Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 14 June 2018

Stories from 1918: The Cork IDA Ambition

     The annual report of the Cork Industrial Development Association (IDA) was unveiled to the public on 19 June 1918 to meet their fifteenth annual public meeting. Many insights into Cork’s commercial life and regional challenges are given in the document, which was published for the most part in the Cork Examiner. Strong commitment over one year was given by the General Council or committee who met on fourteen occasions, the Executive Committee on thirty occasions, and the Ladies Committee who met twelve times. The usual half-yearly and two quarterly public meetings of the Association were successfully held in the Council Chamber in Cork City Hall.

    The ambition and impact of the work of the Cork IDA was wide-ranging. Circa 2,000 copies of the official report of the proceedings of the fourteenth annual public meeting were printed and distributed free of cost, both at home and abroad. Through the medium of influential publications such as “Studies” and also by means of letters to the press, the secretary focused attention on the industrial needs of Ireland. In addition, numerous pamphlets and leaflets, dealing with certain elements of Irish economic life, were published by the Association. In January of 1918 it undertook the publication of a monthly bulletin to influence the acceleration of industrial development in Ireland. It aimed to draw the eye of investors to reflect upon the unique advantages, which the city and port of Cork offered for the development of international trade after the war. One thousand copies of the Bulletin were published monthly, and was circulated without charge to members and subscribers, and to commercial departments and institutions, and to potential investors in Ireland and outside countries.

    During the previous year more than 2,500 written communications were received at the Industrial Development Association offices of Cork and Dublin. Some 900 verbal and telephone enquiries were dealt with, covering practically every feature of Ireland’s economic life. These enquiries came from correspondents in all parts of Ireland, in Great Britain, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, India, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand Japan, South Africa, and North and South America. As a result of the information supplied by Cork and Dublin associations to correspondents and callers, a very considerable volume of trade, representing many thousands of pounds sterling, was directed to Irish producers.

    The greatly increased tillage in Cork County in the previous year made exceptional demands on the depleted available agricultural labour throughout the county. Accordingly in the early summer months of 1917 the Cork IDA placed their offices and organisation at the disposal of the National Service Director for Ireland in a practical effort to find the additional labour urgently required for harvesting operations. Pending the fitting up of permanent offices at Ardcairn, Balintemple, the local business of two of the incoming industrial firms – the Trafford Engineering Co, Ltd, and Crockford and Lea, Ltd, was for some time conducted from the Cork IDA’s headquarters. The arbitration of several trade matters in dispute also took place in their offices. Examples included conferences of local journeymen, coachmakers and ironmoulders in city foundries. The proprietors of local tin plate manufacturing concerns, likewise availed of the offices to take united action with a view to securing supplies of tinplate and government contracts.

     Through the Cork IDA’s intervention many southern manufacturing firms were enabled to secure from the relevant Government departments concerned the official permits necessary for the purchase and importation of essential raw materials for their industries. For example, a large local firm of preservers decided upon adding a jam manufacturing department, to their existing business. The Association co-operated by supplying the addresses of fruit growers in Munster, and by striving to procure, within Ireland the large supplies of jars required for marketing purposes. A meeting of southern limestone quarry owners was convened by the Association to go into the question of supplying stone for the drydocks extensions at Passage West and Rushbrooke.

    The Irish Railway Executive Committee having cut off excursion trains to seaside and health resorts, a conference of hotel proprietors and traders in such centres was held under the Association’s auspices. Lobbying action taken resulted in additional train facilities being granted to such resorts as Crosshaven on Sundays.

    The Ladies Committee of the Cork IDA successfully organised Irish Week, when the numerous and artistic all-window displays of Irish manufactured goods in Cork City and in most of the towns in the county, left a huge positive impression. The observance of Irish Week in Tralee, Clonmel, and other southern centres, was inspired by action taken by the Committee. Irish-made goods were made visible for the education of and purchase by consumers. Speeches were given at successful public meetings held in both towns. The Ladies’ Committee, also assisted in the launching of a sister organisation in Dungarvan. The secretary also delivered addresses on the industrial revival to the members of the Clogheen Gaelic League and to an open-air gathering in Cork City. In addition to the special appeal made during “Irish Week” to consumers to support Irish manufactures appeals were issued at Christmas and Easter to the public, who were asked to buy goods of Irish origin in preference to imported products of foreign workmanship.

Captions:

950a. Crosshaven, c.1910 (source: Cork Harbour Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)

950b. Crosshaven, c.1910 (source: Cork Harbour Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen)

Kieran’s June Historical Walking Tours:

Saturday 23 June 2018, The Cork City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital Garden Fete.

Saturday 30 June 2018, The Lough & its Curiosities; explore the local history from the Legend of the Lough to suburban development; meet at green area at northern end of The Lough, entrance of Lough Road to The Lough; 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 7 June 2018

Stories from 1918: Conundrums of the Butter Market

   At the beginning of 1918 the Irish butter industry was subjected to many restrictions of control by the Ministry of Food, which was linked to keeping supply to English markets throughout wartime. The grading of Irish butter by appointed English graders was decided upon as a necessity. Reluctantly the Irish traders complied. However, they unanimously opposed the grading being carried out in England, claiming that it would act very unfairly in Irish interests, and lead to abuses and heavy losses.

   Cork butter had been locally inspected and graded for over 150 years. Compared to one hundred years previously, the Cork butter trade was on a slow decline. In 1858, 428,000 firkins of butter were been exported per annum and by 1891, this was reduced to 170,000 firkins. Competitive European prices out-competed the prices set by the butter market at Cork. In addition, the city’s best consumer, the British citizen favoured neater packaging, smaller more exact weights, improved colour, texture and taste; qualities that Cork butter did not possess. The quantity of butter exported decreased and decreased. In 1918, Further regulations or even controls of the market were not welcome. Despite the protestations of Irish producers and dealers, a new grading system was put into force, with the grading work being carried out in England.

     At the Cork Butter Market on Saturday 8 June 1918, several merchants gave testimony of the problems of the new grading system to the Cork Examiner.  A leading member of the Cork Butter Market Trustees stated that the Government system was causing a great economic loss to Ireland. The price of fresh lump butter had fallen from 217s to 211s per cwt. Irish butter was going into the “Pool” or Government centre of distribution, from where it was sold to English dealers at a flat rate, comparatively high. He also highlighted that shipping and rail facilities of transit caused the longest delays, and in bad weather the butter lost very considerably its weight and deteriorated in quality. As the quantities to be graded were large, delays were encountered. In nearly all cases it took at least ten days before grading was completed.

    The market trustee argued that whilst the graders were undoubtedly qualified to deal with butter as for show purposes, the judging of Irish butter in war time should not be done, as if it were in a show competition. He noted; “It should be pursued along the best commercial lines; the present system of grading was lacking in initiative, and common sense…butter is very perishable, and it is when it has thus suffered, the graders in England deliver judgment on it. The whole thing was monstrously unfair and the only remedy for it was that the grading be done in Ireland. Nine-tenths of the butter could be graded here”.

Another export merchant highlighted that the grading system was done out of awarding of points for flavour, texture, packing, and colour. There were four grades, the lowest being known as non-table butter, and which was in fact a butter for use in cooking or confectionery. The highest grade was that which was awarded from 90 to 100 points. The prices for the different grades differed by about 5s so that if a butter did not achieve 89 points it went into grade two and so on down to non-table butter. There had been instances of butter that had left Ireland of the highest grade and was then a grade returned by the graders to the merchant as non-table butter.

    Many merchants complained of the way returns were made. They shipped their butter to England, hoping that it would be graded within a week. However. it was often three weeks to a month before they got the return showing them the grade their butter had received. In one instance it was five weeks before the return reached one merchant. When the payment of sums amounting in some individual cases to £20,000 was delayed in this way for weeks and months the losses to trading were heavy and business was upset.

    Another leading Cork trader said there was no reason why the grading should not be carried out in Ireland. A small efficient staff in Cork could deal quickly with the great exports that leave the south of Ireland, while in Limerick and Tralee, as in Dublin and the North, the thing, could be pursued with fairness and dispatch. He was apprehensive noting of the entire grading scheme; “it acted unfairly to the creamery interests, there were also certain differentiation in treatment between the creameries and the farmers’ dairy and factory butter. If it led to the killing of the butter industry among the farmers themselves it would mean the wiping-out of a dozen other subsidiary industries. Sufficient cold storage could be found in Ireland”.

Caption:

949a.  Former Cork Butter Exchange, Shandon, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s June Historical Walking Tours:

Saturday 9 June 2018, Cork City & its Bridges (new tour), learn about the early history of the city’s most historic bridges; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes in City Centre) in association with Meitheal Mara’s Cork Harbour Festival.

Saturday 23 June 2018, The Cork City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital Garden Fete.

Saturday 30 June 2018, The Lough & its Curiosities; explore the local history from the Legend of the Lough to suburban development; meet at green area at northern end of The Lough, entrance of Lough Road to The Lough; 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 31 May 2018

Stories from 1918: The Cork Milk Supply Scheme

       A milk supply debate raged across newspapers in 1918. During 1917, new powers were granted to local authorities in England and Ireland to supply milk to children and expectant and nursing mothers at cost price or free. The Irish Local Government Board gave grants to urban and rural sanitary authorities of one half of approved net expenditure in the cost of milk and dinners provided for expectant and nursing mothers and children under six. The grants were given only when the arrangements formed part of a maternity and child welfare scheme established by the local authority. Dublin, Kingstown, Bray, Monaghan. Clonmel and Cork were noted as good schemes but were not enough to meet demand.

     Apart from the local government scheme, notable in Cork was the Cork Milk Supply Scheme operated by the Roman Catholic Bishop, Rev Cohalan and local parish clergy. Set up in the winter of 1917, its story is told across minutes of meetings published in the Cork Examiner. The scheme was intended for poor families where there were young children of an age where milk was an important source of food.

    In the early weeks of the scheme, the Cork and Kerry Creamery Company, acting on the initiative of committee member of the scheme, Mr Sunner, supplied to the poor of the South Parish, Cork. Excellent milk was supplied at a very cheap rat of one penny per pint. Subscriptions from local merchants and businesses made up the balance of price to the vendor. At the beginning of the scheme there were 660 families registered to get the milk at the cheap rate, with the figure rising to 965 families by the end of 1917. The income threshold of families interested in the scheme was not to exceed 25s per week, and in the family there were to be children under six years of age. An official register was compiled by the several parish committees. They made sure that the tickets were only given to the necessitous poor, eradicated duplication of tickets, and made sure the tickets went out from one central source in every parish.

     At an executive meeting on Tuesday 28 May 1918 Bishop Cohalan presided. Mr Pelly, the Honorary Treasurer, stated that there was a sum of about £150 on hand. In view of the fall in the price of milk, the discussion involved debating about the discontinuing of the milk supply. The price of milk during the summer of 1918 was estimated to be 2d per pint, which was near the one penny mark already in place. The Committee decided that the scheme be discontinued except in the case of families already on the lists who had children suffering or recovering from ailments. The quantity of milk to be subsidised by the Committee was to be two pints per family a day. In making out the new lists of families to be relieved, the Parish Committees were to be given advice by the city’s dispensary doctors.

    On 30 October 1918, a public meeting in connection with the securing of a supply of milk at a cheap rate for the children of the city was held in the Council Chamber, City Hall. Bishop Cohalan told the meeting they were assembled to commence the distribution of milk to the poor families of the city – to continue the scheme inaugurated the previous winter. He revealed that the number of pints of milk distributed between the end of 1917 and 1918 was 203,000. The money received in subscriptions in 1918 was £1,822 0s 6d.  The amount expended was £1,745 8s 3d, leaving a balance, wherewith to start the winter of 1918 of £76 12s 3d.

    Lord Mayor Thomas Butterfield proposed the following resolution: “That we deem it our duty to raise a fund with the object of putting the Cork Children’s Milk Scheme into operation again this year, in view of the inability of many poor families to procure a sufficient quantity of milk for children during the winter months, and especially in view of the outbreak of influenza”. Canon O’Sullivan of the North Cathedral seconded. He deemed that the absence of sickness the previous year in his extensive parish was down to the benefits of the cheap milk supply and school meals. There were 13,000 pints of milk distributed in his parish at 1d per pint, and it was not difficult to realise the benefits that arose in new parishes in the city.

     At another meeting of the executive committee on 8 November 1918, reports from the different parishes indicated that arrangements were practically complete for putting the supply scheme into operation. An adequate supply of milk was to be put in place for each parish. The committee decided that the distribution of funds would be on the basis of the number of families on the parish lists as follows: North Parish – 400 families, SS Peter and Paul’s – 200, St Finbarr’s – 200; Lough – 70 and St Patrick’s – 60. The families under the scheme were expected to pay 1 ½d per pint for the milk and were to be entitled to receive two pints per day.

Caption:

 948a. Creamery at Charleville c.1900 (source: National Library of Ireland)

Kieran’s June Historical Walking Tours:

Saturday 9 June 2018, Cork City & its Bridges (new tour), learn about the early history of the city’s most historic bridges; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes in City Centre) in association with Meitheal Mara’s Cork Harbour Festival.

Saturday 23 June 2018, The Cork City Workhouse; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour), in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital Garden Fete.

Saturday 30 June 2018, The Lough & its Curiosities; explore the local history from the Legend of the Lough to suburban development; meet at green area at northern end of The Lough, entrance of Lough Road to The Lough; 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour)