Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 17 January 2013
“Technical Memories (Part 40) –Matters of Efficiency”
“The latest scheme of 148 buildings, on the Capwell site, off the Douglas Road are now all but ready for inhabiting. A further scheme of 115 houses at Evergreen and Curragh Road is definitely contemplated and is expected to be soon undertaken. The average rents of these houses, Mr Monahan intimated, would be from 11s to 12s per week, and this rent would apply to the cheapest class of dwelling house, with four or five rooms, and built in twos and threes” (Cork Examiner editorial, 16 November 1927).
One year after Cork: A Civic Survey (1926) was published, certainly the ideas within it had been embraced by City Commissioner Philip Monahan who led the city in light of the Council, the councillors themselves, being dismissed. In terms of Capwell Road, Philip Monahan outlined in an editorial in the Cork Examiner on 16 November 1927 that building long straight rows or terraces would mean a little saving in the original expense of erection. The lay-out costs could also be somewhat further reduced by limiting the size of the gardens, a restriction which in building layouts at that time was not desirable. Every house built by the Corporation under their previous schemes had at least half a rood of garden attached, and this was quite a consideration for the occupier to want.
According to Monahan, the income from capital on building investments had been set down as 8 1/3 per cent, so that the annual rent would equal one twelfth of the cost of building. The basis of reckoning also worked out that the cost of the house should be twice the annual wage, and taking the average wage in Cork City as being 50s per week, or £130 per annum, this would mean that the cost of a house for the average wage-earner should be £260 in order that it might be let at a reasonable rent. However, Monahan pointed out that £200 would not build even a three-roomed house at that time. The lowest contract price submitted to him for the erection of three-roomed houses averaged £429 and five roomed £601. These figures did not include acquisition of land, laying out of ground, making roads and footpaths and architect’s fees. In his opinion, the only way in which building costs could be reduced would be that labour should do one of three things-either work longer hours, accept lower rates of wages or give a greater output or agree on a combination of all three.
Efficiency seemed also to be the theme amongst the committee overseeing technical instruction in the city. Indeed in early October 1927, they clashed with Philip Monahan over assistance he gave them through his city engineer Stephen Farrington over the repair of the roof in the School of Commerce on the South Mall. The committee noted that the assistance ran over the estimate given by Monahan and they wrote to him asking for reasons why. In a stern letter back, Monahan was unhappy with the thankless letter and for several months, both sides were unhappy with events as outlined in technical instruction committee meetings.
In early October 1927 as well, the Cumann na Gaedhael government under W T Cosgrave was returned to lead the Irish Free State. There was much debate in the papers at the time on what the future of Ireland should be like. Indeed, perhaps one of the most interesting insights into the ideas of educationalists on Irish society at the time came from Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, UCC. On 10 October 1927, the opening lecture of the session 1927-28 to the members of the Economic and Literary Society of the Cork Municipal School of Commerce, was delivered in the lecture hall of the School of Art by Professor O’Rahilly. Entitled Efficiency, it was a critique on the social mobility of Ireland to embrace a positive future at that time. O’Rahilly was a Professor of Mathematical Physics. During the Irish War of Independence, he was supporter of Sinn Féin and was interned on Spike Island for his political writings. In October 1921 he was constitutional adviser to the Irish Treaty Delegation. O’Rahilly supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and in 1922 he composed a draft constitution for the Irish Free State with Darrell Figgis.
In his 1927 speech Professor O’Rahilly in his opening section spoke about opportunities: “In this country very often they [citizens] heard it said that they had not got opportunities. Of course that was true, but it was not enough to provide the opportunities; they must also have a mentality in order to avail of them. They must have efficiency; mere institutions were not enough. The fundamental of efficiency was aliveness; efficiency meant an intensive doing of a thing, the power of bringing one’s mind to bear on the point. This might seem very easy but in his experience in life it was very rare. Most people he had met in life, he believed, lived in a permanent state of distraction. They were never wholly in command of their energies, not wholly asleep, and not wholly awake, but in a life long dose”.
To be continued…
Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89
Caption:
674a. Capwell Road, October 1927 (source: Cork City Library)