Recent article on the Irish Examiner regarding my perspectives on Cork’s built heritage, but is Cork crumbling?
Cork Heritage Open Day, Saturday 17 August 2013
Organised by Cork City Council, Cork Heritage Open Day celebrates Ireland’s architecture and heritage by enabling free access to properties & events of interest to the public that are either not usually open to the public, or would normally charge an entrance fee. Details of this year’s events and participating buildings appear on the website www.corkheritageopenday.ie
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 15 August 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 15 August 2013
Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August 2013
National Heritage Week is upon us again at the end of next week (17th – 25th August). It’s going to be a busy week. I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below.
Sunday 18 August 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City (new tour), explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Monday 19 August 2012 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour, Discover one of the City’s key historical quarters; learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of butter market and the Shandon Street area, meet at North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Tuesday 20 August 2013- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Thursday 22 August 2013 – From a Workhouse to a Hospital, The Story of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Discover the history of the workhouse, meet at entrance gate, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Friday 23 August 2013, “Where the future and the past meet, A historical walking tour of Mahon, to mark the 100th anniversary of Dunlocha Cottages” (new tour), meet at Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes, Mahon, 7pm (free, duration: 1 ½ hours).
Sunday 25 August 2013, Douglas Historical Walking Tour, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours).
The story of Douglas and its environs seems to be in part a story of experimentation, of industry and of people, and social improvement; the story of one of Ireland’s largest sailcloth factories is a worthwhile topic to explore in terms of its aspirations in the eighteenth century; that coupled with the creation of 40 or so seats or mansions and demesnes made it a place where the city’s merchants made their home it and also these suburban spaces make for an interesting place to study in terms of ambition. Those landscapes that were created still linger in the environs of Douglas Village.
The District of Douglas takes its names from the river or rivulet bearing the Gaelic word Dubhghlas or dark stream. As early as the late thirteenth century King John of England made a grant of parcels of land, near the city of Cork to Philip de Prendergast. On 1 June 1726, Douglas Sail Cloth Factory was begun to be built. Samuel Perry and Francis Carleton became the first proprietors. The factory is said to have been founded by a colony of Huguenot weavers from Fermanagh. The eighteenth century was a golden age for wooden sailing ships, before the 1800s made steam and iron prerequisites for modern navies and trading fleets. The era was also a golden age too for maritime exploration, with the voyages of James Cook amongst others opening up the Pacific and the South Seas.
Indeed by 1810, William West in a travelogue of Ireland states that upwards of 1,000 hands were employed in the extensive concern belonging to Messrs Besnard & Sons, who also at a short distance had an extensive ropeworks. They had several grants for sailcloth and spindles through the Napoleonic Wars. In 1817, Peter Besnard (eldest son of Julius) was appointed Inspector General for the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Connaught in succession to Charles Duffin. There were also industries also at Dunmanway and Innishannon where up to 60,000 people were employed in Ireland.
The Besnard family discontinued flax spinning before 1830, but they continued to work in the linen trade. In 1824, Besnard and Herrick with an address in Perry Street, Cork were large shippers of brown and white linen and beetled hollands. The firm was in business until at least 1830, and up to that time were apparently the most influential shippers in Munster. By 1837, the business had declined owing to English competition, but the manufacture was being carried on, together with a trade in cordage (cords or ropes, especially the ropes in the rigging of a ship), which was held in high repute.
After a gap of 40 years the Patent Hemp Spinning Company of Wallis and Pollock, Douglas introduced mechanised flax-spinning into the area. They established themselves within the former Douglas sailcloth factory, erected scotching machinery and encouraged flax cultivation. They destroyed the eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings and a new multi-storey flax-spinning mill at Donnybrook was designed and built by the Cork architect and antiquarian, Richard Bolt Brash, for Hugh and James Wheeler Pollock in 1866. Its essential design was modelled closely on contemporary Belfast mills. Its main enclosing walls were built with Youghal brick and are externally faced with Ballinhassig (Ballinphellic) Brick.
In 1883, the factory changed production from flax spinning to woollen manufacture become apparent, when the mill was producing Cork tweeds. In 1889, the mill was bought by James and Patrick Morrogh and R A Atkins, the High Sheriff of Cork. In 1903, the mill employed 300 people, many of whom were housed in the 100 company-owned cottages in Douglas. To learn more, come along on the walking tour!
Captions:
704a. Former Donnybrook Woollen Mills, built 1866 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 8 August 2013
Kieran’s Heritage Week, 17-25 August 2013
National Heritage Week is upon us again at the end of next week (17th – 25th August). It’s going to be a busy week. I have set up a number of events. They are all free and I welcome any public support for the activities outlined below.
Heritage Open Day, Saturday 17 August 2013 – Historical Walking Tour of Cork City Hall; Learn about the early history of Cork City Council; discover the development of the building and visit the Lord Mayor’s Room, 11am, free but ticketed, contact The Everyman Palace, 0214501673 (duration: 75 minutes). The current structure, replaced the old City Hall, which was destroyed in the ‘burning of Cork’ in 1920. It was designed by Architects Jones and Kelly and built by the Cork Company Sisks. The foundation stone was laid by Eamonn de Valera, President of the Executive Council of the State on 9 July 1932.
Heritage Week:
Sunday 18 August 2013 –Making a Venice of the North, Exploring Eighteenth Century Cork City (new tour), explore a world of canals, and eighteenth century Cork society, meet at City Library, Grand Parade, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
For nearly five hundred years (c.1200-c.1690), the walled port town of Cork, built in a swamp and at the lowest crossing point of the River Lee and the tidal area, remained as one of the most fortified and vibrant walled settlements in the expanding British colonial empire. The walls served as a vast repository of meanings, symbolism, iconography and ideology, as well as symbols of order and social relationships. However, economic growth as well as political events in late seventeenth century Ireland, culminating in the destruction of the city’s core in 1690, provided the catalyst for large-scale change within the urban area. The walls were allowed to decay and this was to inadvertently alter much of the city’s physical, social and economic character in the ensuing century. By John Rocque’s Map of Cork in 1759, the walls of Cork were just a memory- the medieval plan was now a small part in something larger – larger in terms of population from 20,000 to 73,000 plus in terms of a new townscape. A new urban text emerged with new bridges, streets, quays, residences and warehouses built to intertwine with the natural riverine landscape. New communities created new social and cultural landscapes to encounter, several of which are explored on my tours for this year’s heritage week.
The 1759 Map is impressive in its detail. John Rocque (c.1705–62) was a cartographer and engraver of European repute. He could count among his achievements maps of London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. In Britain, his many projects included plans of great gardens, several county and provincial city maps and a great and a great, highly innovative, survey of London which resulted in a 16-sheet map of London and its immediate hinterland (1746), and an immense 24-sheet map of the city itself (also 1746), laid out at a very large scale close to 200 feet to an inch.
The unofficial title of the Venice of the North was given to Cork in the eighteenth century. This was a type of branding exercise, a cultural code in a sense, a reference by native and foreign merchants that Cork was part of several cities in northern Europe (Saint Petersburg, Amsterdam, Bruges, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Manchester) that contained canals, all compared to the enduring connection with water in Venice, Italy over many centuries. Cork and other cities in northern Europe were to be conditioned by ideas of the ideal city tradition. During the post medieval centuries European artists and engineers began to represent political and social ideas and concepts in graphic terms. In truth, this encouraged planners to imagine the ideal port city as a complete unit of which the river, harbour, or canal was an integral part, conceptually and figuratively. This tour explores these ideas and how they influenced perception and culture in growing eighteenth century ‘Venices of the North’ such as Cork.
Kieran’s other tours are:
Monday 19 August 2012 – Shandon Historical Walking Tour, Discover one of the City’s key historical quarters; learn about St Anne’s Church and the development of butter market and the Shandon Street area, meet at North Gate Bridge, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Tuesday 20 August 2013- Blackpool Historical Walking Tour, From Fair Hill to the heart of Blackpool, learn about nineteenth century shambles, schools, convents and industries, meet at North Mon gates, Gerald Griffin Avenue, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Thursday 22 August 2013 – From a Workhouse to a Hospital, The Story of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Discover the history of the workhouse, meet at entrance gate, 7pm (free, duration: two hours).
Friday 23 August 2013, “Where the future and the past meet, A historical walking tour of Mahon, to mark the 100th anniversary of Dunlocha Cottages” (new tour), Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes, Mahon, 7pm (free, duration: 1 ½ hours).
Sunday 25 August 2013, Douglas Historical Walking Tour, Discover about the sailcoth and woollen mills, meet at St. Columba’s Church Car Park, Douglas, 2pm (free, duration: two hours).
Further details from Kieran McCarthy can be got, if needs be at 0876553389.
Caption:
703a. John Rocque’s Map of Cork 1750 (source: Cork City Library)
Short Video, Kieran’s Docklands Tour
Great work by Michael Hussey, Youghal who made a short film on the JFK section of my recent Docklands tour, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of JFK coming to Cork and the getting the freedom of this fair city! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_snaA-j7Oc
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 1 August 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 1 August 2013
Rescue Camden Fort Meagher
It’s hard to imagine that in 2010 community volunteers had to cut their way into Camden Fort Meagher near Crosshaven. The scale of restoration work since then has been remarkable and is a testimony to the spirit and hard work of the whole project team. Passionate and imaginative are perhaps two key terms to describe the work of the community in their ongoing success in re-telling the story of the fort. There are multiple sides in their work from seeing its potential not just for the tourist market but also a way of bringing people together collaboratively and on rebuilding the fort’s sense of place set against the spectacular backdrop of Cork Harbour.
Camden Fort Meagher is internationally recognized as being one of the finest remaining examples of a classical coastal artillery fort in the world. It combines a rich British and Irish military history. I was fortunate recently to be involved in creating a short video on the history of the site driven by the onsite marketing team. Fortifications on this site date back to 1550 and for almost 400 years the fort played an important role as a strong strategic position for the defence of Ireland, the west coast of England and Wales. However, most of what the visitor sees now was built during the 1860s by British Forces and finished around 1871. It has been documented that it took 500 men 40 years to carve out the moat, which goes around three sides of Camden Fort Meagher – as of course on the 4th side one has the harbour.
At the gate to the fort, you can see the original pillars of the fort and they are inscribed with ‘Dun Ni Mhecair’, which is the Irish for Fort Meagher. The fort was named Fort Meagher in 1938 after Thomas Francis Meagher, who was the leader of the Young Irelanders. Ninety years previously in 1848 Meagher and fellow patriot William Smith O’Brien went to France to study revolutionary events there, and returned to Ireland with the new Flag of Ireland, a tricolour of green, white and orange made by and given to them by French women sympathetic to the Irish cause.
A map reproduced for the visitor at the entrance to the fort was originally produced in 1896 by the royal engineer Lieutenant Colonel H. Kirkwood. The fort itself is 45 acres and resources of the fort are 65% underground. There are numerous gunning emplacements that protected the forts on all sides. One of the most interesting facts about the fort is that it once housed one of only eight installations of the Brennan Torpedo worldwide. The Brennan Torpedo was the world’s first practical guided torpedo. Remains of a gunning emplacement show that it housed a heavy mechanical gun and that would have had quite a long range on it. You can also see the remains of pulley bars that would have enabled the pulling and dragging of heavy guns by many men. The bulk of ammunition and shells relevant to each gunning emplacement would have been kept directly underground in a magazine and store.
Further inside the fort, there are the casemated barracks where approximately 240 soldiers would have slept at one time. There were 13 casemated barracks in peace-time and 22 in war time. Some of these rooms have been imaginatively re-used to house exhibitions covering the timelines of British and Irish history at the fort. One of these rooms houses a remarkable photographic exhibition documenting the events of the 9-11 tragedy.
The impressive tunnels, some of which are accessible, were built with a ‘cut and cover’ method, which meant that the workers would dig trenches in the ground, put up support structures, brick over that, then remove the support structures and then fill the earth back over the tunnel. The underground magazine is the biggest chamber in Camden Fort Meagher and was once a store for the forts vast amounts of munitions, approx 30 feet underground. The acoustics in here are intense – this is due to the vaulted ceiling, which was designed to support the weight and stress of the Parade Square which lies above it. You can see the boxes at the gable end here are numbered 2, 3 and 4 – these were light boxes that were secured tightly with glass and putty and would have been lit from an access passage behind the magazine. This kept flames and sparks separate from the munitions for obvious reasons.
The Parade Square at the centre of the fort dates from 1550 right up to 1989. Today the Parade Square is used for re-enactments highlighting different eras and displays. In 1989 the Irish Army handed the fort over to the local authority, Cork County Council. Despite best efforts to restore the fort as a tourism site it became overgrown for almost two decades. With serious input by a community of volunteers and financial and logistical support from the local authority, Cork County Council has been crucial to the development of the project. Worker placement schemes from FAS and SECAD have also added to this project’s success. Go and visit this great community project.
See www.rescuecamden.ie for more details and opening hours
Caption:
702a. Raising the Irish tricolour, 10 July 2013, an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the handing over of Fort Camden (now Camden Fort Meagher) by the British to the Irish government in July 1938 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock, 27 July 2013
Thanks to everyone who supported my historical walking tour last Saturday, 27 July 2013. More of Kieran’s forthcoming events here; http://kieranmccarthy.ie/?page_id=1390
Historical Walking Tour with Mayor of Cologne
On Saturday morning, 27 July 2013, I had the pleasure of showing the Mayor of Cologne around the city centre, as part of the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Cork and Cologne.
Blackrock Historical Walking Tour, Saturday 27 July 2013
As part of ongoing community project into the local history of the south-east ward, Cllr Kieran McCarthy will conduct a historical walking tour of Blackrock Village on Saturday 27 July 2013, 2pm, leaving from Blackrock Castle (approx 2 hours, free event).
The earliest and official evidence for settlement in Blackrock dates to c.1564 when the Galway family created what was to become known as Dundanion Castle. Over 20 years later, Blackrock Castle was built circa 1582 by the citizens of Cork with artillery to resist pirates and other invaders. In the early 1700s, the prominent Tuckey family, of which Tuckey Street in the city centre is named, became part of the new social elite in Cork after the Williamite wars and built part of what became known in time at the Ursuline Convent. The building of the Navigation Wall or Dock in the 1760s turned focus to reclamation projects in the area and the eventual creation of public amenity land such as the Marina Walk during the time of the Great Famine. The early 1800s coincided with an enormous investment into creating new late Georgian mansions by many other key Cork families, such as the Chattertons, the Frends, the McMullers, Deanes and the Nash families, amongst others. Soon Blackrock was to have its own bathing houses, schools, hurling club, suburban railway line, and Protestant and Catholic Church. The pier that was developed at the heart of the space led to a number of other developments such as fisherman cottages and a fishing industry. This community is reflected in the 1911 census with 64 fisherman listed in Blackrock.
Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted: “A stroll in Blackrock is popular by many people, local and Cork people. The area is particularly characterised by beautiful architecture, historic landscapes and imposing late Georgian and early twentieth century country cottages; every structure points to a key era in Cork’s development. Blackrock is also lucky that many of its former residents have left archives, census records, diaries, old maps and insights into how the area developed, giving an insight into ways of life, ideas and ambitions in the past, some of which can help us in the present day in understanding Blackrock’s identity going forward.”
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 25 July 2013
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 25 July 2013
Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, 30 July-1 August
The 2013 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival will run in historic Shandon from Tuesday 30 July to Thursday 1 August 2013. Cork City Council recently declared 1 August as Mother Jones Day. This international “Shandon Summer School” event will see speakers from Ireland joined by participants from the United Kingdom and the United States, who will attend to discuss issues associated with social justice, labour and union history. These were issues close to the heart of Cork born Mary Harris known throughout the world as Mother Jones.
In 2012 Shandon was the location for the inaugural Mother Jones Festival, which celebrated the 175th Anniversary of the birth of Mary Harris nearby. A beautiful plaque was unveiled at last year’s event and this will also be the focal point for the 2013 festival. The entire event was hugely successful, attracting large crowds, receiving media coverage throughout Ireland and America and placing the ancient Shandon quarter in international focus.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee felt Shandon should continue to celebrate and honour Mother Jones by providing a platform to highlight and discuss labour history, trade union issues and social justice in the setting of the very birthplace of Mary Harris. The Shandon festival/summer school will have a mixture of speakers, lectures discussions, films a parade of banners, music and songs associated with these struggles over three days.
On Tuesday evening, 30 July, the Chairperson of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, Margaret Aspinall, will speak on the traumatic events, which took place at the Hillsborough Stadium on 15 April 1989, when 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives. Margaret’s son James was among those who never came home from that game. The Festival committee are pleased to announce that the recipient of the Spirit of Mother Jones Award for 2013 is Ms Aspinall (google youtube video, Campaigning Mum of the Year 2013).
Wednesday afternoon, 31 July, will see Ken Fleming of SIPTU and an Inspector with the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) give a lecture on the exploitation of some seafarers on vessels in Irish ports. Later that evening Padraig Yeates, journalist, writer and author of the book “Lockout”, an account of the bitter workers strike in 1913, will give a lecture on the Dublin Lockout. The Lockout was a watershed in Irish political and labour history. Padraig Yeates is an expert on this period in Irish history. His centenary lecture will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 31 August at the Firkin Crane. The Dublin Lockout lecture will be introduced by Joe O’Flynn General Secretary of SIPTU formerly the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, which was founded by James Larkin. Luke Dineen will present his paper on the Cork Strike and Lockout of 1909 at the Firkin Crane to be held also on Wednesday afternoon. This very significant but largely forgotten strike had a major influence on the later Dublin Lockout.
On Thursday 1 August, Mother Jones Day, Professor Simon Cordery of Western Illinois University will deliver the annual Mother Jones lecture. Simon has written extensively on the activities of Mother Jones and recently completed a book entitled Mother Jones “Raising Cain and Consciousness”.
Jim Nolan, one of the organizer had commented: “All the speakers will present in their different ways a common thread through history of ordinary people and families fighting for basic rights whether in their work places or in their daily lives as epitomised by the spirit of Mother Jones who spent most of her life defending the rights of workers and their families in the United States of America”.
The festival will see Andy Irvine return to Cork to perform a special concert in honour of Mother Jones at the Firkin Crane on Thursday 1 August. Richard T Cooke will present a special Mother Jones Festival tribute concert also at the Firkin Crane on Wednesday evening 31 July. Actor Jer O’Leary will perform a Jim Larkin monologue while the famous Cork Singers Club will render a series of songs associated with Mother Jones at the Maldron Hotel. Jimmy Crowley, legendary Cork singer and songwriter will present a workshop entitled “Songs of a Beautiful City” at the Maldron Hotel. Also playing at the Maldron Hotel will be Hank Wedel and Two Time Polka. The event will culminate with the famous Butter Exchange Band performing a recital of music associated with Mother Jones at the plaque on John Redmond Street on 1 August.
All are welcome to attend this unique event, which forms part of the “Gathering” events in Cork City in 2013 and part of a wider series of festivals and events taking place in Shandon throughout this year. All events are free; walk in on a first come first served basis (with the exception of the Andy Irvine fundraising concert, see www.tickets.ie). For further detailed information, google www.motherjonescork.com
Don’t forget the historical walking tour of Blackrock village, Saturday 27 August, 2pm, leaving from Blackrock Castle (free, two hours). In addition, Cork Heritage open Day takes on Saturday 17 August followed by National Heritage Week; for details of my events, see heritage events under www.corkheritage.ie
Caption:
701a. Mother Jones plaque Shandon, unveiled in 2012 (source:www.motherjonescork.com)