Archive, Kieran’s Community Programme

McCarthy’s History in Action in association with Ballinlough’s Our Lady of Lourdes National School summer fair will take place at the school on Sunday 9 June 2013 between 2pm and 5pm. The re-enactment event, supported by Cllr Kieran McCarthy, brings history alive for all the family, with the participation of re-enactment groups, storytellers and more.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “The vision for the afternoon is one of encouraging community participation.  Join re-enactors to honour the past, where there is much to learn, as one helps build the future; I am encouraging people to actively engage with life around them, as well as examine the history that brought us here. I believe that growth and transformation in society is affected positively by respecting our heritage in this way”.

This year I bring the summer walking tours of Cork City centre back during the month of June, on Tuesday evenings (11^th, 18^th, 25^th), and Friday evening, 14^th. The tours begin at the National Monument on the Grand Parade, at 7pm on those evenings and explore the City Centre’s early development on a swamp. The tour costs e.10 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening. Further information if needed can be attained from me at 0876553389.

-  Historical Walking Tour of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Saturday, 22 June, 12 noon 

On Saturday, 22 June, the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital will be holding its annual garden party from 1.30 to 4.30 pm. As part of a whole series of events planned, Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites the general public to take part in a historical walking tour of St. Finbarre’s Hospital at 12noon.  (meet at gate; the event is free as part of Cllr McCarthy’s community work). 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.  -  -

- Historical Walking Tour of Docklands, Friday evening, 28 June, 7pm

 The second tour is the following Friday evening, 28 June at 7pm of Cork Docklands (free) at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road. Special focus will be given on marking the fiftieth anniversary of John F Kennedy coming to Cork and getting Freeman of the City on 28 June 1963. He left Cork by helicopter from the park now named after him. The tour will also take in Albert Road/ Jewtown/ Hibernian Buildings and the city’s docks.

 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour, 27 July 2013

As part of ongoing community project into the local history of the south-east ward, Cllr Kieran McCarthy will conduct a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village on Saturday 27 July 2013, 2pm, leaving from Blackrock Castle (approx 2 hours, free event). 

Heritage Open Day

Saturday 17 August 2013 – Historical Walking Tour of City Hall with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Learn about the early history of Cork City Council, Discover the development of the building and visit the Lord Mayor’s Room, 11am, ticketed (free, duration: 75 minutes).

Heritage Week:

Sunday 18 August 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City (new tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy), explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Monday 19 August 2013 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour  with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover the City’s richly historical quarter, learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of butter market and the Shandon Street area, meet North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Tuesday 20 August 2013- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Thursday 22 August 2013 – From a Workhouse to a Hospital, The Story of St Finbarr’s Hospital with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover the history of the workhouse, meet at entrance gate, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Friday 23 August 2013, “Where the future and the past meet, A historical walking tour of Mahon, to mark the 100^th anniversary of Dunlocha Cottages” (new tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy), Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes, Mahon, 7pm (free, duration: 1 ½ hours)

Sunday 25 August 2013,  Douglas Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours)

Historical Walking Tour of Ballintemple (new), Saturday 12 October 2013

 Group picture: http://kieranmccarthy.ie/?p=10053

Cllr Kieran McCarthy new historical walking tour of Ballintemple takes place (Saturday, 12 October, 2pm, meet at Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free). It forms part of a set of ten tours that he has developed in this side of the city. Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knight’s Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”. The graveyard is impressive in its collection of eighteenth century and nineteenth century headstones. It has a series of low uninscribed gravemarkers in its south east corner. There are also many inscribed headstones with smiling faces with one inscribed with Remember Death. The graveyard remains an undiscovered corner of the city with much of its family histories unresearched and unpublished.

There is also much to discover within a short space in Ballintemple and its role in the wider city as an architectural conservation area. Various architectural styles can be noted Norman, Gothic, Renaissance, Georgian, Victorian, Italianiate, French, and Oriental. The houses can boast such architects such as Bro Michael Riordan, Sir John Benson, Deanes, Morrisons, Richard Brash, Hargraves, Walkers and the Hills. The architectural DNA comprises local stone, sand, brick, slates from Killaloe, Rosscarbery and Wales, timber from Canada and Scandinavia, cement from Portland in England and ironwork for railings obtained from Scottish foundries. 

- Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August, 2013,

pictures: http://kieranmccarthy.ie/?p=9913

McCarthy’s Cork Docklands Walking Tour

Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s tour of Cork Docklands takes place on Saturday 9 November leaving at 2pm from Kennedy Park on Victoria Road (free, two hours).  Some of the themes covered in the talk will be the development of such sites as the Marina and the Atlantic Pond and how they came into being, and the historic structures that still exist in the area. Much of the story of Cork’s modern development is represented in their environs. The origin of the current Docklands is a product of centuries of reclamation and negotiation of swampland.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Ever since Viking age time over 1,000 years ago, boats of all different shapes and sizes have been coming in and out of Cork’s riverine and harbour region continuing a very long legacy of trade. Port trade was and still is the engine in Cork’s development. To complement the growth of the port, extensive reclamation of swampland took place as well as physical infrastructure quays, wharfs and warehouses.  I’m a big fan of the different shapes of these wharfs, especially the timber ones that have survived since the 1870s. Perhaps the theme that runs through the new walking tour is connections. The tour explores very interesting sites such as Jewtown, Hibernian Buildings, the old electricity power station, the Gas Works, the Docks, the old City Park Racecourse, the early story of Fords, and Kennedy Park. All these topics are all about connecting the city to wider themes of exportation and importation of goods, people and ideas into the city through the ages”.

 Eighteenth Century Cork Tour

The weather is still relatively mild, so the next historical walking tour is on Saturday 26 October 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City, explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at Cork City Library, Grand Parade, 2pm (E.5, duration: two hours).

The tour is bound with the demise of the walled town of Cork in the early 1700s. For nearly five hundred years (c.1200-c.1690), the walled port town of Cork, built in a swamp and at the lowest crossing point of the River Lee and the tidal area, remained as one of the most fortified and vibrant walled settlements in the expanding British colonial empire. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the Williamite Siege of Cork in 1690, provided the catalyst for large-scale change within the urban area. The walls were allowed to decay and this was to inadvertently alter much of the city’s physical, social and economic character in the ensuing century.

 2014…

Award Ceremonies, Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2014

Final, Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project (late March 2014)

City results 2014, http://corkheritage.ie/?page_id=3789

County Results 2014, http://corkheritage.ie/?page_id=3791

   The Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2014 will come to its conclusion over two evenings next week. The award ceremony for County Cork schools takes place on Tuesday 18 March and the ceremony for the City on Wednesday 19 March (6.45pm start both evenings, Silversprings Convention Centre). Founded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy, the year 2014 marks the eleventh year of the award ceremonies for best local history projects submitted into the project. The Project is open to schools in Cork; at primary level to the pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth years. A total of 27 schools in Cork City and 22 in Cork County took part in the 2014 Project. Approx 220 projects were submitted on all aspects of Cork’s history. The project in the city is kindly funded by Cork Civic Trust, Cork City Council, and the Heritage Council. In the 2014 season prizes are provided by Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre Watergrasshill, and the Lifetime Lab. The project in the County is funded by students and Cllr Kieran McCarthy.

     Commenting, co-ordinator of the project, Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted:

“One of the key aims of the project is to allow students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage in a constructive, active and fun way. The Project attempts to provide the student with a hands-on and interactive activity that is all about learning not only about your local area but also about the process of learning by participating students. The Schools’ Heritage Project also focuses on motivating and inspiring young people”. A list of winning projects can be viewed at Kieran’s heritage website www.corkheritage.ie

Cork history talks with Kieran:

Wednesday 2 April, 7.30pm South Parish Historical Society at St John’s College, talk on the River Lee and its heritage, in particular Gougane Barra;

Wednesday, 9 April, 10.30am, Meeting room, Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen, talk on Cork’s Great Exhibitions

Ballinlough Gramophone Recital:

Cllr Kieran McCarthy will present this month’s Ballinlough Gramophone Recital on Thursday evening, 24th April, 7.30pm at Balinlough Pastoral Centre next to the church. Kieran will play and sing songs from the musicals. All welcome.

Cllr McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2014

    Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the sixth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 27 April 2014 between 10am-5pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held over one week later on Saturday 10 May. There are two categories, one for primary school children and one for secondary school students. Winners will be awarded a perpetual trophy and prize money of €150 (two by €150). The project is being organised and funded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in association with Red Sandstone Varied Productions (RSVP).

   Cllr. McCarthy noted: “The talent competition is a community initiative. It encourages all young people to develop their talents and creative skills, to push forward with their lives and to embrace their community positively”. Further details can be got from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, 085 1798695 or email rsvpireland@gmail.com.

Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour of Balintemple

   The first of three walking tours Kieran will present in early summer takes place on Sunday, 4 May and is of Ballintemple (2pm, meet inside Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free). Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knights Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”.

• Mahon Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 11 May, 2pm meet Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes (two hours).

   Cllr Kieran McCarthy will lead a historical tour through Mahon on Sunday 11 May starting at 2pm at Blackrock Garda Station, Ringmahon Road, opposite the entrance to Dunlocha Cottages. The event is free and is open to all. Cllr McCarthy noted: “Mahon is full of historical gems; the walk sheds light on the history of Mahon – from big houses to its model cottages to its late twentieth century development – it is an important suburb in the city’s development but also its identity and place within the historical evolution of our city. It is also a forum for people to talk about their own knowledge of local history in the area”.

• Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 18 May, 2pm, meet Beaumont National Schools, (two hours)

  Cllr Kieran McCarthy will lead a historical walking tour through Ballinlough on Sunday 18 May starting at 2pm at Beaumont National Schools. The event is free and is open to all. Cllr. McCarthy noted: “Ballinlough is full of historical gems; the walk not only talks about the history of Ballinlough as an important suburb in the city’s development but also its identity and place within the historical evolution of our city. It is also a forum for people to talk about their own knowledge of local history in the area.” Ballinlough has a rich variety of heritage sites. With 360 acres, it is the second largest of the seven townlands forming the Mahon Peninsula.

Blackrock Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 25 May 2014

   As a contribution to marking the jubilee celebrations of St Michael’s Church in Blackrock Cllr Kieran McCarthy will conduct a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village on Sunday 25 May, 2pm (starts at Blackrock Castle, two hours, free). Officially blessed on 7 June 1964 by Bishop Lucey, the church replaced the first edifice which had been burnt down in 1962. The architect of the new church, Mr James Rupert Boyd Barrett by 1964 had nearly half a century of practice under his belt and had designed many major buildings throughout Ireland, including the Department of Industry and Commerce in Dublin, four new churches in Cork and ten new churches in the Diocese of Kerry by the early sixties. At the official opening he was bestowed upon by Papal Order the Knight-Commandership of the order of St Sylvester. The contractor Mr John Sisk, the foreman Joe Murphy and the quantity surveyor Mr Coveney all worked hard to create as Bishop Lucey alluded to an edifice of huge skill and art and “a monument of faith”. The firm of Sisk alone had experience in church building over a period of 110 years previously and had built 60 churches including two cathedrals.

Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project (Sunday 1 June 2014, The Lough, 2pm, further details here, the fourth year)  http://kieranmccarthy.ie/?p=10496

pictures: http://kieranmccarthy.ie/?p=10579

   Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites all Cork young people to participate in the fourth year of McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’. All interested must make a model boat at home from recycled materials and bring it along for judging to Cork’s Lough on Sunday afternoon, 1 June 2014, 2pm. This year’s theme is ‘legends’ which is open to interpretation. The event is being run in association with Meitheal Mara’s Ocean to City, Cork’s Maritime Festival and the Lifetime Lab. There are three categories, two for primary and one for secondary students. There are prizes for best models and the event is free to enter. Cllr McCarthy, who is heading up the event, noted “I am encouraging creation, innovation and imagination amongst our young people, which are important traits for all of us to develop”. See www.kieranmccarthy.ie under community programme details.

Cork City Historical Walking Tours

   Kieran’s summer walking tours of Cork City centre will take place during June on Tuesday evenings, 10^th & 17^th, and Friday evenings, 13^th & 20^th. The tours begin at the National Monument on the Grand Parade, at 7pm on those evenings and explore the City Centre’s early development on a swamp. The tour costs e.5 per person and children under 12 are free. No booking is required, just turn up on the evening.

Historical Walking Tour of St. Finbarre’s Hospital

   On next Saturday, 7 June 2014, 12noon (meet at gate), Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds with particular focus on its workhouse past. The walk is free and takes place to support the summer fete of the Friends. Cllr McCarthy noted: “St Finbarr’s Hospital, the city’s former nineteenth century workhouse, serves as a vast repository of narratives, memories, symbolism, iconography and cultural debate”. When the Irish Poor Relief Act was passed on 31 July 1838, the assistant Poor Law commissioner, William J. Voules came to Cork in September 1838 to implement the new laws. Meetings were held in towns throughout the country. By 1845, 123 workhouses had been built, formed into a series of districts or Poor Law Unions, each Poor Law Union containing at least one workhouse. The cost of poor relief was met by the payment of rates by owners of land and property in that district.

   In 1841 eight acres, 1 rood and 23 perches were leased to the Poor Law Guardians from Daniel B. Foley, Evergreen House, Cork. Mr. Foley retained an acre, on which was Evergreen House with its surrounding gardens, which fronted South Douglas Road (now a vacant concrete space). The subsequent workhouse that was built on the leased lands was opened in December 1841. It was an isolated place, built beyond the City’s toll house and toll gates. 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.

– Kieran’s Heritage Week, 24-31 August 2014:

Sunday 24 August 2014 – Eighteenth century Cork historical walking tour, Branding a City-Making a Venice of the North, with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Monday 25 August 2014 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover the City’s historical quarter; learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of butter market and the Shandon Street area, meet North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Tuesday 26 August 2014- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Thursday 28 August 2014 – Docklands Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover the history of the city’s docks, meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)

Saturday 30 August 2014, Douglas Historical Walking Tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours)

- 19 September 2014, Culture Night, 5pm at park stage (free), Historical Walking Tour of Fitzgerald’s Park

    The park’s entrance pillars on the Mardyke, the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, the museum, the fountain in the middle of the central pond dedicated to Fr Mathew and timber posts eroding in the river were once part of one of Cork’s greatest historical events, the Cork International Exhibitions of 1902 and 1903. Commenting Cllr McCarthy noted; “Just like the magical spell of Fitzgerald’s Park, the exhibitions were spaces of power. Revered, imagined and real spaces were created. They were marketing strategies where the past, present and future merged, Aesthetics of architecture, colour, decoration and lighting were all added to the sense of spectacle and in a tone of moral and educational improvement. The entire event was the mastermind of Cork Lord Mayor Edward Fitzgerald, after whom the park got its name”.

- 20 September 2014, Cork Harbour Open Day, 6.30pm at Marina Entrance to the old Line, Historical Walking Tour down the old Cork-Blackrock and Blackrock Railway Line with Kieran (free, 90 minutes)

   Interested in finding out more on the Old Cork-Blackrock and Passage Railway Line and its connection to Cork Harbour? Cllr Kieran McCarthy, local historian, will conduct a tour of the city side of the old line on Saturday evening, 20 September 2014 starting at 6.30pm at the entrance on The Marina side adjacent the Main Drainage station of the Amenity Walk. The tour is free (approx 1 1/2 hours) and is open to all. South east Cork City is full of historical gems; the walk not only talks about the history of the line but also the history of the villages and harbour that surround the old line itself.

- Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project, 2014/15

- workshops in the fifty participating schools are completed (Oct-Nov 2014)

Cllr Kieran McCarthy is encouraging students in Cork to enter the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project, which has been launched for the 2014/ 15 school season. The Project, which is celebrating its twelfth year allows students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage in a constructive, active and fun way. Interested students can pick any topic on Cork’s heritage to research and can participate as individuals, groups or as a class. Students produce a project using primary material such as fieldwork, interviews, making models, DVDs of their area. 

Co-ordinator and founder of the project, Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted that “The project is about thinking about, understanding, appreciating and making relevant in today’s society the role of our heritage- our landmarks, our oral histories, our scenery in our modern world for upcoming citizens. So the project is about splicing together activity on issues of local history and heritage such as thinking, exploring, observing, thinking, discovering, researching, uncovering, revealing, interpreting and resolving. The Schools’ Heritage Project also focuses on motivating and inspiring young people, giving them an opportunity to develop leadership and self development skills, which are very important in the world we live in today.”

The City Edition of the Project is funded by Cork Civic Trust, Cork City Council, The Heritage Council, Evening Echo, Lifetime Lab, Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre, Watergrasshill and Cllr Kieran McCarthy. Application forms to enter the project can be viewed on Cllr McCarthy’s heritage website, www.corkheritage.ie.

- Cork Harbour Through Time ( November, 2014, new publication with Dan Breen)

    Being the second largest natural harbour in the world brings a focus and energy with which Cork Harbour has always been open to. The ebb and flow of the tide through the ages has carved a unique landscape of cliffs, sand and gravel beaches exposing an underlining geology of limestone and sandstone. Invigorating this landscape are multiple monuments inscribing it from different ages, many of which the postcards in this book seek to capture.

Colourful villages provide different textures and cultural landscapes in a sort of cul-de-sac environment where roads end at harbours, at car parks near coastal cliff faces, and quaysides. The villages are scattered around the edges of the harbour, each with their own unique history, all connect and add in someway to the greatness of this harbour. This book tracks the space of 100 postcards in Cork Harbour, many of which were taken c.1900-c.1920 and some of their historical contexts. Some sites have been written extensively on over the centuries and other are awaiting proper exploration and critique.

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