In continuing to commemorate the year 1916 and the wider social history of Cork City and region, this week one hundred years ago a meeting of the Poor Children’s Excursion Committee was held on 12 July, in the Council Chamber, Municipal Buildings or the old City Hall. The committee oversaw an annual and impressive practice whereby on one day each year over 4,000 poor children were brought to Claycastle Beach at Cork’s Riviera town of Youghal. The annual event was established sometime circa 1893. It was run by Cork Corporation and funded by Cork businesses and the committee was chaired by the Lord Mayor of the day. The event seems to have fallen away circa 1923/1924 but the interest in the education and well-being of impoverished children in the city remained in the Council Chamber – in terms of developing a children’s library in the City Library and the discussions that ensued about the provision of playgrounds in new social housing estates in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Lord Mayor who presided for the 1916 excursion event was Thomas C Butterfield. At the 12 July meeting in 1916, Mr H Dawson acted as honorary secretary in the absence of Mr J Hackett. Mr Dawson announced that the railway company had written to say that they would be able to provide the trains for the excursion on Wednesday, 26 July, on the same terms as the previous year. He further stated that the collection of subscriptions from local business so far had realised £80, but they required £200 more.
The minutes of the July meeting, available in the Cork City and County Archive, record that the Lord Mayor noted that he hoped that citizens would respond as generously as in the past to their appeal for funds; “Anyone who had ever seen the joy and genuine pleasure, which the excursion gave to the thousands of little children could scarcely help subscribing. Most of the people in the city whom I would expect to contribute, spent a good deal during the summer months on many excursions to the seaside or other places. If all these deprived themselves of just one of the pleasure trips, and gave the money they would spend on it to the Poor Children’s Excursion, they would be doing a real good deed. It should be remembered that all kinds of food stuffs were very much dearer now, and for that reason more money was required than when the excursions were first held. The circulars and cards had only been recently distributed, and I hope before their next meeting that they would have many favourable replies”. Mr Fawsitt was asked by the Committee to organise the sports activities for the children in connection with the excursion, and agreed to do so. Beamish and Crawford had agreed to give £5 towards the costs as well as 24 complimentary cases of minerals. Messrs Thompsons Bakery had committed to providing 2,000 buns. Mr Carey, a resident in Youghal, annually provided the event with drinking water at the beach. The committee was also heavily influenced by a Ladies Committee, who prepared food for the 5,000 children – sandwiches, cake and sweets.
Nearly two weeks later on 25 July 1916 after 2-3 more committee meetings, the Lord Mayor arrived at the Model School at Anglesea Street to help with the ticket distribution. It commenced at 11am and continued over two hours in which time close on 5,000 boys and girls had secured their pass to the seaside. It is recorded in the Cork Examiner that there was enormous eagerness to secure the “green ticket”, which meant so much to them. From an early hour in the morning the children gathered in the vicinity of the school. Appeals for order were all in vain, and the assurance that there was plenty of time and enough tickets for all had no effect in quietening their excitement or lessening their anxiety of not securing one. The children were arranged into a single file to pass by the gate at which the tickets were handed out by Alderman Meade, assisted by Mr Hackett, Honorary Secretary, and Mr Lyons. The Assistant Bishop of Cork, Daniel Cohalan was also present and followed by Messrs Colburn Fawsitt, O’Leary, Higgins, Lyons, J J Sexton. D Horgan, ex-Alderman, and firemen and police, they soon marshalled the children. At 1pm close on 5,000 boys and girls had been given their tickets. It was regrettable that five children were injured at the distribution of tickets. They were taken to the South Infirmary, where four had to be detained. Their names were – Thomas Callaghan, Shandon street; Bridget Malloy, Monks’ School Lane; Eily Whelan and Victor Hurley, both of St Vincent’s Place. They were badly bruised from the crushing, and suffered from shock.
The following day, Wednesday 26 July, favoured by gloriously fine warm weather, the thousands of poor children were to have a day at Youghal by the sea. The trains ran as follows – 8.50am, 9am, 9.20am, and 9.45am. In these four special trains the excited children could not be quiet, as the steam driven locomotives with their carriages chugged along the northern side of Cork Harbour, through Midleton and onto Youghal’s golden sands, which was a far cry from the slum ridden lanes of Cork’s inner city.
Captions:
852a. Train at Youghal Station, 1920s (source: Cork City Library)
852b. Youghal beach and Railway Station, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)
July 2016 Historical Walking Tours with Cllr Kieran McCarthy
Monday 25 July 2016 – Blackrock Historical Walking Tour with CllrKieran McCarthy, From Blackrock Castle, learn about nineteenth century life and a fishing village, castles, convents and industries, meet in courtyard of Blackrock Castle, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes St Michael’s Church of Ireland).
Wednesday 27 July 2016 – Sunday’s Well Walking Tour withCllr Kieran McCarthy, From Wise’s Hill to the heart of Sunday’s Well learn about the development of an eighteenth century suburb, historic churches, gaol, and the early origins of the Mardyke, meet at Old Wise’s Distillery House, North Mall, 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Shaky Bridge).
Thursday 28 July 2016 – Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour withCllr Kieran McCarthy, From the heart of Ballinlough, learn about nineteenth century market gardens, schools, industries, and Cork’s suburban standing stone, meet outside Beaumont BNS, Beaumont 7pm (free, duration: two hours, finishes at Ballinlough Community Centre).
Friday 29 July 2016 – Blackpool Historical Walking Tour withCllr Kieran McCarthy, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at the North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm(free, duration: two hours, finishes on St Mary’s Road).
Kieran’s Heritage Week, 20-27 August 2016
Sunday, 21 August 2016, Eighteenth Century Cork, Branding a City: Making a Venice of the North; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; meet at the City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Monday 22 August 2016, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Tuesday 23 August 2016, Cork Docklands, historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; Discover the history of the city’s docks, from quayside stories to the City Park Race Course and Albert Road; meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Thursday 25 August 2016, The City Workhouse, historical walking tour (new) with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841 (the year 2016 marks the 175th anniversary of the site), meet at the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Friday 26 August 2016, The Walk of the Friars; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy, explore the local history from Red Abbey through Barrack Street to Friars Walk; meet at Red Abbey, Mary Street, 7pm (free, duration: two hours)
Saturday 27 August 2016, Fitzgerald’s Park; historical walking tour with Cllr Kieran McCarthy; learn about the story of the Mardyke to the great early twentieth century Cork International Exhibition, meet at band stand 2pm, note the afternoon time (free, duration: two hours)
In the press in early July 1916 focus was placed on the importance of labour in agricultural activities. Grass was being cut and in a time of World War 1 labour was scarce. The need for labour was also an issue, which kept the organised conscription of Irish people away from being a reality in Westminster statute books. Despite this, many labourers had volunteered to go to the frontlines. One body, which promoted the importance of agriculture, the interests of its community and its multiple facets was the Munster Agricultural Society. They are still going strong and just after finishing their successful summer show this year in their contemporary grounds in Curaheen.
However, on this week, one hundred years ago – on 4 July 1916 – the members of the Society opened their annual two-day Summer Show in Ballintemple. The show opened under glorious weather conditions. The Cork Examiner reported of the day; “it is indeed very gratifying to find that its sphere of usefulness continues. No doubt many obstacles and difficulties had to be overcome in the past by the members of the Society as they worked in the most untiring fashion and a few years ago the institution became not alone one of the most important in the country, but also one of the most successful”. The newspaper journalist continues to comment on the worries connected with the war. It was feared by the society that the fixtures conducted at different periods of each year would have to be abandoned, but with the “enterprise which has always characterised their work, the members of the Society decided in the interests of the agricultural community, and with the object of advancing their pursuits to continue the shows. It was only natural with the shortage of all classes of stock in the country, that entries were small at the fixture due to the war”.
From 1891 onwards, as the County of Cork Agricultural Society developed its home in a corner of the Cork Park Racecourse, it was dependent on the success of its shows and the subscriptions and voluntary contributions of its members. They worked in close association with the Department of Agriculture and the County Cork Committee of Agriculture and received grants from them for prize funds. In 1908 the name of the County of Cork Agricultural Society was changed to the Munster Agricultural Society.
Arising from World War I, the minutes of the Munster Agricultural Society (in the Cork City and County Archives) reveal several issues raised at committee meetings. There was a high dependency on exporting livestock, dairy and poultry produced for the British market. However, in 1915 the detained cattle at the ports was of serious concern for Irish agriculture creating serious hardships for farmers across the country. Instability in transport routes set in as sea channels became blocked and boats harnessed for military operations. The previous agricultural boom was reversed as declining prices set in. The war brought unemployment amongst agricultural labourers and less work for small farmers. The society struggled during the war years to attract farmers to their shows and sales. As an incentive, in the same year 1915 a sale of bulls was introduced into the spring show of cattle, and the total sales amounted to £800. In the year 1917 it was decided to amalgamate the cattle and horse shows and to hold it in the summer and to hold a show and sale of bulls and pigs in the spring.
The aims of the Munster Agricultural Society though were set against the national backdrop of change in Irish agriculture. The Department of Agriculture reports from 1916, available to read in the Boole Library in UCC, reveal that the decline in tillage farming began after the Great Famine. Ploughed land reduced from 4.4m acres in 1849 to 2.4m in 1916. Cultivation of cereal crops, mainly wheat, oats and barley, went from 3m acres to 1.3m acres, with the greatest decline of wheat growing in Leinster and Munster. Acreage under grain was halved, while at the same time, land in pasture doubled, alongside the growing numbers of horses, mules and asses. Land use shifted from crops to livestock. By 1916, 79 per cent of the average income for farmers came directly from livestock and only 20 per cent from crops. Cattle numbers rose from 2.7m in 1848 to 5m in 1914, and the livestock sector accounted for 75 per cent of total agricultural output in that same year.
Between 1910 and 1914 cattle numbers increased by twenty per cent, enabling the development of creameries to over a 1,000 throughout the island. Dairy co-ops also grew with around 350 operating in 1914. Agriculture in Ireland was also influenced by increasing commercialisation. Changes in transport, rail, shipping, technological progress in machinery such as milk/cream separators, and the growing use of statistical information for rationalisation and policy initiatives, moved farming toward an industrial pursuit.
Increasing urbanisation also encouraged a more market-led approach. Between 1845 and 1914 the ratio of the population living in towns of 1,500 or more doubled. Production and prices became connected with supply and demand, and Irish agriculture also contended on international markets with countries such as the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Captions:
851a. Cork Showgrounds, Ballintemple, c. 1929 (source: The Story of the Munster Agricultural Society by Kieran McCarthy)
851b. Call for support for Farmers Red Cross Fund during World War I (source: Munster Agricultural Society Archives)
Continuing to explore the conversations in Cork post Easter 1916, this day, 100 years ago, the trial of Dublin born Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916), ended its process of interrogation. Between the afternoon of 20 April and the afternoon of 21 April 1916 he attempted to land 20,000 guns and ammunition at Banna Strand, County Kerry through a vessel called SS Libau but adapting the name of a real neutral merchant Norwegian ship called the SS Aud. The ship on being escorted into Cork Harbour by the British Navy was scuttled by its German Naval Officer Captain Karl Spindler.
On 30 June 1916 Sir Roger Casement was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death (on 3 August) in Pentonville Prison. The newspapers of the day including the Cork Examiner all wrote about the tense silence when each of the three judges finished their questioning. It was nearly three o’clock in the afternoon when the jury retired. In a few moments they sent out for the ‘original’ code, and for a copy of the indictment. These were supplied to them, but the Lord Chief Justice refused to send them a copy of the evidence, which they also asked for. At this time the court was crowded, barristers in wig and gown standing all over the floor of the court, the public, including many ladies in the smartest of summer dress, being packed in the galleries. Casement had disappeared from the dock. Then followed the long wait of close upon an hour whilst the judges had left the bench.
At ten minutes to four the judges returned. The jury soon followed, and Roger Casement again entered the dock. Here was a man who had spent 20 years in sub-Saharan Africa, including over a decade working for the British Foreign Office and was a consular official in Brazil for seven years. The names of the jury having been called over, they were asked if they were agreed upon a verdict. The foreman said they found the prisoner guilty. Casement was asked by the Crown if he has anything to say why sentence of death should not pass upon him according to law. All eyes were on the prisoner, but he remained perfectly clam, and read a long statement, which he had prepared twenty days previously – the main gist of which was that he objected to the jurisdiction of the court. He was then sentenced to death by hanging.
Sir Roger Casement was in the British Consular service for 18 years, and was appointed British Commissioner to investigate the methods of the rubber collection and treatment of the primitive Indian tribes in the region known as Putumayo, on the Upper Amazon, a region dominated by the Peruvian Amazon Company. The publication of his report in July, 1912, which revealed the systemic perpetration of appalling atrocities committed by the Peruvian agents of the company occasioned profound indignation throughout the civilised world. He relinquished the Consul-Generalship at Rio de Janeiro in 1913.
The O’Brien Press 16 Lives series (2016) commemorates the 16 men executed after the Easter Rising. The author Angus Mitchell of 16 Lives, Roger Casement outlines that Casement took an active part in the Home Rule controversy in Ireland on behalf of the Nationalist cause. He became a member of the Gaelic League in 1904. He was a skilled and determined networker in the lead-up to the Easter Rising, counting committed republicans Alice Milligan and Bulmer Hobson as close friends. His acquaintance with the historian Alice Stopford Green introduced him to the medieval scholar Eoin McNeil, the German Philologist Kuno Meyer, and a busy circle of nationalist intellectuals in London. He regularly visited the house Gaelic League Organisers, Robert and Sylvia Lynd, in Hampstead.
As the Home Rule crisis escalated, Casement resigned from the Foreign Office and he devoted his energies openly to Irish independence. After the founding of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, Casement spoke at recruitment rallies across the country and accompanied Pádraig Pearse, Tomás MacDonagh and Eoin MacNeill in building up the movement. In late July 1914, by then in the US, he heard about the successful landing at Howth by Erskine Childers and Mary Spring-Rice. His significant role in the planning of this venture gave him access to the inner circle of Clan na Gael, and in November 1914, with the support of the IRB executive, he arrived in Berlin to promote and explain the Irish struggle, both politically and intellectually. His efforts to recruit and train an Irish Brigade, from among the Irish born British army prisoners of war in Germany, failed. In April 1916, returning to Ireland, Casement was captured at an old Ringfort near Banna Strand and stood trial for high treason.
On 3 August 1916, Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison. His body was returned to Ireland in 1965 and despite his wishes to be buried in his ancestral home in Antrim, he was buried in Glasnevin, Dublin. As for the Aud, it now lies in 36 metres of water in Cork Harbour and is very broken up. There are a number of boilers to be seen as well as well as thousands of bullets strewn on the sea floor. Two of its fully restored anchors are now located at Tralee’s Brandon Conference Centre.
Captions:
850a. Roger Casement, 1864-1916 (source: Cork City Library)
850b. Photograph of The Aud, c.1916 (source: Cork City Museum)
To ask the CE for an update on Tramore Valley Park and opening and the Marina Park (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Motions:
That the City Council liase with Fáilte Ireland with regard to maximising Cork’s presence on the new Ireland’s Ancient East website (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
That the Council under the healthy cities programme develop a community garden in Mahon, perhaps on the grounds of Ringmahon House (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
On Saturday, 25 June 2016, 12noon, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds (meet at gate). The walk is free and takes place to support the summer bazaar 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, this year the site is 175 years old”. 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 over eight acres, 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.
In continuing to present a broad profile of life in Cork in 1916, this week one hundred years ago, the city and region lamented the death of the Bishop of Cork Thomas Alphonsus O’Callaghan (1839-1916). He passed away on 14 June and the newspapers for days after were filled with information spreads of his life, work and funeral. His role in supressing the 1916 rising contribution in Cork was limited as he was ill at the time and he sent his Assistant Bishop Cohalan to the Volunteer Hall on Sheares Street. However he is still a gentleman worth recalling. He set up the industrial school model and also funded some very beautiful churches in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Born in the South Parish, Cork, in 1839, at the age of eighteen years, Bishop Thomas O’Callaghan entered the Novitiate of the Dominicans at Tallaght, and elevated to the priesthood in 1864. He spent six years after that teaching in the convent at Tallaght, and then returned to Cork. Before his appointment as Prior of San Clemente he was in the house of the Order at Claddagh, Galway, and St Catherine’s, Newry He returned to his native city to the exalted office of Co-adjutor-Bishop to Bishop William Delaney in 1884.
Both Bishops Delaney and O’Callaghan were advocates of educational reform. They determined that Cork would be the location of a model industrial school run by a Catholic order, and they saw it as an important step in overcoming the years of discrimination against Catholics by the governments of those years. It was this ambition that drove them to turn the newly founded St Patrick’s Orphanage into an industrial school in Greenmount. They saw the industrial school system as one that would benefit the children who were being raised in poverty in the Cork area. Because of this drive, the orphanage acquired the status of Industrial School on 14 March 1871. The recent Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has much to say on the history of the industrial school model and the good and bad of the Greenmount site can be viewed on their report, which can be accessed on their website.
Bishop of Cork Delaney and his successor Bishop O’Callaghan pursued a vast building programme replacing the older stock of churches of the diocese with new iconic edifices for veneration. Architect Samuel Hynes completed much work for the Diocese of Cork and further afield. He was involved in the design of eight churches over a sixteen-year period. The eight churches, somewhat similar in design, created a forum for engaging with the Catholic Church. New schools were also provided in several parishes. Work progressed so well that the diocese became dotted with religious and educational establishments all of which were undertaken at a time of great poverty and hardship. From the Dictionary of Irish Architects at the Irish Architectural Archive one can piece together the church works – new foyer, St Vincent ‘s Church, Sunday’s Well, Cork (1884-85), new church, Glanmire, Co Cork (1893), new church, Blarney, Co Cork (1893-94), two new side altars, St Mary’s Dominican Church, Pope’s Quay, Cork (1895), new church, St Nicholas Church, Blackpool, Cork (1895), new church, St Joseph’s Church, Wilton Road, Cork (1895-97), new parochial house, Caheragh, Dunmanway, Co Cork (1896), new church, Lisgriffin Church, Buttevant, Co Cork (1896-97), church rebuilding, Castletownroche Church, Co Cork (1897), St Joseph’s Oratory, South Charitable Infirmary & County Hospital, Cork (1899), New oratory, Gougane Barra, Co Cork (1901), new choir stalls, pulpit and Bishop’s throne, Cathedral of SS Mary and Anne’s (1901) and additions, St Patrick’s Church, Fermoy, Co Cork (1901).
Samuel Hynes’ convent work included: a new chapel and campanile, Convent of Mercy, Bantry, Co Cork (1877-78), new wing, Convent of St Marie Reparatrice, Summerhill South, Cork (1892), and additions at the Presentation Convent, Mallow (1900). For the pastoral care of young people, a new Diocesan College of St Finbarre, Farranferris, Co Cork was constructed between 1883-85, a new Sisters of Mercy Orphanage, Cobh, Co Cork (1889), a new building, Mount St Joseph, Presentation Brothers Novitiate, Cork (1892), a new Catholic Boy’s Industrial School, Greenmount, Cork (1900) and a new college for the Christian Brother’s, St Patrick’s Place, Cork (1901-02).
Another key event pursued under Bishop Delaney and subsequently by Bishop O’Callaghan occurred when the pilgrimage island of Gougane Barra was leased on 29 January 1873 for 999 years at a nominal rent of one shilling from Protestant landlord Richard Mellifont Townsend, to Bishop Delaney and Parish Priest of Inchigeela, Fr Jeremiah Holland. Townsend reserved exclusive rights of fishing around the island. The Register of Landowners in County Cork 1876 shows that Richard Townsend’s estate totalled 5,977 acres in and around Dunbeacon in Bantry and extended eastwards to Clontaff, a townland near Skibbereen. The giving of such an important site by a Protestant landlord to a Catholic Bishop cannot be understated. In the midst of large Protestant holdings in West Cork creating their own unique cultural geography of inclusion and exclusion. The island was afterwards assigned to Bishop O’Callaghan, Dean Neville and Fr Patrick Hurley, who developed the site further as a key pilgrimage site in the south of Ireland.
Tour notice: Historical walking tour of former workhouse, St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road with Kieran, 25 June, 12noon, free, meet at gate, in association with Friends of St Finbarr’s Garden Fete.
Captions:
849a. Bishop Thomas Alphonsus O’Callaghan, 1839-1916 (source: Cork City Library)
849b. Samuel Hynes, principal architect for the Diocese of Cork and Ross in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (source: Cork City Library)
This day one hundred years ago on 16 June 1916, Cork lamented the death of Mrs George Boole – Mary Everest – who died in London (that week) at the age of 84. The story appeared in a small column within the Cork Examiner, which described the removal of “another link in the chain connecting the present of University College Cork with the past of the old Queen’s College”. One of the most illustrious names associated with the college since its foundation was that of George Boole, who for a number of years occupied a Professorial Chair in Maths. Some of his greatest publications were written whilst he held that Chair. The bi-centenary of his birth was well and rightly celebrated last year in UCC. The newly unveiled sculpture of Boole is also great to view outside the Boole Library. It is carved by Irish sculptor Paul Ferriter and engraved by Ken and Matthew Thompson.
George Boole’s widow, was likewise a talented writer and psychologist. Mary Everest Boole (1932-1916) was born in Gloucestershire where her father was a minister. She spent her early years in Poissy, France where she had a private tutor. On moving back to England at age eleven she assisted her father with his work and was largely self-taught. She was introduced to George Boole through an uncle – Colonel Sir George Everest (1790-1866) who was a Welsh surveyor and geographer, and the Surveyor General of India from 1830 through 1843.
George Everest was chiefly responsible for completing the section of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India along the meridian arc from southern India extending north to Nepal, a distance of about 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles). This survey was started by William Lambton in 1806 and it lasted for several decades. In 1865, Mount Everest was named in his honour in the English language despite his objections by the Royal Geographical Society.
On the introduction by George Everest to George Boole of his niece Mary, Boole began to tutor her in mathematics. They married and moved to Cork where George was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s College (now UCC). During nine years of marriage they had five children and then George died of pneumonia. After her husband’s death Mary moved back to England. She first worked as a librarian at Queen’s College, Harley Street in London and became an unofficial tutor to the students. From the age of fifty, Mary started writing books and articles including Logic Taught by Love in 1889, The Preparation of the Child for Science in 1904 and in 1909, Philosophy and Fun of Algebra. Her collected writings were published in 1931 and run to four volumes. Mary Boole regarded herself as an educational psychologist. She was interested in understanding how children learn mathematics and science using the reasoning part of their mind, their physical bodies and their “unconscious processes”. She advocated the use of the reflective journal and cooperative learning where students could share their ideas with one another in an environment of peer tutoring.
The Cork Examiner article makes reference to Mary’s daughters – “it is a remarkable fact that her genius has descended to her daughters, who, by the way, were all born in Cork. It is noteworthy that the late Professor Boole’s grandson has obtained the two highest prizes in mathematics at Cambridge University, and has recently been made Professor of Meteorology by the Government”. Her five daughters made their mark in a range of fields. Alicia (1860–1940) became an expert in four-dimensional geometry. Lucy (1862–1904) was a chemist and pharmacist and the first female professor at the London School of Medicine for Women in the Royal Free Hospital. She was the first female Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. Mary Ellen (b.1856) married mathematician Charles Hinton. Hinton was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled Scientific Romances. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension. Margaret (1858–1935) was the mother of mathematician Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, who is referenced in the newspaper quote. George (1886 –1975) was a British physicist and mathematician, and a major figure in fluid dynamics and wave theory. In 1910 he was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity College, and the following year he was appointed to a meteorology post, becoming Reader in Dynamical Meteorology.
Ethel Lilian (1864–1960) married the Polish revolutionary Wilfrid Michael Voynich and was the author of a number of works. She is most famous for her first novel The Gadfly, first published in 1897 in the United States (June) and Britain (September), about the struggles of an international revolutionary in Italy. This novel was very popular in the Soviet Union and was the top bestseller and compulsory reading there, and was seen as ideologically useful; for similar reasons, the novel has been popular in the People’s Republic of China as well. By the time of Voynich’s death The Gadfly had sold an estimated 2,500,000 copies in the Soviet Union and had been made into two Russian movies, first in 1928 in Soviet Georgia (Krazana) and then again in 1955.
Captions:
848a. Mary Everest, 1932-1916 (source: University College Cork).
848b. Ethel Lilian Voynich, 1864 –1960, née Boole (source: University College Cork).
On Saturday, 25 June 2016, 12noon, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in association with the Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital, will give a public historical walking tour of the hospital grounds (meet at gate). The walk is free and takes place to support the summer bazaar 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, this year the site is 175 years old”. 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 over eight acres, 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.
For early June 1916, the diversity of news stories is very interesting to read in local newspapers such as the Cork Examiner. One hundred years ago exactly amidst the backdrop of military curfews and Frongoch deportations, the references to those Corkmen fighting on the western front was significant, primed with propaganda but also touching.
On 29 May 1916 the management of Cork Opera House began a week long “instructive entertainment programme” in a series of cinema war records. Photos of a number of celebrities identified with the Allies cause, were popular. These were followed by several clever cartoons illustrating the “artist’s conception of things”, and the pointed humour of some of these were created to evoke applause. Scenes on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, were displayed as well as British and French battleships in action off the Turkish coast. Smaller craft were shown doing scouting duty. A French airman was also shown decorated on board a battleship for his daring feats. Somewhere in France or Flanders was the next scene of operations. Neuve Chapelle and other villagers were presented after the German bombardment. The desolation of the landscape was pictured – nothing but ruins stood where once churches, schools, public buildings, or industrial establishments flourished. The commentary on the war then led to images of graveyards, where lay hundreds and hundreds of dead soldiers. From ruined villages one was taken to the British trenches, where all the phases of modern warfare were vividly photographed. A battery of 18-pounders was shown in action against a German blockhouse, which was blown to bits.
Trench life was highlighted – the Grenadier Guards marching past to the firing line as well as a Welsh battalion. The greatest interest focused on the Irish regiments. The Royal Irish, the Munsters, and the Connaughts were shown going to Roman Catholic Mass at the front, and then marching off into action. Captain William Redmond MP (for Tyrone East) of the Irish Guards was recognised leading his company to the trenches, and he received audience applause. The work of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was detailed. On mobilization the Corps consisted of approximately 9,000 other ranks, by 1918 there were 13,000 RAMC Officers and 154,000 other ranks. Words of praise were given to the camera operators/ producers for having secured fine pictures under exceptionally unfavourable circumstances of difficulty and danger. Some of the pictures were taken within 150 yards of the enemy’s front trenches. The war pictures were to be shown twice nightly at Cork Opera House during the first week of June 1916. There was be a matinee on the Saturday at 2.30 pm.
On the 1 June 1916 further preparatory work began on the establishment of the Government Munitions Factory in Cork. Provision was to be made for the accommodation of those tenants of St Peter’s Market who were to be dislocated. There were to be in all some 78 tenants to be provided for by Cork Corporation. As the accommodation available in the northern avenue of the Bazaar Market only measures 133 feet by 42 feet, with a wing 40 feet by 20 feet, about seventeen tenants, who would otherwise be without room, would have to be accommodated in a new annexe, which was to be built in Portney’s Lane, adjoining, on the site of some old houses recently demolished. An amount of work had to be done, and this included not only the draining of the northern avenue of the Bazaar Market but also the concreting of a large portion of the floor. It was expected that some time would elapse before St Peter’s Market could be handed over to the Government authorities.
In early June 1916, there was much anxiety by the relatives of Corkmen serving in the various units of the British Navy understood to be on duty in the North Sea area. There were many inquiries as to the arrival of casualty lists. It was announced that the three destroyers – Nomad, Nestor and Shark – had been sunk. In and around Kinsale, from which district alone several hundred were serving in the Royal Navy, a considerable proportion of them were in the Grand Fleet. Crosshaven, Ringaskiddy and Aghada were also represented. The full official casualty lists required some days to complete.
On 2 June, the Cork Examiner related the contribution of Lambkins Tobacco and the story of the “boys in the trenches” needing a smoke. Lambkin’s of Cork figured high up on the list of reputable brands. The company had just received a third order for 20,000lbs of tobacco for 320,000 men – so that each would receive an ounce of tobacco. The mixture was made up of two of the best American leaves and a special growth, the result being a smoke that is full flavoured and cool. The making up, packing etc, was mostly carried out in the factory, and it gave a good deal of employment, as well as a huge financial boast to the Cork box industry. Lambkins Factory was based in Fishers Street Merchant’s Quay, Cork. It was observed that the ladies often packed a love message in the tins, which were for dispatch to front line troops.
To be continued…
Captions:
847a. Photograph of staff of Lambkins Snuff and Tobacco Factory (source: Cork City Library)
847b. Captain William Redmond, Irish Guards, c.1916 (source: RTE Archives)
