the slowing down of the building of technical school projects across the country. Students continued to attend the Cork institute. A reference at an annual award ceremony highlighted that in the mechanical engineering section, 240 sat examinations, 63 per cent of which were successful.

It is recorded that during the Irish Civil War that part the national army was stationed at the Institute during August and September 1922. A claim was furnished to the government by the Institute’s governing committee looking for compensation, of which £200 was sent on at the end of 1923. The National Army, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Free State army, was the army of the Irish Free State from January 1922 until October 1924. Its role in this period was defined by its service in the Irish Civil War, in defence of the institutions established by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Michael Collins, was the army’s first chief of staff from its establishment until his death in August 1922. The National Army was greatly expanded in size to fight the civil war against the anti-Treaty IRA, in a mostly counter-insurgency campaign that was brought to a successful conclusion in May 1923.

Reports during the last six months of 1923 reveals insights to large scale damage during the Civil War to the city and county’s infrastructure, everything from glass in street lamps to the damage of railway lines. A reference at a Corporation of Cork Committee in early June 1923 highlight that 650 panes of glass on lamps had been broken . The secretary of the Cork Chamber of Commerce, M. O’Herlihy, in his annual report in November 1923, writes about the affects of the prolongation of industrial disputes in the city and the destruction of key trunk roads and railway bridges leading to millions of pounds lost to the local economy. Farmers, cattle traders, manufacturers, merchants and workers were being hit in their pockets finacially. For example owing to the prolonged delay in the rebuilding of Mallow Railway Bridge, the Cork Chamber pioneered the movement for the speeding up of plans, specifications and contracts for its reconstruction. The old service of trains from Cork to Dublin was restored on the Cork-Dublin line, and the break at Mallow no longer increased the cost of transport of goods.

However, business was as usual in the Crawford Technical Institute. Mr. D. Daly used the Technical Institute during the month of July 1923 for Irish classes for National Teachers.  The result of Cork Corporation’s University Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering was revealed, with Jermiah O’Mahony of Douglas Road received the highest number of marks for the scholarship. There were six candidates. A debate took place on a scheme of schools visits by City students to the School of Art, the Technical Institute, and the Museum of the University College. In 1922, five hundred pupils from primary and secondary schools of the city paid visits to the latter sites. However, the Institute had to suspend the programme due to the Civil War. There was also a fear amongst schools that the programme would interfere with the school hours and place an additional burden on teachers. The scheme was purely voluntary but had sanctioning from the Education Department. It was to take place on Friday afternoons. Mr Daly outlined: “The idea was to bring the children of Cork into vital touch with their surroundings – to make them feel that they are our future citizens and that it is their duty and interest to know something about its history, its geography, its art, its music, its commerce and its educational institutions. We must train our young people to fix their attention on their own country and to give up the habit of constantly looking eastwards to England for light and guidance”.

To be continued…

Cork Docklands Historical Walking Tour with Kieran this Saturday, 6 October, leaving at 2pm from Shalom Park (playground), in front of Bord Gáis. Also applications are still been taken for the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2012/13, see www.corkheritage.ie

Caption:

661a. Repaired viaduct over Douglas estuary, Cork Blackrock and Passage Railway Line c.1923 (source: Cork City Library)