Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 6 February 2014

Cork History, Uncategorized

727a. Aerial view of Whitegate Oil Refinery

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 6 February 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 70) – Whitegate Oil Ventures”

 

Following on from the use of oil in the 1950s in the ESB Marina Power station, the petroleum industry in Ireland at that time was such a prodigious business that it was the most costly import and the greatest source of customs duty except tobacco. The Leitrim Observer reported on 12 January 1957 that some 262 million gallons were imported at a cost of £13,667,000 (against approx £10 ½ million each for coal, motor-cars and wheat-maize). As an offset the government accepted the joint proposal of Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd., Caltex and Esso to erect and to operate a new £12million refinery at Whitegate (Cork), which was officially opened on 22 September 1959. Its annual capacity was initially proposed to supply Ireland’s total petroleum needs.

The situation in Ireland was hardly dissimilar from the rest of Western Europe, which, because of thinning coal seams and manpower shortage, persisting since the end of the World War, was forced to turn to oil to bridge the gap between the growing demand and the capacity of native resources to provide it. Ireland’s demand for electricity grew faster than the country’s water power and turf resources could produce it. Industrial production was expanding. The era of cheap and plentiful and supplies available were insufficient to meet all demands. Oil was the only alternative.

In 1938 the last pre war year for which supplies were available without limitation, Ireland consumed 73 million gallons of petroleum products. In 1955 consumption had risen to 262 million gallons. The growth of automotive transportation alone did not account for this increase in demand. Motor fuel, in 1938, represented 58 per cent of all petroleum products imported. In 1955 it represented only 31 per cent of imports. Much of the increase in Irish demand comes from new uses. In addition to industrial furnaces and the generation of electricity, demand for power on Ireland’s farms has been rising steadily over the past ten years. Irish agriculture, by American or British standards, was not highly mechanised. Nevertheless Ireland operated 27,000 agricultural tractors in 1955 compared with 700 in 1938. These 27,000 tractors use nearly 20 million gallons of fuel in a year. Consumption of both high octane and jet type aviation fuel was growing steadily each year and the modernisation and efficiency of our railway system was now regarded as depending on how fast it could be converted to oil fuel. Many industrial processes utilised the less well-known petroleum products – commodities varying as widely as town gas, church candles, motor tyres and paint. Petroleum had become an essential component of the economic life of the country and a stoppage of supplies would have brought transport and most of the country’s manufacturing industry to a complete stop.

On 29 March 1957, the Irish Independent reported that Dr J DeCourcy Ireland, Joint Honorary Secretary of the Maritime Institute of Ireland, in an introductory address at a film show given by the institute at the Cumberland Hotel, Dublin, commented on the importance of Whitegate Oil Refinery:

“The creation of the oil refinery at Whitegate, Co Cork could become as great a turning point in Irish maritime history as the foundation of Irish Shipping itself. The Oil Refinery could make Cork what it should be from its unique geographic position, the maritime hub of the Eastern Atlantic, with a complex of dry docks, free port facilities, up-to-date cargo and passenger arrangements, such as could ensure it the same rapid rise to eminence among the world’s ports that had in recent years been achieved by unknown ports like Gyndia [Poland], Vizagapatam [India] and Dakar [Senegal]”.

Eight months later the Southern Star on 23 November 1957 reported that on the refinery site the main activity was on Corkbeg Island where John Paul and Co, the Dublin contractors were engaged clearing the site and road building in preparation for Wimpey & Co to commence operations. Most of the bulldozers were concentrating on the clearing work and the new road was practically completed. Equipment for the sinking of piles for the seaward jetties was moving into position. A feature of the Whitegate traffic was the long trailer loads of steel piping being moved onto the main refinery site. The large pipes were to be used to pipe the crude oil from the tankers up to the refinery and the finished products down.

A few days later on 29 November, the Southern Star reported over 2,200 were working on the building of the new oil refinery at Whitegate. In addition the Refinery Company had already recruited a staff of 120 for the permanent running of the refinery, many of whom were being trained abroad but 43 of which were graduates of the National University. A large number of the 50 storage tanks being built by Tank Erectors Ltd. were now complete, each with a capacity of 23,000 tons. Work was going ahead on the jetty head and the dolphins for the berthing of the tankers. Piping had been laid along the jetty for incoming and outgoing oil. Four of the five towers were towed by sea from Liverpool had also been put in place.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

727a. Aerial view of Whitegate Oil Refinery (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 30 January 2014

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

726a. Aerial view of ESB Marina near completion, c1954, ESB Archives

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 January 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 69) – A Sphere of National Life”

 

“Built to the design and specifications prepared by the Electricity Supply Board’s own engineering staff, the Marina Station is one of the most up-to-date of its kind in Europe. This station is yet another link in the ESB plan to double the present output of electricity by 1961. The everyday demands for electricity in every sphere of our national life show such a tremendous increase that this programme is essential if electrical self sufficiency is to be maintained (Editorial, Irish Independent, 7 October 1954)”.

Following on from introducing the Marina ESB station last week, the local press wrote of the plant as one of the most up-to in terms of using modern scientific breakthroughs and technology. When oil as a fuel was used it was fed from the tanker on the adjacent quay through an oil pipe line to the 4,500 ton oil tanks located on the far side of Centre Park Road. A pump house beside these tanks pumped to the boilers as required. Heavy fuel oil was used as to make it free-flowing enough for pumping it to be steam heated. Hot air was blown through a rotary air heater; the oil was atomised by steam and injected into the boilers. The jet of oil was burned in suspension in the same way as the pulverised coal.

Cooling water for condensing the steam was drawn from the River lee, and was circulated by four pumps capable of handling 54,000 gallons of water a minute. It was essential that the tubes carrying the cooling water be maintained absolutely free and unclogged. As river water was being used, a special screening and chlorination plant was installed to remove impurities from the water before it entered the tubes. Water for the boilers was provided from the Cork City water supply, and a 21,000 gallon storage tank was used to maintain supply.

Care was taken to avoid the dissemination of undesirable material from the 220-ft high chimney which served the station. Incorporated in the system was a grit collector where the grit in the gases was removed. Ash particles which fell to the bottom of the boiler were collected and sluiced out daily to a piece of adjoining waste land. This waste land set aside for ash disposal took in an area of 18 acres, and if the station were to operate on coal all the time, it could have filled up in nine years. A special testing station was established on the hill at Montenotte across the River Lee to check the deposits before the station was in operation and to ensure that no damage was caused to residents in the area.

The blessing ceremony was performed by Bishop Lucey on 22 September 1955 and was recorded by the Cork Examiner the day after. Owing to the disposition of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, William Norton, the opening ceremony was performed by his Parliamentary Secretary P J Crotty, Mr Crotty opened the outer door of the main block with a gold key and later cut a tape in the turbine room to signify that the station was now well and truly in official commission. The scissors was presented to Mr Crotty by the youngest employee at the station, the 14-year-old messenger boy, Liam O’Sullivan. The Bishop, Mr Crotty and all the other guests were taken on a conducted tour of the station. The chairman of the ESB, Dr R F Browne, welcomed guests. They were shown the machinery for the pulverising of coal to be fed into the three boilers and the two big turbines.

Later at a luncheon in the Imperial Hotel, Dr Browne noted of a steady expansion of electricity grids in the city: “It has rendered necessary the building of a large generating station…A station was first placed in commission in Cork in 1897 [on Albert Road] and it gave good service over the years. The station opened today is some twelve times larger and has an installed capacity of 60MW and can be readily be extended to 120MW”. In thanking the many contractors to the scheme, the list of names echo the ESB’s focus on the use of cutting edge western European technology. The steam turbine alternator sets, switchgear and control room equipment came from Siemens Schukert of Germany. Babcok and Wilcox provided the boilers. Transformers and other switchgear came from ACEC Belgium and AEG Germany and from Brown Boveri Switzerland. The main civil works were carried out by McNally and Co. Ltd and by the Irish Piling Company.

Mr Browne further highlighted that to meet supply requirements, there were under construction in 1955, two large and four small peat stations, two hydro schemes and a large station in Dublin, similar to that in Cork. Native sources of power were being relied on and the focus was being placed on water and peat. With water, Mr Browne noted that the scope for further hydro development was limited as 70 per cent of the potential power in the country had been harnessed. The remaining 30 per cent was in very small rivers and streams, which to harness were not cost effective.

To be continued…

 

Caption:

 

726a. Aerial view of ESB Marina near completion, c.1954 (ESB Archives, Dublin)

Kieran’s Question to the City Manager and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 27 January 2014

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 Question to the Manager:

To ask the Manager is it his intention to mark, through an event or festival, the tenth anniversary in 2015 of the city’s European Capital of Culture award? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

 

Motions:

That the Council would remove the untidy and dumped earthen material at the end of Hillgrove Lawn, South Douglas Road as it aligns with Glencurrig Estate wall (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

That the Council and City and Region would campaign to host a leg of the America’s Cup sailing competition (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 23 January 2014

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

725a. ESB Marina Station, Present Day

 

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 23 January 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 68) – Down the Marina”

 

With plenty of opportunities for technological minded students and workers, the second of the ESB’s led projects in 1950s Cork was that that of the steam powered station on The Marina. Irish industry showed an overwhelming preference for electric power because of its availability, economy and convenience. The demand showed an increase of 49 million units in 1953 – an increase of 47 per cent in the number of units used by consumers connected under rural electrification and a figure which strongly demonstrated the necessity for such extra electrical power. The Irish Independent remarked; “Every day more and more farmers are making use of electricity for such everyday tasks as milking, churning, root pulping, grinding and so on. The farmer’s wife has a big welcome for such amenities as a cooker, washing machine, a kettle, an iron or a refrigerator, formerly available only to her city sister”. 

Up to the late 1940s, power came from Ardnacrusha, Pigeon House on the Liffey, and Alleywood or Portarlington. In the event of Ardnacrusha not operating for any reason, power had to be transmitted over long distance, which, experience had shown was an unsatisfactory arrangement. Before World War II, this possible difficulty was foreseen and plans were laid by the ESB for a Cork station. Owing to immediate post-war difficulties the preliminary work could not be undertaken until 1950, and the near completion of such a big undertaking in such as short space of time represented a ‘notable achievement’.

On 7 October 1954, the Irish Independent wrote about the Marina station near completion. Construction began in 1951. Operating from 1954, it fed electric power into the national network for use in homes, factories, streets, highways and farms throughout the south of Ireland. The station was the seventh power station to go into operation since the end of the war. For the preliminary development of the station two 30,000 kw steam turbo-generating sets were installed. These gave an annual estimated output of 240 million units per year. These turbines were the biggest in use in Ireland and were of the latest two-cylinder type and generated the electricity at 105kv. Transformers stepped up this figure to 110kv for easier transmission with minimum losses. A series of step-down transformers assisted in the ultimate delivery to the consumer at 220 volts. Steam was delivered to the two steam turbines at 850 F. The output from these sets was regulated from the station control room. Visual audible warning signs were given to the engineer in charge of the control room in the event of any fault developing in the plant. The station was linked to the central Load Despatch Office in Dublin.

The Marina Station occupied a commanding location on a 13 acre site facing Cork quays, its towering brick-fronted bulk was deemed as the Irish Independent noted as having a “pleasing architectural alignment with the extensive structures of adjacent industrial undertakings”. Surrounding it was Messrs Henry Ford and Son’s Motor assembly works, Dunlops Ltd rubber factory; and the mills, with their towering silos of the Cork Milling Co. Ltd and National Flour Mills Ltd. The selection of the Marina station site was influenced by its excellent access by road and the availability of deep-water wharfage for the unloading of coal and oil directly from ships.

There were many features of the new Marina station, which gave it a cutting technological status. It was the first of its kind to use both oil and coal for primary generation. The station’s fuel consumption was to be in the region of 120,000 tons of coal or 80,000 tons of oil. The reason that either coal or oil could be used to provide the necessary steam power was linked to cheaper operating costs. These fuels were competitive and the station was to operate on whichever was the cheaper at any given time.

The three huge boilers used in the station scored several notable ‘firsts’. They were the largest ever to be installed in Ireland and were of the very latest pattern; they were the first of their type to be used in Ireland for the generation of electricity. Capable of producing 600,000 lbs of steam per hour under normal operating conditions, they could rise to 660,000 lbs should the occasion demand.

In the event of coal being used it was unloaded at the wharf by a transporter crane capable of handing 120 tons an hour. This transporter delivered to bunkers beside the boilers or to the main coal yard, which could accommodate 60,000 tons of coal. A drag scaper distributed the coal around the yard and reloaded it on to the conveyors for transportation to the bunkers. Each boiler had a bunker capacity of 270 tons of coal which represented over a day’s storage –each boiler using about ten tons an hour. The coal from the bunkers fell onto weighers on the floor below and from there went to the ball-type mills which pulverised it. Hot air, blown through the mill, carried the pulverised coal away to the boilers where it ignited as it entered the furnace.

To be continued…

Captions:

 

725a. ESB Marina station, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 16 January 2014

Cork City Events, Uncategorized

724a. Inniscarra Dam, c.1957, year of opening

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 16 January 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 67) – A Nation Building Exercise”

 

Before Christmas, the column began focusing on several projects in the Cork region which provided employment for graduates of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute. The French engineering firm of the Société de Construction des Batignolles (SCB), Paris had wide experience of large hydroelectric development works in France and the French colonies. It was given the contract to construct the dams and power stations at Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra on the River Lee. The Company’s technological mastery grew with each new experience. In addition to its traditional railway construction business, SCB excell­ed in two other sectors: the building of ports (such as Tunis) and the building of bridges (the metal bridge over the river Neva in St Petersburg). During the 1930s and the 1950s the building of hydroelectric power plants in France and abroad were the company’s most common activities. In 1968, SCB merged with the industrial electrical firm, the Société Parisienne pour Industrie Eléctrique (SPIE), to become what is known today as SPIE Batignolles.

The Inniscara camp was blessed and opened by Dr Roche, Bishop of Cloyne, on 25 October 1953. As revealed in the Cork Examiner on the following day, the Commercial Attaché to the French Embassy in Dublin expressed his pleasure at seeing the French and Irish workers joined together in a work of peace. The French engineers engaged on the project had put a cross on the hill overlooking the site as a present to their fellow workers and they hoped it would remain there for the duration of the work and for many years after. The cross was illuminated in the French colours at night and was a well-known landmark to be viewed from the road on the opposite bank.  Mr M André Gossonant, Chief Engineer of the Société, said that his firm was anxious to co-operate fully with the workers and to give them all necessary amenities and facilities, as their interests were mutual. Mr V L McEntee said that the contractors to the project had provided the altar in the oratory; the vestments and equipment were the gift of the Joint Advisory Council on which the Société and workers were represented. To the funds of this Council came the contributions of the workers who paid in 3d for every pound earned, the company contributing an equal portion. From the fund they gave assistance to those who were ill or in need of help.

On 16 May 1954, an open-air Mass was celebrated on the site of the Lee scheme at Inniscarra for the repose of those who had died in Dien Bien Phu. It was celebrated at the request of the Irish and French workers and their families, some of whom had relatives engaged in the conflict. The celebrant was the Rev C Gouffe, MSC, who preached in French. During Mass the Reveille and the Last Post were sounded. Fr O’Leary, MSC recited the Rosary in Irish. A number of French personnel received Holy Communion. France had been involved in Indo-China since 1859. Dur­ing World War II the Viet Minh – the Communist-led Vietnam League for Independence – began a struggle against the Japanese and the French for independence. After the war the Viet Minh continued the offensive against the French. This war, the Franco-Vietnamese war, lasted from 1946 until 1954. The United States supported the French financially by paying for 80 per cent of France’s military costs in Indo-China. The French, however, were unable to execute a military solution. The last big battle in the country was in Dien Bien Phu where the French were besieged for seven weeks. The final Viet Minh offensive lasted twenty hours and on 7 May 1954, the French surrendered after very heavy losses.

In the mid-Cork region, the construction was deemed as a type of industrial revolution project. It was the first time that such a big project was undertaken in the area. Attracted by higher wages, regular hours and the chance of overtime, hundreds of workers looked for work on the dam sites. The Lee Scheme was an enormous nation building and public enterprise project, which saw 3,500 acres of land submerged causing vast physical transformation of the Lee Valley.

On the Lee scheme, the Dublin firm, John Paul & Co, Donnybrook, was awarded the contract to build the three bridges and the new road diversions on the Lee scheme. Founded on 1 March 1949, the founding directors were John Paul and Tommy Simmington. Both men were well experienced in civil engineer­ing works. Tommy Simmington worked with a British civil engineering construction company in the 1930s. He worked on Butt Bridge, Foynes and on the erection of Kenmare bridge. He was County Engineer in Clare prior to the foundation of the company. John Paul worked with the civil engineering construction company, McLaughlin and Harvey. He had worked on the Erne scheme, the Silent valley scheme in County Down and Shannon Airport.

 

To be continued…

Generations: The Story of the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme (2007) by Kieran McCarthy and Seamus O’Donoghue is still available in local Cork bookshops.

 

 

Caption:

724a. Inniscarra Dam, c.1957, year of opening (picture: ESB Archives)

Kieran’s Question to the City Manager and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 13 January 2014

Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized

 

Question to the Manager:

To ask the City Manager if he has applied for the recent Central Government “Living City” initiative and what areas is he targeting for renewal (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

 

Motions:

That the parks department apply for funding from the Sports Council of the Department of Sport for a new MUGA in Ballinlough Douglas Pool park. A successful application was recently made for one in Douglas Park by Cork County Council (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

That the Council mark the tenth anniversary in 2015 since the city’s European Capital of Culture award via a festival or lecture series etc (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 9 January 2014

Cork History, Uncategorized

723a. Artists impression of Inniscarra Dam, Early 1950s

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 9 January 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 66) – A Model of French Industry”

 

Before Christmas, the column noted that the courses of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute responded to industrial needs in the late 1940s and 1950s. Driven by the aspirations of the Marshall Aid fund, the Interparty government invested part of this money in technological projects. The Cork area witnessed a number of projects, the first of which was the Lee Hydro Electric Scheme. 

The Lee Scheme was 40 kilometres in length and over 22 kilometres wide. This was a colossal task, and necessitated years of minute planning, geographical surveys and preservation orders on. Detailed land acquisition records and newspaper documentation afford a fascinating glimpse into what must have been an enormous upheaval for the 200 families involved, many of whom relocated elsewhere as the valley was flooded and their homes were submerged. The archives of the ESB, which include documents and photographs from the time of construction, show the original valley and the processes of construction and transformation. There was significant interaction with the natural world of the Lee valley. At low water levels in the reservoirs, the ghostly remnants of a farming community can be viewed including ruinous houses, collapsed stone walls, half standing bridges, roads leading to the edge of the reservoirs, gate pillars, tree trunks and even the ruins of a paper mill.

The Lee hydroelectric scheme was to significantly change the face of mid Cork on a regional scale, creating new cultural and physical landscapes. The success of the enterprise depended on the effective deployment of manpower (650 personnel, many of them highly trained or skilled), both from home and abroad. The sheer scale of the project required a sophisticated infrastructure of housing, lodging, catering and entertainment as workers were drafted in from not only the Cork region but from all over Europe. The Lee Hydroelectric Scheme transformed the Lee valley by opening up new tourism opportunities for fishing, waterskiing, sailing and rowing, and by securing the future supply of clean and economical electricity and water throughout the Cork area and beyond.

In general the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme came twenty years after the start of the Irish Free State’s hydroelectric schemes on the River Shannon. The Irish schemes aimed to address the ever-growing need to provide an improved level of electricity service for existing customers, as well as the new demands created by an ambitious national programme for rural electrification.

An excellent book entitled, Ireland, Design and Visual Culture, Negotiating Modernity, 1922-1992 by editors Linda King and Elaine Sisson has a chapter by Sorcha O’Brien on technological progress in the Irish Free State. In the 1920s, the then government placed a huge level of focus on technology, specifically electrical technology. The harnessing of ideas of technology was a physical demonstration of the government’s nation-building efforts. It showed as Sorcha O’Brien notes “their political, legislative and organisational agenda, part of an ongoing ideological re-imagining of Irish national identity”. This was localised for the citizens of Ireland and found expression in local and national sites and objects plus patterns of engagement with such sites as hydroelectric schemes. With the Shannon Scheme it was decided to break away from British technical ideas and to use German approaches. German technology was seen as an agent of nation state building and as a model to create as Ms O’Brien argues the “Irish national interpretation of modernity”. Ardnacrusha is a typical example of German industrial building techniques in the interwar period. It is known for its pitched vernacular structures as well as the latest glazing techniques and steel frames as well as its qualities of progressiveness and construction.

Daniel Morrissey TD was appointed to the Irish Government Cabinet under John A Costello in 1948 as Minister for Industry and Commerce. Driving the Lee Scheme as an industrial project forward, the Minister sanctioned the scheme in 1949. The acquisition of land went ahead side by side with the other site prepara­tions. In December 1952, the ESB announced that the contracts for the main civil works in connection with the river Lee hydroelectric develop­ment had been placed. On the back of over 20 years using German engineers, that connection was changed as the horrors of German involvement in World War II were felt across Europe. The Irish State now adopted the French national industrial model as an agent of nation state building. However, the German connection was maintained as the firm of Voiths were contracted to complete the electrical engineering parts of Inniscarra and Carrigadrohid Dams.

From the early nineteenth century, France had grown as a significant industrial power. There was a dramatic industrialization expansion in the 1920s but this was torn apart by German occupation in 1940. At the liberation of France in 1944, the French economy lay in ruins after the Nazi occupation as well as the affects of Allied bombing and invasion. Much of its infrastructure (ports, roads, rail) was destroyed and unusable. There was a chronic housing shortage and industrial output was low. The future strategy for their government, in terms of structural reforms of certain areas of the economy, was a nationalisation of resources including its aerospace industry, its coalmines, Air France, gas, electricity and the main deposit banks.

To be continued…

Generations: The Story of the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme (2007) by Kieran McCarthy and Seamus O’Donoghue is still available in local Cork bookshops and on Amazon.

Caption:

723a. Artists impression of Inniscarra Dam, early 1950s (source: ESB Archives, Dublin)

Elizabeth Fort Heritage

Cork City Events, Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, Uncategorized

I was delighted to be involved with the push to handover Elizabeth Fort from the OPW to Cork, which happened today.

Info below from my heritage website, www.corkheritage.ie

The star shaped fortification of Elizabeth Fort named after Queen Elizabeth I once protected an English garrison in Cork and became a distinct landmark in the immediate southern suburbs of seventeenth century Cork. Constructed in 1601, the fort protected the walled town of Cork from attack from Gaelic Irish natives and foreigners. It was a series of historic incidents that led to the building of such a structure. Firstly, the defeat of the Gaelic Irish Earl of Desmond in South Munster by English colonialists in 1583 and the subsequent forfeiture of his lands removed a primary keystone of the political system in Munster. Indeed, it is argued that it left Munster wide open to re-colonisation by Irish clans. Consequently, this led to the Queen Elizabeth I’s formulation of the plantation of Munster in 1585. ‘Planting’ Munster with English colonists provided a catalyst in increasing threats to security by Irish natives.

Plan of Elizabeth Fort, c.1603

By the late 1580s, there were calls throughout Munster for reinforcements to protect planters, which resulted in the arrival of several thousand English soldiers to the province itself. The plantation area comprised 600,000 acres, which were divided into plots of between 4,000 and 12,000 acres. In the late 1500s, several thousand English families arrived in Munster especially to avail of higher profits, which the plantations created. These families though were serving a higher landlord class. Among the most eminent landlords securing land in Munster at this time included Burlington, Cuffe, Boyle, Fenton, Perceval, and Orrey.

 

However, the security of the inner landscape was not the only problem, English colonialists had to deal with. A fear of a Spanish invasion gave priority of security to the coastal regions, particularly the southern coast. In the sixteenth century, a new type of improved fortification was developed to deal with changes in conducting warfare. Gunpowder had been in Europe since the fourteenth century but it was only in the mid 1500s that musket guns were developed. No longer was a large castle the safest place to be in warfare. Instead star-shaped fortresses were deemed the best defence. The distinctive star shaped plan was designed to provide flanking fire and to position artillery pieces. ‘Angle bastions’ were constructed at all of the enclosing walls of the fortress at the main corners. This enabled the fort’s garrison to concentrate its firepower on any attacking force in a thirty metre wide area immediately in front of the fort.  This art of fortification was rapidly developed in Italy in the first three decades of the sixteenth century and was based on initial designs by Giuliano Sangallo, an Italian military engineer in 1485.

In January 1590, the order was given by Queen Elizabeth I to construct star-shaped forts outside the town walls of each major Irish coastal walled town, in particular Waterford, Limerick, Galway and Cork.  In Cork, the harbour was deemed important to defend but the construction of any new forts was delayed by the continuous rebellions of native Irish against English conquest and colonisation in Ireland. In 1599, a new Lord President of Ireland, Sir George Carew was appointed to quell the native rebel Irish factions and he was well known for his ability to deal with such situations. After the Spanish attack on Kinsale in 1601, it was decided by Carew that Cork harbour would have to be immediately defended. A new star-shaped fort was constructed on Haubowline Island in the harbour and a new fort was constructed called James Fort (after James I) in Kinsale Harbour. In addition, in 1601, a star shaped fort was constructed at Cork, which was located just outside South Gate Drawbridge on a cliffside that overshadowed and protected the southern road leading into the walled town, now known as Barrack Street. The first fort was called Elizabeth Fort (after Elizabeth I), a name, which has remained to the present day. In 1601, the fort was an irregular work of stone, timber and earth. This fort was garrisoned by October 1602 even though it was unfinished.

Plan of Elizabeth Fort, c.1626

The fort was erected on top of a rock outcrop and early representations of the fort show that it was an irregular fortification in design with stone walls on three sides and an earthen bank facing the walled town. To enter into the interior, one had to cross a drawbridge through a portcullis gate and past a gate-house. Facing the walled town, a natural cliff provided protection whilst the other three sides, a dry moat cut into the rock and was crossed only by a drawbridge at the entrance. The entrance was further protected by a gate tower and portcullis and a gate tower. None of the original fort can be seen today.

In 1603 as a result of Cork’s refusal to honour the crowning of the Catholic King James I, the fort was attacked by an unnamed faction of rebel Irish figure, who considerably damaged the main structure, stole its guns and brought these arms into the town. Nevertheless due to the presence of the Lord Deputy of Cork, Lord Mountjoy and his forces, they seized the city and made the citizens unwillingly rebuild the fort. The new structure received the name “New Fort” and was more improved than the last edifice. The building began circa 1624 and the old drawbridge was substituted with a causeway, a mound of earth and a more elaborate gateway on the eastern side, most of which was replaced. None of the second fort can be seen today.

In 1649, the ramparts or the defensive walls were made higher to what can be seen today; a height of nearly eight metres above the ground level. The extra height was in order to deal with the rebellious factions of Irish. By 1690, about two hundred English soldiers were employed to run the garrison. Twenty-one cannons were located around the top of the fortification, which meant that at least eight men had to man one cannon.  In 1690, there were five distinct out-shots or bastions that could be seen associated with the high limestone walls. Four men had to operate the firing of the cannon while four men had to guard its artillery such as cannon balls.

In the seventeenth century, the English government classified Elizabeth Fort as a defence work of great strength. It was designed for all round defence, while each of the bastions was capable of acting independently as a “last ditch” strongpoint. The bastions on the southern side were considerably stronger and larger than those bastions on the northern side, indicating that the designer was well aware of the vulnerabilities of the fort. A strong effort had also been made to strengthen the entrance side. Here a double wall, double gateway and associated tower, fifteen metres in height could be seen. Today, the double walls and entrance can still be seen with the tower long gone. The foundation of the fortress, which was solid rock also ruled out undermining.

Reconstruction of Elizabeth Fort, c.1690

Reconstruction of Elizabeth Fort, c.1690

 The Siege of Cork in September 1690 tested the strength of the fort immensely. In short, Irish rebels, supporters of James II, possessed Elizabeth Fort and the English had to dominate at least two tall adjacent buildings, Red abbey and St. FinBarre’s Cathedral to rain down shots on the Irish in the area in order to attain a surrender. It is unfortunate that much of the documentation describing the layout and rebuilding of the fort from 1719 to the present day has been lost. All that is known is that the encompassing star-shaped bastion remained unchanged. It is known that in 1719, Elizabeth Fort became a British military barracks and catered for seven hundred men. This caused the ramparts to be thinned, in order to make extra space for a new barracks to be built. In 1806, due to the construction of a new Barrack’s to the north east of the city (now Collin’s Barracks), the barracks within Elizabeth fort altered to that of a Female Convict Prison. Samuel Lewis, an Irish historian in the early half of the 1800s related in1837 that there were 250 inmates, brought from all parts of the country. Many of these were housed here until ships became available to convey them to other British colonial outposts, in particular New South Wales.

Eizabeth Fort and environs, 1759

In the late nineteenth century, Elizabeth Fort was used as a station for the Cork City Artillery Militia. In 1920-21, the fort was occupied by the Royal Irish Constabulary and handed over to the Irish government. A year later in 1922, it is known that the existing interior buildings of the fort were burned down by Anti-Treaty forces during the Irish Civil War. The walls and bastions of the fort were undamaged. A few years later, a Garda Station was set up in the interior of the fort and today is still in operation. Elizabeth Fort remains one of Cork’s most historic gems. Never been excavated, Elizabeth Fort has a wealth of stories waiting to be discovered and to be told.

 

Plan of Elizabeth Fort, 1869