Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 1 November 2012

“Technical Memories (Part 33) –Crossroad Narratives”

As the Crawford Municipal Technical College voiced their concerns about funding in the mid 1920s, other stories of interest in the Cork Examiner are also perhaps worth highlighting, especially those that give insights into political attitudes at the time.  Exploring the Technical Institute in the autumn of 1924 in the newspapers, I was intrigued to find material on the campaign for a World War I memorial on the South Mall.

On Wednesday 6 August 1924, a deputation from the Independent Ex-Servicemen’s Association appeared before Cork Corporation’s Public Work’s Committee meeting for the purpose of obtaining permission to erect on a site, to be selected, a monument to the memory to the men of Cork City who died in the Great War.  Mr. J. O’Callaghan, who led the delegation said that he had no need to say many words to commend such a project; “At the beginning of the Great War, Ireland was called upon to play her part and she took a noble and honourable part. Her old ally, France, was in danger- France, where Irishmen always found a refuge. They took their part in the fight for small nationalities”. Continuing he noted that some of the young men who fell in the war were his comrades and playmates. If a monument was erected in Cork, “it would show all the world that Ireland had done her part when called upon, and not shirked”. He suggested as a site for the monument the corner of Wintrop Street as the most central position in the city. The chairman of the committee added that he did not think, there was any need to hear the other members of the deputation or to labour the matter further. The motion was proposed and seconded by the councillors present, and plans and other details were to be submitted for the engineering officials to report on.

The Lord Mayor Seán French, then entered late into the meeting, and argued that the monument project was a very delicate one. He was one of those who thought that the men who died in the Great War would, if they had got their chance, fought in Ireland for Ireland in 1921. He noted that he was not going to take away from any tribute to the dead, but he wanted to see a proper plan. He noted that “the European war was not theirs; alot of their men gave their lives in what they thought was the defence of small nations, and the first test of the sincerity of the ideal was in Ireland. This was not certainly carried out with sufficient justice to the men who fought for that ideal. The memory of England’s justice was the burning of part of the city and the Municipal Buildings”. He added that he would be very slow to make a monument to the memory of the English nation. In conclusion the Lord Mayor said he was not going to have his name associated with anything with anything to “perpetuate the memory of England’s tyranny in Cork”.

M.J. O’Riordan said he was not there to “uphold England’s banner”. He was there in the cause of the men who gave their lives in the “fight for humanity against tyranny and infidelity”. He was one of the men, “honoured by the Republican Corporation to form a guard of honour”, over the body of the Brixton martyr-Terence McSwiney. He added that when bringing the body across to Cork the men who were prominent and “fearless in wearing the badge of the Republic in England” were the Munster Fusiliers. Despite the Lord Mayor’s intervention the majority of the Council voted the motion for the monument through.

Two months later at a meeting of the Public Works Committee of the Cork Corporation in mid October 1924, C.L. Hare of the City Engineer’s department reported that there were two alternative sites suggested for the erection of the Great War monument. The first place was on Parnell Place whilst the second was on the South Mall. Owing to the existence of a large archway or culvert throughout the length of the roadway at Parnell Place, the erection of the monument at any of the three points suggested was not desirable, as its weight could in all probability seriously damage if not cause the collapse of the then archway.  At the second site at a park on the South Mall, a monument could be self contained within the boundaries of the park itself and there was no question on the obstruction of traffic. The monument was erected in 1925.

In today’s context, the Cork Branch of the Western Front Association will present an evening on Friday 9 November (start 7.30pm) of remembrance in music, song and story to remember the 4,000 servicemen with Cork connections who died in the Great War. Tickets are €10 and can be purchased from the Triskel Arts Centre or online. Proceeds will be in aid of Cork Penny Dinners. The Cork Branch will also hold its annual Service of Remembrance at the War Memorial on the South Mall, Cork, at 10.45 a.m. on Saturday, 10 November.

To be continued…

Caption:

665a. Great War Memorial, South Mall, Present Day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)