Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 8 May 2014

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

740a. Section of Grand Jury map of Cork City, 1811

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 8 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of Mahon”

 

     Next Sunday afternoon, 11 May at 2pm, I present a historical walking tour of Mahon (start Blackrock Garda Station, Ringmahon Road). The walking tour explores the rich heritage of the Mahon Peninsula.  John Windele’s Guide to the South of Ireland in 1844 notes that the grounds between the Castle and the Douglas River are called the ‘Ring’ because of the Irish word “Reen” which means a promontory. He attributes Ringmahon Castle to a branch of the old Irish sept of the O’Mahonys, who anciently held large possessions in the vicinity and left their name Mahony or Mahon to the present day area.

The first documented evidence for a settlement in the area of Ballintemple-Blackrock relates to the medieval order of Knights Templars, who established a large and ornate church in the district in 1392. This church was taken down in the 1540s during the reign of King Henry VIII. In addition, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, three mercantile families, who traded within the medieval walled town of Cork, the Galway, Coppinger and Roche families possessed large tracts of land in the vicinity. Those latter families were but three of several very important and influential families in Cork who were closely involved in trade with Britain, the European Continent and in the 1600s in the Americas. The Galway family in particular marked their presence in Blackrock by constructing Dundanion Castle, a tower house, which was built circa 1564 and lived in by various occupants until 1832. Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. Ringmahon Castle is depicted on a map of Mahon about 1660 as well as the Castles of Blackrock and Dundanion.

        In the early 1690s, the Galway, Coppinger and Roche families had their lands forfeited during the Williamite wars in Ireland. Their lands in the Ballintemple area were placed under the ownership of the English Parliament in association with the Corporation of Cork. In 1750, an account of the Blackrock district by Charles Smith, historian, detailed that there were several suburban retreats comprising large houses with elaborate gardens and plantations and occupied by the merchant class – gentry. Smith compared the banks of the River Lee as having very similar features but on a smaller scale to the banks of the Seine in Paris and the Thames in London. This is reflected in 1779 in Taylor and Skinner’s Road Maps of Ireland where several houses are marked as well as naming their owners – the Allens, the Sweets, the Busteeds, the Hairs and the Tavis family. Blackrock Road was shown as the principle thoroughfare.

In the early nineteenth century, large numbers of middle class citizens working and living in the overpopulated inner city decided to separate their place of work from their place of residence. For example in the Mahon Peninsula, the construction of Ringmahon House was part of this trend. It was symbolic of the aspirations of the original owner James Murphy and of the flexibility of the standard Georgian design. A great book by Donal and Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil on Murphy’s brewery alludes to the Murphy family being merchants in the City of Cork as well as being authors, brewers, distillers, inventors and parliamentarians. The profits generated by the various enterprises were invested in bricks, mortar and land. Apart from Ringmahon, the Murphys also built the grand residence of Ashton in Blackrock. Northside locations that were built by the Murphys consisted of Clifton at Montenotte, Belleville and Hyde Park on Glanmire Road; Vosterburg, Montenotte. Suburban locations comprised Lauriston, Glanmire, Myrtle Hill House, Tivoli Road; Annemount, Glounthaune. Harbour locations comprised Tivoli House, Bellevue in Passage West, Little Island House, Inchera House in Little Island and Norwood in Rushbrooke.

       James Murphy (1769-1855) built Ringmahon House. He was the eldest son of Jeremiah (1745-1802). Jeremiah was a Cork based merchant who achieved much success in the leather industry in the late eighteenth century. At that time tanning became an important industry in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In the early nineteenth century, there were forty-four tanyards employing over four hundred people in the City of Cork.

        James Murphy was born in 1769 at Coolroe in the parish of Carrigrohane. James married Mary Galway in 1792 and resided at Morrison’s Island, Cork where his twelve children were born. James was a merchant, an importer and a ship-owner. In partnership with his brother Nicholas, they were handling teas, pepper, coffee, indigo, rum and both raw and refined sugar. All were imported from their relevant countries of origin.  In 1825, James Murphy with his brothers set up Midleton Distillery. Two years later, he took over the business interest of his brothers and changed its name to James Murphy & Co. James Murphy had twelve children, Jeremiah, John, Edward, Nicholas, Henry, Francis James, Daughters Kate and Anna Maria. They were all born on Morrison’s Island. James Murphy moved to Blackrock sometime after 1818. The move coincided with James attaining a 21-year lease of Ringmahon Castle and grounds from William Crawford, the brewer in 1820.

More on the historical walking tour…

Caption:

740a. Section of Grand Jury Map of Cork City, 1811 (source: Cork City Library)

McCarthy’s Forthcoming Community Events

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

 

Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’ 2014

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

 

 

 

McCarthy’s Historical Walking Tour of Mahon, Sunday 11 May

 

On Sunday 11 May, Cllr Kieran McCarthy is conducting a historical walking tour of Mahon (free, meet 2pm, Blackrock Garda Station, Ringmahon Road, approx two hours). Cllr McCarthy noted; “Within the story of Mahon and its environs, one can write about a myriad of topics from its connection to the river and the harbour to its former mini demesne type landscape in the nineteenth century to its heart of hard working labourers and fishermen”. The tour starts by exploring the development of Dunlocha Cottages. They were developed by the Cork Rural District Council, which existed through Public Health Acts of the late 1800s, giving them authority to improve public health in the areas they represented and Labourers Acts of the late 1800s, which gave them authority to clear slum like areas and build new houses for those that needed them most.

 

 

McCarthy’s Historical Walking Tour of Ballinlough, Sunday 18 May

 

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

Ballinlough has a deep history dating back to Bronze Age Ireland. In fact it is probably the only urban area in the country to still have a standing stone still standing in it for over 5,000 years. Kieran’s walk will highlight this heritage along with tales of landlords, big houses, rural life in nineteenth century Ballinlough and the rise of its twentieth century settlement history.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 1 May 2014, Historical Walking Tour

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

740a. Section of Grand Jury Map of Cork City, 1811

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 1 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of Ballintemple”

 

The first of three walking tours I wish to present in early summer takes place on Sunday, 4 May and is of Ballintemple (2pm, meet inside Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free). Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knights Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”. The graveyard is impressive in its collection of eighteenth century and nineteenth century headstones. It has a series of low uninscribed gravemarkers in its south east corner. There are also many inscribed headstones with smiling faces with one inscribed with ‘Remember Death’. The graveyard remains an undiscovered corner of the city with much of its family histories unresearched and unpublished.

The earliest references to the Knight’s Templar church are shrouded in myth in Ballintemple. Perhaps all is known a rough date of dissolution. Michael J Carroll’s book “The Knights Templar and Ireland” describes some of their background in Europe and in Ireland. The Knights Templars or The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon were one of the most controversial organisations in medieval European history.  Formed in the early 12th century in obscure circumstances they were shrouded in secrecy for their 190 year history.  Their initial aim was to break with traditional non violent ethos of religious orders and take up arms to protect the recently captured city of Jerusalem. They also vowed to protect Pilgrims visiting holy sites in the Middle East.  They became famous initially due to their military exploits but during the crusades but in 13th century they gained more fame and in some cases notoriety for creating a medieval Banking empire.

The Knights Templars are said to be in Ireland before 1177, the Anglo-Norman invasion.  In time it is reputed that they gained lands in Clontarf in Dublin, Carlow, Louth Kilkenny, Sligo and several other locations where they built houses or preceptories.  By 1308, they possessed Irish lands worth over £400 per annum. They had tenants on their lands who ploughed, planted crops, created pastures, cut down trees and cleared wooded areas.  The right to cut down a forest was a special privilege granted by the English King at that time, so the Templars had special privileges. Workers were paid in goods or in kind for their work but later were paid two pennies per week.

In the main base in Dublin, the Templar master was an officer of the English crown and one of the auditors of the Irish exchequer. He sometimes acted as mediator in disputes between the Anglo-Normans and the Irish chiefs. He travelled to London once a year to make a full report to the English Master of the Temple at which time proceeds of the various estates were handed over. The high respect that Templars were held in resulted in circa 1220, the government of Henry III giving instructions to the English Viceroy of Ireland that all taxes, duties and income from Ireland should be handed over to the Templars and Hospitallers. They were also required to take up military posts if called upon.

The Templars could not partake in warfare against other Christians – so avoided war with Irish Chieftains. They were free from many legal customs. They were free from military duties and Irish feudal customs. They were immune from customs to support infrastructure, free from export duties, free from all tolls at every market, bridge, roadway and sea, free from tolls for their own markets. They had complete criminal and civil jurisdiction over their tenants and vassals and the power to punish those found guilty of carrying out a criminal act against them. They had use of pits and the gallows.

Their dress in peace consisted of a long, white robe, having the cross of St. George on the left shoulder, and worn after the manner of a cloak or mantle; a cap, turned up, such as heralds call a ‘cap of maintainance’, covered the head; and the staff or abacus of the order, having at its extremity an encircled cross, was borne in the right hand. Their dress in war did not differ materially from that of the knights of that period, except the distinctive cross, the badge of the order being emblazoned on the cuirass, and the Agnus Dei was displayed on their banners.

Their superior, elected for life, chosen by the order and styled the grand master, took rank as an independent prince. Immediately under him were the preceptors or priors, each ruling over his peculiar district, and subject to the grand master and the statutes of the order. The number of the knights’ companions were unlimited; they were each attended by two esquires, who were usually candidates for admission into the order, into which none were enrolled but those who could prove their nobility of descent for two generations.

More on the walking tour…

Caption:

739a. Grand Jury Map of Cork, 1811 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 24 April 2014

Cork History, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

738a. Aerial Photograph of Cork Docks, 1968

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 24 April 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 78) – The Prosperous Region”

 

“Altogether the capital investment in the Cork area during the last two years exceeds £20m and factories under construction or already planned involve further capital expenditure of some £8m. It is significant that much of this investment includes capital which came from foreign sources in Britain, the USA, Holland, Germany, and France. In no other part of the State has such a considerable industrial development taken place” (John J Horgan, The Irish Times, 17 October 1961).

The eighty-year-old John J Horgan, Chairman of the Cork Harbour Commissioners wrote at length in his Irish Times editorial of 1961 describing the remarkable development which took place in the previous years.  He had been chairman of the Commissioners for 35 years and had played his own part in developing the bustling port.  He was an authority on Irish history, a lawyer and writer, and chairman of a company that had department stores in Cork and Belfast. In his 1961 editorial he describes the key developments of late 1950s  – the Cork ESB plants (hydro and steam), Whitegate Oil Refinery, Verolme Dockyard, Gouldings Fertilisers – these were all large scale industrial projects, which brought Cork industry to a whole new level of expansion. In addition to the large developments, smaller factories had been built in Cork, on the Kinsale Road. These included Kincora Carpets Ltd., O’Brien Brothers (Spinners) Ltd., and Seafield Fabrics, Ltd. Additions had also been made by 1961 to the large Sunbeam-Wolsey factory in Blackpool, Harringtons and Goodlass, Wall, Ltd, and the Cork Shoe Factory, Ltd.

There were also several developments of note in County Cork.  Cor-Tex Proofers, Ltd were producing for upholstery and similar use. A flourishing pottery at Carrigaline, which was in existence for many years, had transformed the district economically, and had manufactured earthenware and tiles. In Youghal there were several textile factories, subsidiaries of Sunbeam-Wolsey. In Kinsale a fish cannery under French management, an American cotton clothing factory, and a German metal works had successfully started operation, while at Bantry an English firm had opened a factory for the manufacture of clothes dryers and washing machines. There were factories that were started at Mallow, one by the Irish Sugar Company for the accelerated freeze-drying of food, and another by the Borden Company of America for the production of dried milk.

Industrial expansion also had a knock on affect on the population of Cork City and suburbs, which was 115,506, being an increase of 3,000 as compared with 1951. Since the end of the war Cork Corporation had built 3,485 houses, mainly in new housing estates around the city’s edges. In 1961, the plan was to build another thousand houses in the early 1960s.  A modern public lighting system had been installed. North Gate Bridge or Griffith’s Bridge was rebuilt on an enlarged scale at a cost of £70,000. Two new reservoirs were constructed to increase and improve the city’s water supply. A proposal by the Corporation to bring the suburbs within the city boundary was under consideration at a local government inquiry.

John Horgan in his editorial also highlighted infrastructural developments in the Port of Cork. The Harbour Commissioners during the previous ten years had improved facilities. In 1919 the Cork Harbour Commissioners acquired from the Board of Trade 153 acres of slobland at Tivoli for the purpose of pumping dredged material ashore, thus creating new land for industrial purposes. This happened over several decades. In the early 1950s oil storage depots were developed on the site. A further ten acres were made available for development circa 1960. The principal quays in the city were reconstructed and renewed. The reconstruction of the South Deep Water Quay involved providing re-inforced concrete as well as riverside railway sidings, cranes and mechanised grain discharging plant for the rapid unloading of ships into railway wagons of the adjacent mills. The reconstruction of Anderson’s Quay and the North Custom House Quay was completed as well as the construction of the North Deep Water Quay, which included the provision of a swinging basin. In 1961 the river channel to Cork was in the process of being deepened to a minimum depth of 18 feet at low water, and it was planned to increase this depth to 20 feet at low water.

A complete survey of the lower harbour, led to a major improvement in the entrance channels been made. Two modern tenders were built to service the Atlantic liners. The cost of these improvements was over £1.6m and was financed out of the Commissioners’ own resources with the aid of government grants amounting to near £900,000.  In 1960 the total tonnage entering the port of Cork, including liners and tankers, was just over 4 million tons. These were not only the highest annual tonnage figures ever in the history of the port but also the highest total tonnage entering any port in the Republic during that year. In his editorial, Horgan commented on the tonnage figures, which to him reflected not only the prosperity of Cork and its hinterland, but also the growing importance of the harbour; he noted; “In large part this increased prosperity is due to the enterprise, intelligence and courage of the people of Cork”.  

 

Caption:

738a. Aerial photograph of Cork Docks, 1968 (Source: Cork City Library)

McCarthy’s Forthcoming Community Events

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

 

 

Cllr McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2014

 

Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the sixth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 27 April 2014 between 10am-5pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held over one week later on Saturday 10 May. There are two categories, one for primary school children and one for secondary school students. Winners will be awarded a perpetual trophy and prize money of €150 (two by €150). The project is being organised and funded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in association with Red Sandstone Varied Productions (RSVP). Further details can be got from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, 085 1798695 or email rsvpireland@gmail.com.

 

 

Kieran’s Gramophone Recital

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

 

 

Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour of Balintemple

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

 

Forthcoming

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

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

–          McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project, 2pm, Sunday 1 June, The Lough, in association with the Ocean to City Maritime Festival.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 17 April 2014

Uncategorized

737a. Haulbowline Island from Queenstown, now Cobh, c.1900

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 18 April 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 77) – Plans of Steel”

 

Continuing on from the articles on industrial expansion in Cork in the late 1950s, Haulbowline Steel Holdings was also a major player in Ireland’s necklace of native industries.  The site on Haulbowline Island was once a British naval dockyard where its docks were used for the loading and discharge of ships. In the Irish Free State the site belonged to the Board of Public Works but was developed by Hammond Lane Foundry in 1937.

The Irish Press newspaper on 23 September 1937 reported that 2,500 tons of plant and dismantled buildings, part of a steel mill at Charleroi, Belgium were landed on Haulbowline Island for the works started there by the Hammond Lane Foundry Co. Ltd., Dublin. The Company had bought the whole mill. The new Haulbowline mill was to supply the Irish Free State’s needs and was to export steel as well.  Scrap being exported was to be diverted to the island for processing and pig-iron and coal were to be imported to the site. At the start they planned to employ 1,000 in all. In June 1938, a new company Irish Steel Ltd was formed. When opened on 24 August 1939, the journalist of the Irish Press commented that the mills were designed to produce merchant steel, sheet steel and tinplate. The black sheet steel was for the manufacture of numerous items in everyday use, galvanising for roofing and fencing, etc.

There was also the deep-water basin and dock accommodation, which enabled the maximum advantage to be taken of the cheapest method of raw material to, and of the finished product from, the mills. Mr Ludvig  Loewy, noted by the press, as one of the most eminent authorities in the world, was chief designer of the mills. The formal opening was made by Seán Lemass, TD, Minister for Industry and Commerce. Remarking on Ireland’s industrial expansion he noted; “It is true to say that in everything we plan nowadays we have to keep an eye on the situation in Europe, which appears to have developed to a point where only a miracle will avert war. A European war will, of course, stop our industrial expansion at once”. The Irish Press on 25 August 1939 also listed that the leading industrial nations in the world had their own steel plants – the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Poland, India, Canada and Spain. The reporter argued of the importance of a steel plant for a country and the need for self-sufficiency; “it is universally recognised in industrial and commercial circles that an efficient steel industry contributes as no industry is capable of doing to the prosperity and economic progress of a country.”

Fast forward to 8 January 1947, and Irish Steel Ltd were placed in the hands of a receiver. Shortly afterwards the Irish government took it over a going concern. Between 1947 and 1957, the annual production of ingots and bars quadrupled – the increase was particularly marked during 1956 and 1957. Steel was sold competitively in New Zealand, India, South Africa, Finland, Greece, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guinea, the Philippines, Cyprus, Iraq, Sudan, Kuwait and Malaya.

During the post war years of the 1950s a distinctive feature of the steel industry throughout the world was the rapid expansion of productive capacity. World production of crude steel was estimated to be at the rate of 300 million tons as compared with 190 million tons in 1950. The increase in productive capacity was necessitated by the increase in steel consumption per head of population in every country. In USA the apparent consumption per head of population in 1955 was more than double that in 1937/38. In the United Kingdom and Germany the increase was of the order of 60 per cent as both countries developed and expanded their country’s economy.  The annual consumption of merchant steel products in Ireland averaged about 44,000 tons. The use of Haulbowline Mills was to meet those tonnage needs.

By September 1958, an extensive programme of expansion of the operations of Irish Steel Holdings was proposed incorporating an additional 200 workers on top of 450 workers. The development proposals comprised the expansion of its open hearth furnace capacity, the casting of large ingots, which were to be rolled in a new building into a wide range of finished and semi-finished sections, and the adaptation and mechanisation of existing steel making processes. These new ideas aimed to make the plant meet the requirements of a larger and more varied production especially in the manufacture of sheet steel from bars produced in the new mill. The construction contracts totalling £400,000 embraced the foundations required for the expansion of the existing steel works at Haulbowline and also the re-construction and extension of its Spencer Jetty for the increased traffic envisaged in the development scheme.  The Haulbowline Scheme was also part of a white paper – a five year plan – laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas by Seán Lemass, which would see additional capital expenditure being invested into agriculture, fisheries, industry, and telephones. The white paper was formally proposed in November 1958, envisaging a capital expenditure of £220million.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

737a. Haulbowline Island from Queenstown/ Cobh. c.1900 – pre Steel Mill been constructed on left of picture (source: Cork City Museum)

Kieran’s Question to the City Manager and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 14 April 2014

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 

Question to the Manager:

To ask the manager for an update on the revamp of Boole House on Bachelor’s Quay? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

 

Motions:

 

That the Council look at the dangerous section of road at the cul-de-sac hill and entrance to Beaumont Park on Silverdale Ave opposite house no 32, 34 and 36. The problem is that some drivers parking on the hill going to the park or up to Beaumont school don’t apply their hand break properly. Three times in about 6 months, cars have come down the hill in reverse and knocked down the pillar and wall dividing no 32 and 34 (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

 

That the footpaths in Baltimore Lawn, Douglas Road receive urgent repair work; some are major trip hazards (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).