Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article

Cork Independent, 18 April 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 52) –A Rallying Centre”

“It is not generally realised that my Department has co-operated with many vocational education committees in endeavouring to provide suitable training for entrants to new industries. Two-thirds of the cost of training suitable persons for technological posts in the new Sugar Beet Factories at Mallow, Tuam, and Thurles were defrayed by my Department, the remaining third being borne by Comhlucht Siucre Éireann Teo” (Thomas Derrig TD, Minister of Education, 21 June 1935).

Thomas Derrig TD, Minister of Education, spoke at length at the luncheon following the laying of the foundation stone of the Cork College of Commerce in June 1935. He summarised some of the key developments in education and its relationship with industry since the passing of the Vocational Education Act in 1930 and in light of the ongoing economic war with Britain. In particular he described how apprentices required for Irish sugar factories for example were selected by an examination under the auspices of his Department with the co-operation of local Vocational Education Committees. Almost all these apprentices were drawn from course at the technical schools. He also promoted a number of other projects. A number of youths were trained in Wolverhampton, in preparation for employment in an aluminium factory. Provision was made in another technical school for training girls for new hosiery factories. Similar facilities for classes in connection with boot factories were provided for in four or five schools. A class in ceramic art was formed in preparation for the establishment of a new pottery factory. Power machines were installed in certain centres for the provision of trade instruction for the ready-made clothing industry.

Derrig’s Department and vocational educational committees were also anxious to co-operate with industrialists in providing technical training not only for new employees, but also to those already engaged in industry and who wished to add to their qualification as a means towards attaining more “responsible posts”. He was arranging in the summer of 1935 a special course in retail practice and salesmanship for senior commercial teachers. Over 40 teachers were drawn from all parts of the country to receive intensive courses in being an assistant in the drapery and the grocery and provision trades.

Derrig also described the constant demand for the extension of existing technical schools and the erection of new ones. He noted during his speech that the “laying of the foundation stone of your magnificent new School of Commerce and Domestic Science today forms but one link in the chain of schools that have been erected since 1930”. In Dublin important extensions had been made in Vocational Educational schools at Ballsbridge and Rathmines; the new branch school at Marino was soon to be completed. Plans were being prepared to erect a new School of Domestic Science in a central position, near O’Connell Street. In Limerick additions had been made to their central school, and a proposal was under consideration to erect a new feeder school in another part of the city. The Waterford Technical School had been also considerably extended to meet existing educational demands.

New schools were provided for in Galway and Drogheda and an extension was provided for at the Wexford school. In over 20 counties smaller schools had been erected or were near completion by 1935. Many had been constructed to cater for the needs of the rural population and according to Derrig represented an important step in the development of our national rural economy: “Such schools properly administered should not only enable the boys and girls in our rural areas to play a more efficient part in the many agricultural projects now being encouraged, but also a rallying centre for the social and national life of the rural population”.

Progress was not only confined to the building of schools and as Derrig noted “the formation of relationships with industry”. He described that several vocational schools were also exercising their valuable influence slowly but definitely on the development of the Irish language. There was, he argued, a definite advance in the teaching of subjects through Irish. The marked increase in previous years in the number of teachers qualifying for the Ceard Teastas Gaeilge was a “gratifying sign of development”. Continuing he argued that: “no amount of the teaching of Irish or of subjects through Irish can succeed in making the present generation realise the value and worth of their national language unless it is combined with a deliberate effort on the part of all concerned to make Irish the living language not only of the school, but also of the playing fields, and above all, of the home”.

Concluding his address Minister Derrig referred to a question raised regarding the setting up of Conservatoire of Music in the Country, and expressed the hope that the day “would come soon when they would have one in the country, whether in Dublin or in Country”. Interesting and like the request for a Cork conservatoire of music, Mr J Hurley at the luncheon representing the Crawford Municipal Technical College, expressed the hope that the application for a college of technology in Cork would also not be lost sight and would soon come to fruition.

To be continued…

Caption:

687a. Cork College of Commerce, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 

Cork Independent, 11 April 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 51) –A Glass Jar of Hope”

 “Thus the laying of the foundation stone of the new school today marks another stage in the development of Vocational Education in Cork; the new building, as you are aware, will house both the School of Commerce and Domestic Science, allowing additional accommodation for the further development of science and technology in the existing buildings” (Journalist, Cork Examiner, 25 June 1935)

The pinnacle of vocational education projects in Cork in the 1930s was the creation of a new building for the Cork School of Commerce on Morrison’s Island. On 24 June 1935, in the presence of a large and distinguished gathering, Thomas Derrig TD, Minister for Education, laid the foundation stone of Cork’s new £60,000 Municipal School of Commerce and Domestic Science. The attendance included William T Cosgrave TD who travelled especially from Dublin for the occasion. The site and the foundation stone were first blessed by Rev J Canon Murphy, St Finbarr’s South Chapel, who then delivered a short address. The Canon blessed the stone. He noted that they took that day the first step in the direction of a “great municipal, commercial academy, which they hoped would be worthy of the size, dignity and importance of the city of Cork”. He prayed that this great inception might one day become a source of knowledge and instruction to many generations of the youth of the City of Cork “that they might learn many useful lessons of culture and science and skill, which would then be useful members of society and reflect credit on the city of their birth”.

Mr William Ellis welcomed the Minister for Education on behalf of the Vocational education committee of the city of Cork, and said the Minister was engaged that day on the “inauguration of a great work, which would prove of immense benefit to the city educationally and would reflect credit on it in other aspects as well”. He asked the Minister to lay the foundation stone of a building of whose future they had such great hopes. Mr Derrig was then presented with a silver trowel by Mr Sisk, the builder. When the stone was laid, in a cavity of the stone was placed a glass jar containing a prospectus of the school, copies of the “Cork Examiner,” and other daily newspapers, and contemporary coins. The Minister added his card to this collection.

Speaking first in Irish and subsequently in English, the Minister said it gave him great pleasure to be present on this important occasion in the history of vocational education in the city of Cork. He asserted that the school was being erected at a moment when Ireland was endeavouring to expand its industrial development, resources and commerce; “They would send out from it young and women equipped to take their parts in the development of the country and advancing its interests and making its citizens prosperous”.

The Minister congratulated the architect, Henry Hill and the builder Sisks on the “admirable, yet simplicity of the building”.  It was, he noted, a source of satisfaction to him to record that workmen and tradesmen of Cork played such an important part in the building of the school, and the materials and fittings would as far as possible be Irish. Speaking at the subsequent luncheon in the Victoria Hotel, the Minister noted that the constant demand for the extension of technical schools and for the erection of new ones was a “sure tale of progress”. A problem he highlighted was the training of girls for domestic service. It was his opinion that these girls, if properly trained could obtain suitable positions in this country. He was in full agreement with the Chairman of the County Cork Vocational Committee, that to raise the position of the domestic servant in this country was a matter of great importance. To succeed in this endeavour “they can only do so if the girls themselves are prepared to take out a full course of training, which he was sure all the Vocational committees, throughout the country would only too glad to supply”.

Mr A J Magennis proposed the toast “vocational education”. He was doing so as a member of the City of Cork Vocational Education Committee and chairman of the School of Commerce sub committee. He was past president of the Incorporated Chamber of Commerce and Shipping.  As chairman of the School of Commerce committee and in his experience as a professional accountant, he described that the work of the principal and his staff as not surpassed in the Free State; “There is scarcely a business in the city where you will not find past students of the school holding positions of responsibility, all of whom bear unmistakable marks of the training they have received in that in that institution. I can with confidence assert that this school has since its inception, definitely raised the standard of business efficiency and office organisation, not only in the city, but wherever our students have found employment”.

To be continued…

A list of winning projects in the 2013 edition (City and County) of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project can now be viewed at Kieran’s heritage website www.corkheritage.ie.

Caption:

686a. Henry Hill’s design for Cork School of Commerce and Domestic Science, c.1935 (source: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  4 April 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 50) –Green’s Act of Generosity”

The Vocational Educational Bill was passed into legislation on 29 July 1930. The act was important in widening the extent of technical education and expanded the school system to provide general and practical training in preparation for employment. It established 38 VECs representative of local authorities and local interests. Each of these was a statutory body with power to acquire and own land. They were subject only to the Minister of Education. The system remained multi-denominational, co-educational and under lay management. The Act was proof that the State accepted that it had a duty to guarantee the Irish technical education system would meet the trade and industry requirements of the country.

Initially, the 38 VECs comprised four County Borough schemes, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford; 27 counties of Saorstát Éireann with Tipperary North and South Riding comprising separate VECs and seven scheduled Urban districts – Bray, Drogheda, Dun Laoghaire, Galway, Sligo, Tralee and Waterford. The Minister was allowed to designate a VEC area where compulsory continuation education for youth from 14-16 years of age would be brought in. This was invoked in Cork, Limerick and Waterford. As time progressed, the number of Vocational schools increased from 77 in the school year 1931-32 to 206 in 1938-39. The number of full time courses also increased. Much of the development was in the small towns and larger villages rather than in larger towns. By 1932, the VECs had 23 per cent of second-level students.

In his principal’s report of 1930, D J Coakley noted that that the School of Commerce was well placed to provide a more than satisfactory commercial education. The school also aspired to provide full-time day continuation education for young people between 14 and 16 years, commercial education for students of 16 years of age and upwards, and part time classes to meet the specialised requirements of employees. In the previous two years, D J Coakley had been planning an expansion of the college through attaining new premises. Previous end of year reports had criticised the lack of space to expand the operation.  These comments were also echoed when the School held a twenty-first anniversary celebration on 29 September 1929, in the Victoria Hotel on St Patrick’s Street followed by a public dinner on 8 November 1929. These events were attended by the then Lord Mayor Seán French, Cork City Councillors, Department Inspectors, Chamber of Commerce and Shipping members, the President of University College Cork, Professor P J Merriman and Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, registrar, UCC. Various representatives from local government and professional institutes attended as well as managers and owners of huge companies from Cork City and its environs.

With such a captive audience, Mr J C Foley, chairman of the School outlined the history of the establishment and its role in the life of the city; “I need not refer in detail to the remarkable progress of the school, to its roll of over 600 students, divided into morning, afternoon and night session; to the number of its students who have obtained responsible positions here and elsewhere. The best indication I can find of the influence of the school on the industrial development of the city is to take the reasoned opinion of one of our foremost city accountants, who some years previously publicly stated that since the school was established the standard of accounting in the city business houses had shown a marked improvement”. Mr Foley also had happy recollections of a special class for shopkeepers, which was in existence or some years.

Continuing on Mr Foley noted that the buildings were altogether unsuited for the work carried on there; “the business men of Cork who stood by its cradle and watched with pride its progress to manhood should now mark their appreciation by a present of a new building, large and comfortable enough to allow for further developments”. He also announced the donation of a free site for the development of a new school;  “it is with considerable pleasure that I make the announcement that what our well-known highly respected and generous fellow citizen did for technical education by the presentation of a free site, will be done by another equally highly esteemed citizen for commercial education”.

At a meeting of Cork Corporation in mid July 1930, the Lord Mayor F J Daly presiding with the City Manager announced that a unanimous donor, who had purchased a site on Father Mathew Quay for £2,500, had offered it to the Corporation for the erection of a new School of Commerce. The Council accepted the offer, and passed a resolution of thanks to the generous donor. They passed on the offer to the City of Cork Vocational Educational Committee. Gerard O’Dwyer’s excellent book (2008) on the history of the College reveals that the donor was William T Green. William was very interested in the commercial and educational life of Cork City. He was elected President of the Cork Incorporated Chamber of Commerce and Shipping in 1904. He was involved in the original proposal to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction to provide a School of Commerce for the City.

To be continued….

Caption:

685a. William T Green, donor of site for the present Cork College of Commerce (picture: Cork City Library)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 March 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 49) –Store Pressures”

“On the one hand, is the great store with a large staff, a complex organisation and detailed systems; on the other, is the small business with the individual proprietor and a few assistants. In the imperative need for more trade, for ‘volume’, the departmental store, the multiple shop, and the mail order business are extending their activities into the most remote quarters of the land, and the fear is sometimes expressed that the day of the small business is over” (S A Williams, London).

In the last of the papers at the Irish Technical Education Association Congress, held in the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute on 13 June 1930, Mr S A William, Principal, School of Retail Distribution, London gave a paper on the changing nature of retail distribution: Education for retail business was a new development and presented several important issues for consideration. William’s remarks were set in a context of the rise in shopping malls in the United State and the continuing rise of the department store in Britain.

Modern “car-friendly” strip malls developed from the 1920s, and shopping malls corresponded with the rise of suburban living in many parts of the Western World, especially the United States, after World War II. From early on, the design tended to be inward-facing, with malls following theories of how customers could best be persuaded in a controlled environment. Similar, the concept of a mall having one or more ‘anchor store’ or ‘big box stores’ was pioneered early, with individual stores or smaller-scale chain stores intended to profit from the shoppers attracted by the big stores. In Britain, the department store was the pioneer of mass consumerism. It was the product of an enormous movement in the class system with the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the commercial and industrial middle class. Many stores were dependent on low mark-ups and high turnover. In 1900, the department store sector had between one and two per cent of the total retail trade in Britain rising to between three and four per cent by 1920 and c.11 per cent of all sales by 1947. Despite the uncertainties of war, department stores in Britain rose from 175-225 stores in 1914 to about 475-525 in 1938 (William Lancaster, 1995, The Department Store, A Social History).

On the rise of the department store, S Williams noted in his Cork paper that the large organisation had many advantages. It possessed great purchasing power; it had developed into a first class organisation of buying, selling and despatching goods. He argued that experience showed that there was still room for the well-managed single shop, with a good variety of the particular merchandise it stocked. It was less crowded than the multiple shop. The great asset of the single shop he noted “is its individuality and its personal interest in the customer, both of which make a great appeal to many people. In spite of the growth of the large store, the number of people engaged in the small business is still greatly in excess of those employed in large organisations”.

Williams described that it was not usually practical to establish separate schemes of training for the employee of the department store or single shop. He felt that the wide field of knowledge and practice was common to both large and small organisations, with common and broad principles of retailing and of general application. Williams divided the work of retail distribution into four main groups-merchanising, which entailed providing for the consumer the right merchanise; publicity, presenting the shop and the merchandise in such a way that would build goodwill and bring shoppers to buy; shop or store management, ensuring proper service by means of intelligent selling, a comfortable shop and efficient delivery, and financial control, recording financial transactions and control expenditure.  “These functions are performed in every retail business, the only difference between the large and small organisations being that in the latter, one individual may carry out several functions”;

Williams advocated for store assistants to have a course of education, educating them in the experiences of others and enabling them to profit from the best examples of modern retailing; “It is quite possible to arrange courses of instruction, which will meet the needs of workers in both large and small organisations.  There are many aspects of retailing, which lend themselves to courses of instruction, e.g. transport systems, staff control, hire purchase systems, mail order systems, accounting, advertising and display, etc.”.

In the discussion which followed the paper, Mr McGuigan (Dublin), said there was a growing demand for retail work and for classes in connection with retail distribution. In Dublin they hoped to set classes going for paid shop assistants. There, as elsewhere, the selection of boys for the distributive shops was done by the employers themselves, but it was found that when the boys came along and filled the forms that the majority of them were from the country. Eighty per cent of the apprentices in the drapery trade in Dublin were, he supposed, from the South of Ireland, and many of them were of a very high standard of education.

To be continued…

Caption:

684a. Debenhams (formerly Roches Store) and Brown Thomas (formerly Cashes); both buildings were opened in 1927 and both designed by Daniel Levie, following the burning of Cork in 1920 (picture: Kieran McCarthy, 17 March 2013)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 21 March 2013

“Technical Memories (Part 48) – Avenues of Improvement”

“At the close of day two the delegates visited Blarney Castle and Mahony’s Mills, having travelled there by train on the Muskerry line.  The Irish Technical Education Association Congress concluded its sessions yesterday [day three], when papers were read by Mr W Cox, Vice President, Incorporated British Institute of Certified Carpenters, dealing with “Apprenticeship Conditions and Avenues of Improvement”, and by Mr S A Williams, Principal, School of Retail Distribution, London (journalist, Cork Examiner, 14 June 1930).

On day three of the Irish Technical Education Association Congress, held in the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute, Mr W Cox read his paper on the nature of the apprenticeship system. The paper continued the theme that persisted through previous conference papers regarding the call for general and practical training in preparation for employment. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Mr Cox noted that for some reason or other there was “a reluctance on the part of the boys to become bound apprentices”. There was a similar reluctance on the part of employers to be concerned with them. In the latter case, he argued that it may be attributed to the absorption of many small businesses by larger firms and limited companies during previous years, “whose sole object was the increase of dividends”.

A possible reason, Cox described, for the falling off in the number of boys could have been that the “superior education afforded to the community, in recent years, stimulated the ambitions of a certain class of parents to see their sons in what is termed “the black-coated professions”. He went on to describe that there appeared to be large numbers of youths willing to go into banking, the civil service, accountancy, drawing offices and similar callings, due to the fact that positions in those posts had grown enormously since 1914. Moreover, he argued, the sub division of work due to mass production by the larger firms, was prone to give the impression to the average individual that a long apprenticeship and a thorough knowledge of a trade was unnecessary in order to earn a decent living.

Cox outlined that the woodwork industry, especially during the previous 15 years, had made very rapid progress. With a need for rapid production to meet demand, joinery and cabinet works were, in many cases, organised under what was a purely factory system. In many big towns nearly all the work was done by machinery, and all that the craftsman was required to do was to assemble the parts and clean off the finished article. But someone Cox argued must be responsible for the accurate setting out the work; he must have a thorough knowledge of construction to do this; “There must also be foremen, whose duty it is to see that the work is generally corrected performed, and who is responsible for getting out the work in time, and to see that the estimated cost is not exceeded. He must see that the proper material is selected and used, and in a thousand and one ways apply his knowledge and experience for the correct performance of the work. General managers are needed to superintend these. Such men are not likely to be chosen from those who have picked up only a part knowledge of the craft…The man who served his time and gained experience as a properly bound apprentice is the only one likely to be promoted to the coveted superior positions in the professions and the consequent increase of salaries, so much desired by all”.

“Apprenticeship is not dead”, Mr Cox, noted. He outlined that it only requires organising and updating. In this regard, he made a number of suggestions. For example, the boy who is intended for the building profession should be instructed in a technical school. At the age of fifteen, he should be bound to a firm of repute. For the first three years of his apprenticeship, he should receive technical instruction at a technical school for one day per week. The remainder of his time, he should be required to attend evening classes dealing with the more advanced section of his work. By the time he is twenty years of age, and out of his time, he should have obtained a good knowledge of geometry, the act of measuring geometrical qualities, chemistry, drawing, mechanics, physics and building science.

During the post discussion on the paper, Mr McMillan (Dublin) advocated the payment of apprentices at the rate of 12s to 17s per week during their first year, but noted that nine-tenths of the industries in which boys were apprenticed were unable to pay that rate. McMillan called for employers to allow them one day in each week to enable to attend technical classes. In addition he proposed that provided that a boy attended 75 per cent of the time during the session, his fees should be refunded to him, and if he passed a successful examination his wages for the 12 months should be increased by a shilling a week. However according to McMillan:“the boy must learn everything connected with the trade to which he was apprenticed, even by starting sweeping the floor if he was eventually to be a general manager”.

To be continued…

Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89

Caption:

683a. Train on Western Road, Cork Muskerry Light Railway, c.1910 (picture: Cork Museum)