Kieran’s Our CIty, Our Town, 16 April 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 16 April 2015
Cork Harbour Memories (Part 19)
Tudor Ships on the Lee
George Carew’s Map of Cork or plan of the walled town of Cork is different to that of Muskerry. Dated to the late sixteenth century, sometime in the 1590s perhaps, the map depicts numerous structures, which emphasise Cork as a port and a place to be protected as an English outpost of trade. The town walls, the Tudor ships, and the suburban features such as abbeys and watch towers show a town prepared for any potential attack and the difficulties of an attack. The river is presented as an integral feature around which the plan is defined. Like the Map of Muskerry, it is an English-made map to control territory. Here a militarised maritime zone is depicted.
At the heart of the map is Watergate, Cork’s central maritime gate with its associated port, dock and custom house. It would have been impressive in its mechanism in opening to leave ships in. The gate allowed access into a private world of merchants and citizens. The masts of ships moored would have creaked as they knocked against the stone quays. Built between two marshy islands, in the middle of a walled town, its entrance was between the two castles – King’s Castle and Queen’s Castle. Castle Street now occupies a section of the interior dock.
Carew in his map places an emphasis on two Tudor style galleons at the base of his plan – one revealing its starboard side and the other its port side – both have their sails filled with wind – lines, ropes and ladders are almost frozen in an action to move; canons appear through the port holes as if ready for attack. The depiction of the two ships like this can only be speculated upon. Certainly the ships symbolise the link to the protection of the waters of the town and the wider harbour and the role of the English and local navy in its protection. They were symbols of Cork’s presence in a north-west European maritime culture. They were a reminder that to enter the River Lee estuary you would be met by force. Your ship was probably watched from the harbour mouth all the way up the Lee Estuary to the walled town.
The reality of these galleons was far from comfort. The map does not show the enormous amount of crew needed to manoeuvre such ships. These vessels were large ocean going ships, four times as long as they were wide. They had a special deck for cannons. They were broad, slow and not very manoeuvrable. All year round, the interior of a galleon was damp, with a strong smell of tar, stagnant water and sweating unwashed me. For the most part, they were also dark. On the main deck, the only light came from openings in the centre of the deck, from ventilating hatches above each gun, or from the gun ports when their lids were open. Other light came only from candles.
In an attempt to find out more about the workings of and symbolism surrounding Tudor ships, in recent months I travelled to Portsmouth to explore their historic dockyard and heritage complex. One of their purpose-built museums gives public access to view the ghostly timber ruins of the Tudor ship Mary Rose. Half of the ship was lifted from the sea-bed in October 1982, and is now undergoing conservation, as well as over 22,000 artefacts found on board, at Portsmouth. This major project provided opportunities to understand the ship, her essence, her weapons, equipment, crew and stores.
The interpretative panels there reveal that the Mary Rose was built at Portsmouth between 1509 and 1511. Named for Henry VIII’s favourite sister, Mary Tudor, later queen of France, the ship was part of a large expansion of naval force by the new king in the years between 1510 and 1515. Warships, and the cannon they carried, were the ultimate status symbol of the sixteenth century, and an opportunity to demonstrate the wealth and power of the king abroad. The Mary Rose remained the second most powerful ship in the fleet and a favourite of the king. She was deemed to be a fine sailing ship, operating in the Channel to keep up links with the last English landholdings around Calais. She was a carrack, equipped to fight at close range.
The Mary Rose was rebuilt in the 1530s. Her 1536 rebuild transformed her into a 700-ton prototype galleon, with a powerful battery of heavy cannon, capable of inflicting serious damage on other ships at a distance. The high castles (combat structures above deck) were cut down, decks strengthened, and she was armed with heavy guns, with 15 large bronze guns, 24 wrought-iron carriage guns and 52 smaller anti-personnel guns. The Mary Rose now had the firepower to engage the enemy on any bearing, and conduct a stand-off artillery battle. Some of the guns were mounted on advanced naval gun carriages, which made them far easier to handle and move on a crowded gun deck. The new emphasis on artillery reflected the mastery of gun founding in England, another development pushed by Henry VIII. It also reflected the need for a naval force to defend the kingdom against European rivals.
To be continued…
Captions:
788a. Conserved remains of Mary Rose, Tudor ship, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, 2014 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
788b. Map of Cork, late sixteenth century as depicted in Sir George Carew’s Pacata Hibernia, or History of The Wars in Ireland (1633), vol. 2, opp page 137.
Kieran’s Question to the City Manager/ CE and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 13 April 2015
Question to the City Manager/ CE:
To ask the CE why has the complimentary offer by the Council of erecting tribune banners on the Sarah Flannery lights in the city centre for festival bodies been stopped? I understand that the Council now wish to have circa E.6,000 for such banners to be put up? The banners are a great way of letting citizens know about upcoming festivals and events (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Motions:
That speed limit and speed warning signs be erected on Douglas and South Douglas Roads (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
That ramps and speed limit signs be erected on Blackrock Road leading down from the St Michael’s Church to the pier (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 9 April 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 9 April 2015
Cork Harbour Memories (Part 18)
Stories in Stone
Staying with George Carew’s map of sixteenth century Muskerry (see last week), one of its concerns was the showing of castles and churches – his castles are marked with a circle and a dot whilst his churches are demarcated with a snowman type delineation. The dashed lines reflect fluctuating territorial lines between Gaelic families and Carew’s long list of allies and adversaries. The map also points to small woodland areas across the territory. Carew’s circled dots very much under represent the prominence of castles in the landscape. The majority were tall slender stone tower houses with an estate surrounding them. Many still stand as ruins, haunted in a sense by the human life that once drove survival and civilised structures in them. All are worthy of remark and all have been written about through the ages.
The tower house at Kilcrea was built by Cormac MacCarthy in the mid fifteenth century and lies only a few miles from Cork City. In its heyday it provided a buffer area like Blarney Castle – that those who travelled west along the River Lee, knew they were entering retaken Gaelic territory. The name Kilcrea (Cill Chre) harks back to an earlier history and means the Cell of Cere, Cera or Cyra. St Cere, who lived in the sixth century. She is is said to have founded a nunnery about a mile east of the friary in the parish of St Owen’s, now called Ovens. It appears that Kilcrea was a location with ecclesiastical associations long before Cormac Láidir MacCarthy founded the Franciscan Friary there circa 1465 AD. The friary was dedicated to St Brigid of Kildare.
A few fields west of the Franciscan Friary stands the impressive ruined tower house of Kilcrea. It was built by Cormac McCarthy, Lord of Muskerry and was situated nearly in the centre of the valley, within a short distance of the Bride. Although inferior in importance and size, to that of Blarney, it was and still is a considerable structure to walk around and explore in safety. John Windele, antiquarian, in his Historical and descriptive notices of the city of Cork and its vicinity (1839) eloquently describes the castle of Kilcrea as standing in isolation; ”the warrior pile, stands in stern loneliness, denuded of its circling woods, isolated and ruinous – a better taste may again restore to it some of its sylvan honours”.
This abandoned “warrior pile” of blocks of limestone is like a complex jigsaw puzzle of stone and is well put together. This was a building made to last, made to be permanent. The stones are heavy – their weight now intertwining with the weight of history which now governs them. The quoin or corner stones and the material remains of mortar are testament to the masons who planned and put this prominent structure together. Its site is enclosed by a narrow moat still filled with water. The castle has a small fortified area at the eastern side of it, and is defended by curtain walls, and two square vaulted towers, now in ruins.
Inside the keep, it is divided by two semi-circular stone arches (being turned on a kind of basket work of interwoven sallows, or willow wattles). One arch is above the other, at the heights of one third, and two thirds of the building. All of the intermediate floors have been destroyed. Stone corbels for timber floors remain to entice the visitor to think about creaking floor boards. The basement rooms like those at Blarney are merely lit by narrow loops. At the south side of the vestibule is a stair case, which consists of an easy flight of seventy-seven steps and runs up the entire height of the building, becoming spiral as it approaches the higher chambers. A number of small closets are attached to the upper rooms, all of which are vaulted.
The upper chamber formed the main hall – a room of state and was at one time spacious and well lit. Its floor is now overgrown with grass. It was lit by three spacious windows, with stone mullons, and ogee headed tracery of a basic design – but enough to entice you to rub your hand over this ancient piece of art work. John Windele after his visit remarked that at the north side of the main hall chamber, was formerly a “capacious fire place with a well-executed mantle-piece, on the impost of which was an inscription, in raised letters commemorating rather modern repairs”. This was also removed some years before Windele’s visit and during my visit the missing fire-place was also quite apparent. From the ruined battlements is obtained an extensive view over the valley to the west, embracing the view of Castlemore and Cloghdha Castle near Crookstown.
On my visit the hum of a nearby lawnmower seemed to bounce from wall to wall in the interior, making me look behind you at every corner. The structure is haunted by its stories and history. This haunting feeling is also one, which Windele also picked up upon; “it has been haunted by a phooka, or mischievous spirit, under the form of a black crow; so that nightly visitors would require strong nerves to brave the terrors of its lonely and forsaken chambers”.
To be continued…
Captions:
787a. Kilcrea tower house, March 2015 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
787b. Interior of Kilcrea tower house, March 2015 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
787c. Entrance arch and stairs, Kilcrea tower house, March 2015 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 2 April 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 2 April 2015
Cork Harbour Memories (Part 17)
Carew’s Campaigns
George Carew’s impact on the cultural and political landscape of Munster was vast. By the spring of 1586 Carew had been knighted and was sent on a private mission by Elizabeth I to Ireland. Carew arrived into a country where huge tracts of the Earl of Desmond’s lands in Munster had taken over by the English crown. About 300,000 acres of land were confiscated in total. From 1585, the plantation of Munster had began and new English settlers were given land. As a reward to Carew’s loyalty, he acquired large estates.
Carew’s rise in political circles and in English power structures in Ireland was quick. In February 1588 Carew was appointed Master of the Ordnance, and returned to Ireland. In 1590 he was admitted to the Privy Council. Two years later in 1592 he was made Lieutenant-General of the English Ordnance, and in 1596 and 1597 he was engaged with Essex and Raleigh in expeditions against Spain. In March 1599 he was appointed to attend the Earl of Essex to Ireland and on 27 January 1600 he was made President of Munster.
Carew’s proceedings for the next three years during his term as President are carefully detailed in Pacata Hibernia (1633), nominally written by Thomas Stafford, but inspired by himself. The Battle of Kinsale features prominently in his pages on campaigns in Cork. On 23 September, 1601, a Spanish fleet entered the harbour of Kinsale with 3,400 troops in forty-four vessels under the command of Don Juan del Aguila. They immediately took possession of the walled town. Del Aguila despatched a message to Ulster to O’Neill and O’Donnell to come south without delay. Lord Mountjoy and Carew mustered their forces, and at the end of three weeks encamped on the north side of Kinsale with an army of 12,000 men.
O’Neill arrived on 21 December 1601 with an army of about 4,000, and encamped at Belgooly north of Kinsale, about three miles from the English lines. His advice was, not to attack the English, but to let their army suffer from the cold. Already 6,000 of them had perished. But he was overruled in a council of war, and a combined attack of Irish and Spaniards was arranged for the night of 3 January, 1602. Efforts to rally his ranks were in vain. Del Aguila’s attack did not come off and the Irish lost the battle of Kinsale. Soon after the battle Del Aguila surrendered the town. He agreed also to give up the castles of Baltimore, Castlehaven, and Dunboy, which were garrisoned by Spaniards. Shortly afterwards, he returned to Spain.
The Dunboy Castle though was not given up without a fight. In April 1602 Carew took Dunboy Castle and estate, which was the stronghold of the O’Sullivan Bere clan and built to guard the harbour of Berehaven. The O’Sullivan Beres controlled the fishing fleets off the Irish coast and became rich through the collection of taxes on the rights of passage. Dunboy was surrendered to the Spaniards, on their invasion of Ireland in 1601 by its owner, Daniel O’Sullivan. Early the following year following the treaty at Kinsale the Irish clan took possession of the castle by surprise and seized the arms and ammunition the Spaniards had deposited there. Sir George Carew as well as 5000 soldiers were sent to suppress the O’Sullivan Bere. In April, the English army marched against the O’Sullivans to Bantry, and on 6 June set up camp on the opposite side of the castle’s bay.
Dunboy Castle was considered impregnable and was only defended by 143 men under the command of Richard McGeoghegan. It took two weeks to take it during which it was almost destroyed by artillery fire. After hand to hand fighting the remaining 58 survivors were executed in the town square. The entire castle site lay in ruins until 1730 when the Puxley family were granted the Dunboy Estate along as well as other land belonging to the O’Sullivan’s. They then set about building a mansion close to the Puxley Castle keep and Dunboy Castle was left in ruins. Very little now remains of the old castle. It now comprises of just a few collections of stones which in parts are almost completely covered with overgrowth.
The end of the Cork wars found the country in a deplorable condition of ruin and depopulation. Carew and the other English leaders, and their Irish allies, profited largely by the confiscations that ensued. Carew returned to England in March 1602 at the earnest request of his friend Cecil. Carew stood in as high favour with King James I as with Elizabeth, and in the Irish Patent Rolls are recorded the numerous grants bestowed on him from time to time. In 1605 he was created Baron Carew, and was made Governor of Guernsey. In 1611 he was again despatched to Ireland as head of the commission for the plantation of Ulster.
The favour which followed him through the reigns of Elizabeth and James continued unabated under Charles I, by whom he was created Earl of Totnes. Much of his later years were spent in arranging his invaluable collection of papers connected with the history of Ireland. Carew died at the Savoy, London, 27 March 1629, aged about 72, and was buried at Stratford-upon-Avon. He left one daughter. His Countess survived him many years.
To be continued…
Captions:
786a. Map of Siege of Dunboy, late sixteenth century as depicted in Sir George Carew’s Pacata Hibernia, or History of The Wars in Ireland (1633), vol. 2, opp page 191.
786b. Ruins of Dunboy Castle, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 25 March 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 26 March 2015
Cork Harbour Memories (Part 16)
A Map of Muskerry
In late sixteenth-century Cork guardsmen at the top of Blarney Castle commanded a very fine view over a rich undulating landscape intersected by the River Blarney, and other streams, and bounded on the north-west by the lofty chain of the Boggeragh Mountains, and a view extending back the Lee Valley catchment area. It is difficult to imagine their world and how highly contested the landscapes of the region were amongst English and Irish families. A glance at a map called Map of Muskerry from the book Pacata Hibernia (1633) shows the extent of territorial control by English and Irish families. Castles abound the map.
From first view, it is a beautiful hand drawn map of the Lee Valley and its catchment area. The River Lee takes centre focus as the cartographer bends his representation to a west-east axis extending from the walled town of Cork as the base. The river is presented as an integral feature around which territory is defined. The river and its tributaries create what in an abstract way looks like a tree on which the memories of the families and their dwellings extend out from. Today it is perhaps the Cork-Macroom national routeway that takes precedence in this part of the valley despite the rich beauty of places such as Farran, Carrigadrohid and Canovee.
The map is insightful but a complex piece in the arbitration of identity and place in the region. It is an English-made map to control territory. The map had a huge role to play in identifying the political fault lines and landscapes in the catchment area. You can feel the tension in this drawn landscape. It is a highly politicised map, dramatic in its content through its shadings and lines – highly contested – a labyrinth of hidden meanings. It is accurate in much of its general detail. Every important corner is depicted, representations of crossing points of rivers, castles of English and Irish families and churches. Both the latter are gathering points for communities and have their own power structures – all controlling the local communities who engaged with them. The scenery drawn in it such as mountains and rivers add to the representation in lending to where territory starts and ends. The map reveals the extent of Irish landholdings – and how prominent families such as the McCarthys, O’Donovans, O’Keeffes and O’Sullivans were to the main English stronghold of the walled town of Cork and its harbour. The Barrys and the Roches seem to be the last bastions of old Anglo-Norman English families at the base of the map, who act a buffer zone between the town of Cork and its hinterland.
The map is rooted in a wider political context and appears in the published papers of Sir George Carew. Pacata Hibernia: or A History of the Wars in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (originally titled Pacata Hibernia, Ireland appeased and reduced; or, an historie of the late warres of Ireland) was first published in London in 1633. It offers Carew’s contemporary account of affairs in Ireland during the latter stages of the Nine Years War, as well as details on the conduct of the campaign in Munster. It is owing to Carew’s history-making ambition that the Munster wars are detailed. He instructed Thomas Stafford, his nephew, a young officer in his army, to record what he saw during the campaign and himself supplied him with valuable correspondence.
National biographies of Carew detail that he was Earl of Totnes (a market town and parish in Devon), a soldier and a statesman. He was born in 1558, probably at Exeter. After studying at Oxford, he and his brother Peter came over to Ireland in 1575 under the patronage of their kinsman Sir Peter Carew. After Sir Peter’s death, both of the brothers are mentioned as being engaged in the Irish wars. They appear as captains of a company of Devon and Cornishmen who landed at Waterford in 1579, and were afterwards appointed to keep the Castle of Adare, where they were besieged by the Earl of Desmond. Peter was slain in a sally, on 25 August 1580.
In 1580, a rebellion began in Munster against Queen Elizabeth. Many of the families who lived there, such as the Fitzmaurices, hoped to get help from the Catholic king of Spain to defeat Queen Elizabeth. The Earl of Desmond, Fitzgerald, did not put down the rebellion and was declared a traitor by the agents of the queen. His estate lands were burned and his tenants were killed. The Earl’s castles were also taken. In June 1584, a commission under Sir Valentine Browne surveyed southwest Munster, mapping out the lands belonging to a swathe of Irish lords associated with the rebellion, which were then granted to a small group of wealthy English Undertakers. The MacCarthy Mór clan, for example, lords of most of modern Cork and Kerry, declined to join the Fitzgerald rebellion and as a result they were spared the destruction that ultimately befell much of the rest of Munster, and avoided confiscation in plantation – hence the large tracts shown on the map of Muskerry belonging to Irish families.
To be continued…
As part of the Lifelong Learning Festival, Kieran will give a talk on Cork in the 1920s and 1930s in the Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool at 2.30pm on Friday 27 March (free, all welcome).
Caption:
785a. Portrait of Sir George Carew (picture: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon).
785b. Map of Muskerry, late sixteenth century as depicted in Sir George Carew’s Pacata Hibernia, or History of The Wars in Ireland (1633), vol. 2, opp page 267.
Kieran’s Comments, Meeting, Boundary Review Committee, 23 March 2015
Meeting, Boundary Review Committee,
Council Chamber, City Hall
Cllr Kieran McCarthy
23 March 2015
Chairman, committee members,
You’re very welcome to our chamber this afternoon.
I think everyone in this room has a grá for Cork and we are all speaking from the same hymn sheet
I wish to bring four points to this significant debate.
(1) The ambitious city:
Firstly, my context in this beautiful city is one of conducting historical walking tours for just over 22 years, 16 years of a weekly heritage column in the Cork Independent and a number of books on this city and region. We are certainly blessed in terms of what this region has to offer the homemaker, business person and visitor.
There is a depth to its story – there is alot to learn from its story – it oozes ambition, vision and a will to succeed to whatever it puts its hand to.
Cork City is unique among other Irish cities in that it alone has experienced all phases of Irish urban development, from c.AD600 to the present day. The settlement at Cork began as a monastic centre in the seventh century, founded by St FinBarre. It served as a Viking port before the Anglo-Normans arrived and created a prosperous walled town; it grew through the influx of English colonists during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and suffered the political problems inherent in Irish society at that time;
It was altered significantly through Georgian and Victorian times when reclamation of its marshes became a priority, along with the construction of spacious streets and grand town houses; its quays, docks and warehouses exhibit the impact of the industrial revolution; and in the last one hundred years, Corkonians have witnessed both the growth of extensive suburbs and the rejuvenation of the inner city.
These development threads underpin this city, its depth of character, its cultural DNA needs to be protected and not diluted…the weight of history and its heritage needs to strengthened. The rest of the region has always looked inwards to the city for a myriad of reasons – business, economics, education, sport, artistic endeavours, transportation, processes of migration and emigration – the villages and towns around the region developed because of the offering this city and its estuary had to offer and not the other way around.
Distinctive values and meanings have built up over time in Cork. Personal and cultural identities are entwined with place-making in Cork. In Cork there are strong yearnings by citizens to protect place, to maintain place to aspire in place-making.
There is also an enormous cultural depth within the undulating topography of County Cork and its enormous geography, myriads of colourful town, villages and crossroads – it possesses an enormous 400km in length coastline. Throwing Cork City into this mix of place-making competitiveness with county settlements is not progressive for this city and region.
We are blessed with the Cork we have. It is enormous with so many inter-linked and webs of elements, all difficult to mind with two councils, no mind just the prospect of one over arching institution.
Changing the nature of what Cork is….affects the cultural DNA of us all in this region.
(2) Bottom-Up analysis:
That brings me to my second point, in this debate there also needs to be a bottom-up analysis – it shouldn’t be all be top down – the political spectrum dictating this region’s future. I would encourage continued consultation with the general public on the impact of this boundary review. This process should not be rushed. It should not become a highly political process.
Certainly, decisions should not be made on a whim of the concept of political efficiency. Both Cork City and County Councils have seen what efficiency has done in the last 3-4 years as the claws of cutbacks are consistently scratching at the eyes of ideas of ambition and potential in this region and elsewhere.
(3) Building a future for our city:
This leads me to my third point the need for a strong focus on the city’s future. Our executive gave you a detailed look at what this city has achieved under enormous recessional pressures. The city is consistently batting above its weight despite the lack of development of gateway targets by government and needs to stay focussed. The city is on top of its game and with further finance, beyond the property tax receipts has the potential to ignite its city centre strategy and its docklands area.
The City is on the verge of achieving great projects such as its Cork Docklands area and Cork City Centre Strategy- it has a vision – strategies for the branding, renewal and regeneration of Cork City Centre and constructing a new suburb and industrial hub in its Docklands. These projects construct a strong core and nationally counter balance the capital’s bias in urban development. These projects don’t fit into the box of political efficiency but are about forging a strong and secure future for Ireland’s second city. This city doesn’t need to be a pawn in the game of efficiency.
Indeed, I don’t see the boundary process as one of achieving efficiency but one of dilution – the question of merging Councils will lead to dilution. Cork’s future projects run the risk of competing with other important projects in County Cork’s enormous regions – the city runs the risk of dilution of improving city governance, the dilution of key urban infrastructure priorities, the dilution of social cohesion and the dilution of many more multi-complex webs of development strategies for our city. The cost savings would be minimal – No mind the dilution of services such as housing, roads, arts, wastewater, park management, heritage – the list is endless. The city’s collection of property tax is just about balancing, what we got through the local government fund last year versus what we got through the property tax this year. Going forward to compete, the city must attain more development levies to progress its various multifaceted projects and not be over bogged down in a game of economies of scale. As a council we left the word efficiency on the recessionary road about 3 years ago, we are now on a road of survival of the fittest.
(4) The Frankenstein Council:
That leads me to my fourth point – that in the quest for efficiency, what would be created is a Frankenstein of a council – a possible council of 86 heads from different backgrounds, parties and non-parties. Efficiency would not pervade the Council chamber but the very opposite.
An unworkable political battlefield if ever would be created. The reserved decision making process of the Council would grind to an almost halt on every issue.
Efficiency at the cold face of representation will be a longer process. Meetings will be longer, the emphasis on the county with its larger geography will be acute. Democratic representation would be imbalanced.
Conclusion:
To conclude, I wish the committee to focus on my four points:
- Changing the nature of what Cork is….affects the cultural DNA of us all in this region.
- decisions should not be made on a whim of the concept of political efficiency.
- This city should not be a pawn in the game of efficiency but should be allowed to realise its ambition and vision.
- Efficiency will not pervade the Council chamber and its reserved functions but the very opposite.
Overall efficiency will become a chameleon of sorts, which will carve a route into the lives of every citizens in our great city and great county, not strengthening much but creating thinly layered foundations of an efficiency construct, promising much but one that doesn’t serve anyone effectively. Thank you for your time.
Kieran’s Talks, Lifelong Learning Festival Week
The 12th Cork Lifelong Learning Festival will take place from Monday March 23 to Sunday 29 March, 2015. Cork’s Lifelong Learning Festival promotes and celebrates learning of all kinds, across all ages, interests and abilities, from pre-school to post retirement. The festival’s motto is Investigate, Participate, Celebrate, and the public can do that by watching demonstrations, trying out skills, and seeing others, from the young to the old, show off what they are learning. Since it started in 2004, it has grown from 65 to about 500 different events. During festival week all events are free and everyone is welcome.
For the Lifelong Learning Festival Week, Cllr Kieran McCarthy will give a talk on Cork Harbour through old postcards at the meeting room of the Church of the Real Presence, Curaheen on Wednesday 25 March, 2.30pm. He will also give a talk on Cork in the 1920s and 1930s in the Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool at 2.30pm on Friday 27 March (all free, all welcome).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 19 March 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our County Article,
Cork Independent, 19 March 2015
Heritage Awards for Cork Schools 2015
This year marks the twelfth year of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project, which is co-ordinated by myself. This year’s Project culminates with an award ceremony on Friday 20 March for best projects for city-based schools. The Project is open to schools in Cork City and County – at primary level to the pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth years. A total of 48 schools in Cork (city and county) took part this year. Circa 1550 students participated in the process and approx 220 projects were submitted on all aspects of Cork’s history.
The subject of local history for many is spoken about at the dinner table in a sense every day as the lives of past family relatives are recounted. Hence the emphasis in the schools is on the personal engagement with the project, what can the student bring to the interpretation of a topic and vice versa, what’s within the topic that can inspire the student to think about it in a different way? Students are challenged to devise methodologies that provide interesting ways to approach the study of their local history. Submitted projects must be colourful, creative, have personal opinion, imagination and gain publicity. In particular students are encouraged to attain primary material through engaging with a number of methods such as fieldwork, interviews with local people, making models, photographing, cartoon creating, making DVDs of their area.
Students are to experiment with the overall design and plan of their projects. Much of the work could be published as local heritage / history guides to people and places in the region. For example a winning class project this year focussed on the aspect of Cork, now and then. They mapped out several changes to Cork’s built heritage using old postcards and interviewing older people. Students are encouraged to compare and connect the past to their present and their immediate future. Work needs to involve re-imagining what life may have been like. One of the key foundations in the Project is about developing empathy for the past– to think about attitudes and experience in the past. Interpretation is also empowering for the student- all the time developing a better sense of the different ways in which people engage with and express a sense of place and time.
Every year marks go towards making a short film or a model on projects to accompany history booklets. Submitted DVDs this year had interviews of family members to local historians to the student taking a reporter type stance on their work. Some students also chose to act out scenes from the past. Another group created a short film on University College Cork and Fota House.
The creativity section also encourages model making. The best model trophy in general goes to the creative and realistic model. This year the best model in the city went to a model of St Anne’s Church, Shandon, complimented by Westminster. The project told the story of the rise of the career of eminent painter Daniel Maclise. In the county, the top model prize went to students from St Columba’s Girls National School who re-created different monuments in their area such as the beautiful 200-year old St Columba’s Church and the fingerpost complete with paper mache flowers.
Every year, the students involved produce a section in their project books showing how they communicated their work to the wider community. It is about reaching out and gaining public praise for the student but also appraisal and further ideas. Some class projects were presented in nursing homes to engage the older generation and to attain further memories from participants. Students were also successful in putting work on local parish newsletters, newspapers and local radio stations and also presenting work in local libraries. This year the most prominent source of gaining publicity was inviting parents and grandparents into the classroom for an open day for viewing projects or putting displays on in local community centres and libraries.
Overall, the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage 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 project in the city is kindly funded by Cork Civic Trust (viz the help of John X Miller), Cork City Council (viz the help of Heritage Officer Niamh Twomey), the Heritage Council. Prizes are also provided in the 2015 season by Lifetime Lab, Lee Road (thanks to Meryvn Horgan), Seán Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre Watergrasshill and Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre. The county section is funded by myself and students. A full list of winners, topics and pictures of some of the project pages for 2015 can be viewed at www.corkheritage.ie and on facebook on Cork: Our City, Our Town. For those doing research, www.corkheritage.ie has also a number of resources listed to help with source work.
For the Lifelong Learning Festival Week, I will give a talk on Cork Harbour through old postcards at the meeting room of Church the Real Presence, on Wednesday 25 March, 2.30pm. I will also give a talk on Cork in the 1920s and 1930s in the Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool at 2.30pm on Friday 27 March (all free, all welcome).
Caption:
784a. Page from a project on Innishannon National School history from students of fourth class, Innishannon NS (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
784b. Creative project book holder in the shape of the old Farnashesheree Grain Mill, Bandon from students of Ahiohill NS, Bandon (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 12 March 2015
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article
Cork Independent, 12 March 2015
Cork Harbour Memories (Part 14)
Eloquent War Councils at Blarney
The halls of Blarney Castle by the sixteenth century witnessed its fair share of war councils. Rough maps spread on the castle’s central hall table, plotted territory held and tensions and conflicts at play in the Munster region. In our time we can only imagine these worlds of conflict and negotiation. Feuds between rivals the Fitzgeralds and the MacCarthys were on-going and long-standing. These events were punctuated by rebellions against the wider sovereign power. Tales of punishment dished out on all sides in the history books show the extent of legend making and mythologising of this violent period in Irish history. Indeed trying to read up on the multiple genealogies of the MacCarthys, you’re left wondering what is true and what is exaggerated but all are a fascinating read. Even the famous stone of eloquence emerges from the power of this mix of histories and myth, with no one story defining its origins.
In the year 1521, the head of the Fitzgeralds, James Earl of Desmond, burst with a powerful force into Muskerry. He ravaged, burnt and destroyed the territory until Cormac Oge MacCarthy led out an army against them. Cormac summoned the neighbouring chieftains to his assistance, pursued and overtook the Earl near Mourne Abbey, and inflicted on him what is described by scribes of the day a “severe chastisement”. It was after this that in 1528, Comac Oge attended Parliament as “Lord of Muscry [Muskerry]”.
The MacCarthys managed to hold their own during the sixteenth century, saved from the fate of the Desmonds, whose vast territories of over half a million acres were confiscated at the close of the century. In 1542, Teige MacCarthy, the eleventh Lord of Muskerry was one among eight chieftains of the country who made an “indenture of submission” to the crown, in which they agreed to refer all disputes between themselves to a commission of arbitration appointed for Munster, and consisting of the Bishops of Cork and Waterford, instead of appealing to the Brehon law or civil law judges of the region.
In the 1570s, the fourteenth Lord of Muskerry, Sir Cormac McTeige MacCarthy was rewarded for his allegiance. He kept his lands and received large grants of confiscated property. The lord had access to up to 3,000 men. Sir Cormac consented to adopt the royal device for passing down family property – surrender of his lands including Carrignamuck in Dripsey into the hands of the sovereign and to receive the same back by a re-grant. The crown rent was two hawks or £6 13s. 4d.
Shortly after the re-granting, on 4 August 1580, Sir James Sussex Fitzgerald, youngest brother of the Earl of Desmond, made one of a series of regular attacks hoping to rob cattle from the barony of Muskerry. Donal MacCarthy, the Lieutenant of Carrignamuck, assembled an army and attacked and completely defeated Sir James, with the loss of 150 of his men. Sir James was mortally wounded in the fight and was captured by a blacksmith, who hid him in a bush till the fight was ended, and then delivered him. Sir Cormac ordered the confinement of James in Carrigadrohid Castle, three miles to the south west of Carrignamuck. Soon after, the captive was surrendered to Sir Warham St Leger, Commissioner for Munster, who had him tried for treason. Sir James on his conviction was executed. His head and limbs were affixed to one of the drawbridges that led into the walled town of Cork. Donal, the lieutenant, was also mortally wounded in this action, by an arrow which struck him under the right ear, and penetrated six inches into his neck. He died some time after.
Donal’s death raised the next brother, Callaghan, then of Castlemore to the title of fifteenth Lord of Muskerry. A year later in 1585, Callaghan had passed the lordship to his nephew Cormac Mór MacDermod MacCarthy. In 1588, Cormac attended the English parliament as Baron of Blarney and because of the unsettled political nature In Ireland in the following year he surrendered his lands and to the crown and obtained a re-grant.
Fast forward to Charles II, in 1658, he conferred the title of Earl of Clancarthy on the head of this family, the last of whom was dispossessed after the siege of Limerick. Hence the estate, comprising all Muskerry and its castles, were forfeited to the crown for the earl’s adherence to the cause of James II. On the sale of the forfeited lands in 1692, the Hollow Sword Blade Company purchased all the land around this place, and more than 3000 acres in the parish were allotted to a member of the Company, and were held by his descendant, George Putland, Esq., of Dublin. Blarney Castle was purchased in 1701 by Sir James Jefferies, Governor of Cork, who soon after erected a large and handsome house in front of it, which was the family residence for many years. Complete with a mythic stone of eloquence, the story of the MacCarthys took a new course especially as the late nineteenth century progressed and the rise of mass tourism to the castle began.
To be continued…
Kieran’s new book, Cork Harbour Through Time (with Dan Breen) is now available in Cork bookshops.
Caption:
783a. Blarney Castle, Present Day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
783b. Recounting the legend of the stone, mid twentieth century postcard at Blarney Castle (picture: Kieran McCarthy)