Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 11 July 2013

Technical Memories (Part 59) – Serving a City

Standing recently in the sculpture gallery of the Crawford Art Gallery, the William Crawford statue provided the podium setting for the final public gathering to mark and remember the work of the work of the Cork City Vocational Educational Committee. As this column works through the work of the former Crawford Municipal Technical Institute and its connection to the VEC through the years, it is also appropriate to mark the end of the VEC era this week.

After 84 years of service to communities across Ireland the 33 remaining VECs finally ended their long and illustrious journey on 1 July 2013 when they ceased to exist and were replaced by 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs).  Standing under the William Crawford statue in the sculpture gallery, the City of Cork VEC Ted Owens introduced the speakers for the event. Perhaps what was apt was that the William Crawford statue came from the boardroom of the Cork Savings Bank in February 1958, the same month the VEC opened offices in the Crawford Art Gallery.

Lord Mayor, Cllr Catherine Clancy, commented on the interconnections between the past and present functions of the Crawford Art Gallery.  The building has been built over the past 300 years in four different sections, for different functional reasons. Yet it still manages to be married seamlessly into one coherent unit. Higher education establishments grew out of the building. In 1827, the old Custom House was given to the Royal Cork Institution, with the object of “diffusing knowledge and the application of science to the common purposes in life”. The institution campaigned for and was successful in seeing Queen’s College Cork established and opened by 1849.

Part of the custom house became a Government School of Design in 1850 and a magnificent extension, housing studios and galleries were added in 1884 to accommodate the growing number of students. The school was re-named the Crawford School of Art under the stewardship of the Technical Instruction Committee in 1899 and in another part the Crawford Art Gallery opened.

In 1930, the Technical Instruction Committee was replaced by the Vocational Education Committee, and the City of Cork VEC continued to operate the School of Art until 1979, when the transfer of the Old Crawford Technical Institute to the new Regional Technical College (RTC) in Bishopstown allowed it to move to Sharman Crawford Street. In 1993, the VEC was divested of the RTC, College of Art and School of Music to create another third-level educational body, the Cork Institute of Technology. Over the next six years, the committee, despite falling second level enrolments, managed to nearly double its full-time enrolments to almost 6,000 students by offering a range of new and exciting Further Education Courses. So successful had the VEC been in the this area that the first purpose further education college in Ireland was St John’s College of Further Education College. In 2000, the Crawford Gallery further expanded its gallery space by creating a new exhibition wing. Continued staff growth had meant that the VEC administration was scattered over a number of locations in the city and in 2006 also, these were combined in new headquarters in Lavitt’s Quay, freeing up more space for the gallery.

Cllr Jim Corr, the key note speaker, spoke about the ongoing and progressive contributions of the VEC to the provision of diverse aspects of education and training for all sections of the city’s communities. He noted that: “the records of this VEC show that a great cross-section of people; from the world of politics, teaching, commerce and community development have been members of this committee and have promoted progressive initiatives, designed to enhance the personal lives of individual people and to advance the economic, social and cultural life of our city”.

Cllr Corr has been a member of the City of Cork VEC for 39 years. He detailed that when he joined the committee, it was in the process of purchasing an expansive 44 acre site in Bishopstown for what today is the Cork Institute of Technology. In time new second level schools were built – for boys on Tramore Road called Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, the Nagle College in Mahon and for boys and girls in MacSwiney College in Knocknaheeny. A Gael Colaiste, Colaiste Daibhéad, was established, which had numerous homes but is now located just off the South Terrace. Outreach centres were established for early school leavers, a school for the training of the travelling community, educational services in Cork prison and the committee assisted in the establishment and operation of youth and sports centres throughout the city. They also put in place provisions to assist people who were experiencing problems with literacy and numeracy. They were also one of the first pioneering VEC’s to introduce the concept of “Further Education”. The concept is about to become an independent sector in the overall national provision for education and training.

Cllr Corr also praised the work of former CEOs, Paddy Parfrey and Dick Langford and current CEO Ted Owens and former and present day administration and teaching staff. He wished that the “spirit of co-operation and commitment to people” and their educational and training needs would be characteristic of the new Educational Training Boards.

To be continued…

Caption:

699a. City of Cork VEC administration staff, posing for an official photograph, Crawford Art Gallery, 27 June 2013 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)