Kieran’s Our City, Our Town 

Cork Independent, 7 June 2012

Technical Memories (Part 19)

Experiments in a Shed

 “It was my goof fortune in the early nineties to attend St. Luke’s National School, Cork, the headmaster of which, John B. Crawford ruled metaphorically with rod of iron. Crawford was a giant in stature and was known generally as ‘Long John’. He was a gifted teacher and in addition to the ordinary routine subjects gave us instruction in the fundamentals of sound, light, magnetism, electricity, anatomy and physiology…such experiments may seem trivial to the youth of today, but appeared very wonderful and intriguing to us, youngsters of fifty years ago” (Alfred Godfrey Leonard, address to Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, 22 November 1950).

The lecturer in physics and chemistry at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute in 1912 was Alfred Godfrey G. Leonard. He gave an address to the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland in 1951, which was published in their journal called Orbital. An obituary to Dr. Leonard is also listed in the same journal in 1966. Over his career, he worked with others in making chemistry a main stream subject in educational organisations across Ireland.

A native of Cork, Alfred Leonard received his early education at St Luke’s National School in Montenotte. In 1898, he moved to the Cork Grammar School, at Sidney Place on Wellington Road. The school was the property of, and under the general control of, the City of Cork Church School Board. In street directories in the early 1900s, this boarding and day school prepared boys for the university, army, navy, civil service, legal and medical professions and mercantile pursuits. There were a few scholarships from the elementary schools. The general work of the school included training for the Intermediate Examinations, Science and Art Department, Agricultural and Technical Department, and the General Synod’s examination in Holy Scripture.

Alfred received teaching from the headmaster Rev. Ralph Harvey, Osborn Bergin, George Taylor and Louis McNamara. Osborn Joseph Bergin (1873-1950), an eminent scholar in the field of Irish Studies, was a native of Cork. He was educated at Cork Grammar School and Queen’s College Cork (now University College Cork). He learned Irish from Pádraig Ó Laoghaire, a national teacher in Beara. Bergin was appointed a lecturer in Celtic at Queen’s College Cork in 1897. Bergin was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in March 1907. He held the post of Professor of Old and Middle Irish at University College Dublin from 1909 to 1940.

On the teaching of science at the Cork Grammar School, Alfred Leonard notes that:

“Prior to 1900, the teaching of science was under the control of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. We received oral instruction in sound, light, heat and mechanics which enabled some of us to pass examinations conducted annually by the Department. On rare occasions inspectors from the Department visited the school and when this occurred prompt warning was sent to the Christian Brothers’ School next door, a friendly act, which was reciprocated by them should an inspector arrive there first. On one occasion, I remember, we were engaged in mathematics when the warning arrived and promptly the few pieces of apparatus possessed by the school were brought out and the instruction was changed to Natural Philosophy; but all to no purpose, as the inspector did not appear.”

When the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction was established in 1900, Alfred remembers the starting of a campaign for the introduction of experimental science teaching in schools, and laboratories were established in almost secondary schools. When the laboratory was under construction in the Grammar School, Mr. England, who had been trained in Owen’s College, Manchester taught Alfred and his class. Alfred notes that he and his friend wished to move beyond oral teaching and wished to have practical experience;

“Most of our pocket-money went in the purchase of small quantities of very ordinary chemicals. These we used at home in an outhouse for the preparation of hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, chlorine, bromine, iodine, carbon dioxide and such like substances. Instead of flasks we used stoneware pickle jars; corks were bored with red-hot skewers and heating effected by a spirit lamp.”

In 1902 Alfred won a Government Scholarship to the Royal College of Science in Dublin. The scholarship amounted to 21/- per week of the college (30 weeks) with a travelling allowance to and from home. Some 40 students entered the college each year. The first year course was common to all faculties and laid a sound foundation in mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, physics, practical geometry, and free-hand drawing. Professor Walter Hartley delivered the first year lectures, which were fully illustrated with experimental demonstrations. A pioneer in the area of spectroscopy, Hartley was the recipient of many international honours. Among his most significant analysis was his work on the relationship between molecular structure and absorption spectra, and his discovery of the absorption of ultraviolet radiation by ozone. Many of his studies addressed practical applications of scientific research, covering subjects such as dyes for the Irish textile industry, studies for the brewing and distilling industries and chemicals for the prevention of potato blight.

To be continued…

Caption:

644a. Alfred Godfrey Leonard, c.1960 (source: Institute of Chemistry of Ireland)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 31 May 2012

Technical Memories (Part 18)

Striving towards the Sun

“Developments are constantly in progress in the world of industry…If our technical schools are to fully meet the need of instruction, they must adapt their curricula and teaching in accordance with these developments. The cost of adequate staffing and equipment makes its impossible for small schools to do this work. In Germany and other Continental countries, monotechnics have been established, and in England the course system appears to have taken root, while in London there is a strong movement in the direction of this specialised teaching (A.F. Sharman Crawford, part of his paper at the Irish Technical Instruction Association Annual Congress, 1913, Bangor, Co. Down).”

With the opening of the Cork Technical Institute in January 1912, the staff worked diligently over the ensuing two years to develop Crawford’s idea of running specialised courses to meet demands of industry. Newspaper clippings on the expansion of courses and calls for new lecturers and students survive in the minute books of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute in the Cork and County Archives in Blackpool, Cork. Entrusted with heading up the Cork venture was John H. Grindley, D.Sc, who was a Whitworth Scholar.  The Whitworth scheme arose from the work of Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803 –1887) who was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for screw threads. A strong believer in the value of technical education, Whitworth backed a new Mechanics’ Institute in Manchester and helped found the Manchester School of Design. In 1868, he founded the Whitworth Scholarship for the advancement of mechanical engineering. John Grindley was one of these scholars and went to become an Honorary Fellow of the Owens College Manchester which later transformed into the Victoria University, of which Grindley was also was a Fellow. He received a great education in mechanical education from one of the United Kingdom’s leading technical universities. Interesting the motto of the University was “Arduus ad solem”, meaning “striving towards the sun”. It is a metaphor for aspiring to enlightenment. It is quoted from Virgil’s Aeneid book VI.

The secretary to the Crawford Institute was Francis B. Giltinan. He had a long career within the organisation being present from the beginning in 1901 and he was still secretary in 1930.  In 1912, his assistant or clerk was R. Sisk and the Librarian was J Wilkinson. In September 1914, an advertisement in the Cork Examiner appeared looking for a female clerk with competence in short hand typing, with £39 per annum as salary.

In the Institute’s botany and gardening section was John Griffin. In the carpentry and joinery department was P. O’Connor, who had a full technological certificate from the City and Guilds of the London Institute. Founded in 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – the traditional guardians of work-based training – to develop a national system of technical education, City & Guilds has been operating under Royal Charter granted by Queen Victoria, since 1900.

In the department of Building Construction and Builder’s Qualities in the Crawford Institute were John J. O’Sullivan and John Murphy, both with technological certificates from the London Institute as well. In September 1912, a call appeared in the Cork Examiner for a building construction teacher, with a salary of 8s. per evening for the duration of two hours. I’m uncertain if this was an expansion of the course. Certainly in 1916, there was a call for an assistant teacher in building construction.

In the domestic science department covering cookery, laundry work, the Chief Instructress was Miss A. Murphy, B.A. She had a diploma from the Irish Training School of Domestic Economy. In 1912 there twenty-three students in the Department’s training school in Stillorgan, county Dublin. Entrance to this institution was by open competitive examination, but candidates who had passed the Senior Grade Examination of the Intermediate Education Board or who were graduates of a university were given priority without examination. Miss Murphy’s post was advertised in July 1912 with a salary of £80 per annum, rising in increments of £5 to £100. The instructress in January 1912 was Miss O. MacDonagh who also had a diploma from the training school. The instructress in dress-making and millinery was Miss M. O’Donovan whilst the instructress in millinery was Miss B. Gleeson. In October 1913, a new shirt-making class had a course fee of 5s. In October 1914, a teacher in short-making was advertised with a salary of 7s. and 6d. per lesson with two lessons per week.

In electrical engineering, the lecturer was C.E. Greenslade whilst the Laboratory assistant was vacant. In October 1913, a lecturer in machine drawing for electrical engineers was advertised one evening per week at a salary of 10s per evening. In the mechanical engineering section, the lecturer was W. Fearnley, who had a B.Sc from London, and like Grindley was a Whitworth Scholar. He was also a National scholar. J.Lowe, a Ramsbotton Scholar from Manchester University was the assistant lecturer. The workshop assistant was H. Nolan. In late January 1912, a new class in motor car engineering was to be held on Mondays, 4-5.30pm. 

To be continued…

Caption:

643a. John H. Grindley, Principal of Crawford Municipal Technical College, Cork (picture souvenir booklet, 1912)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  24 May 2012

Technical Memories (Part 17)

A Turn of a Key

“Mr. A. F. Sharman Crawford said that as Vice-Chairman of the Technical Instruction Committee of the Borough of Cork, he had on their behalf to thank the Lord Mayor [James Simcox] for his attendance and to welcome him at the end of what he hoped would be his first year in office.  He would ask him to declare the building open, but first of all he would call on Mr. Arthur Hill, architect, to present this lordship with the key. Mr. Arthur Hill, architect, said it gave him great pleasure indeed to present the Lord Mayor with the key and he was quite safe in saying that he would not use it to lock the institute against any student who wanted to get inside” (Cork Examiner, 17 January 1912).

Recently, the key that was presented to the Lord Mayor of Cork James Simcox in 1912 was re-presented on loan to the Crawford College of Art by his grandson Canon James Simcox. Speaking at the event, the present registrar of Cork Institute of Technology Barry O’Connor noted quite aptly that “it was a tapestry of education that started with the turn of this key. It opened enquiring minds to technical education, which hasn’t stopped since”.

In my interview with Canon James, he outlined that his great grandfather worked for the Dean of Cloyne but decided to marry a Roman Catholic girl- Elizabeth Lucky. Hence he was banished from Rectory and found work as a farm labourer in the Uniake estate near Killeagh. Born in 1858, James Simcox (1958-1920) was the canon’s grandfather. James left home and found work as a grocer’s assistant in Midleton. Moving with some savings to Cork City, he lived on North Main Street, working again in a grocer’s shop. There he met Helena O’Sullivan. She was the eldest of a large family who were living above a draper’s shop on the street as well. Marrying, James and Helena had 5 children, Lily, May, Evelyn, Richard and Jack. In 1896, Helena died and James remarried Kathleen Sutton, the daughter of Nathaniel Sutton, Harbour Master of Cork. The Suttons lived in Empress Villas on Summerhill North. James and Kathleen had a further family of five children. The eldest Eileen died in infancy, the second died of diphtheria at the age of 13. Then there was Frank (the canon’s father), then Redmond and Katherine. In 1900, the family moved from Adelaide Terrace, Summerhill to Bloomfield House on Rochestown Road.

In 1901, James Simcox was elected to the corporation representing the north central ward and became an Alderman in 1905. One of the many highlights in his year of office was the opening of the Crawford Technical College. In his concluding remarks at the opening of the Institute in 1912, he foresaw the significance in Cork’s educational future:

“I wish it great success and great prosperity and I hope in the years that are before us that the people of Cork will be grateful to the Committee and those who worked to procure these magnificent Schools to-day. I would like to say a word of the members of the Department who are here to-day, but I don’t like to praise men before their faces.  I think at the same time they have acted very handsomely, and we thank them for it but that is no reason why we should not apply for more”.

Three months after the opening, in April 1912, James Simcox attended a convention of the All-for-Ireland League (AFIL) which attempted to generate a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland. Cork in the first decade of the twentieth century was the source of considerable tension between nationalist factions. There was an enduring split in Cork between the William O’Brien-led ‘All for Ireland League’, which had been established in 1909 and the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond. The source of the split was differing attitudes to the 1903 Land Act and equally to the process of cooperation between unionists and nationalists, promoted by O’Brien as ‘conference, conciliation and consent’.

After attending a convention in Dublin representing the city Lord Mayor James Simcox was criticised. Some of his councillor colleagues felt that he should not be associated with any particular political factions or movements as long as he held office. Subsequently James resigned as Lord Mayor but retained his aldermanship position in a subsequent election in the City’s Council chamber.

James’ sons Frank and Redmond Simcox, like their father, went on to become directors of the Simcox business on Paul Street. Redmond overlooked the bakery and confectionary section and Frank the tea blending section. In time a series of shops were opened across the city. There was great rivalry with the O’Shea family, another baking business. This was not resolved until Frank married the youngest member of Sir Henry O’Shea’s family, Dolly. Sir Henry O’Shea succeeded James Simcox as Lord Mayor in 1912.

Dolly and Frank had two children, James (the Canon) and Ann. James studied for the priesthood in All Hallows College in Dublin, was ordained and moved to the Archdiocese of Glasgow in June 1953.

To be continued…

Caption:

642a. Jenny O’Flynn, first cousin of the Canon, Canon James Simcox with the Crawford Technical Institute key and Ann Sexton, the Canon’s sister (picture: Kieran McCarthy)