Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 22 September 2011

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 267)

Voices of the Lee Valley

It was probably inevitable that close to the end of the River Lee series there would be another return to Gougane Barra. I suppose I am reflecting on the title of the series, “In the Steps of St. Finbarre”, as it approaches its conclusion and trying to pin down some thoughts of spending over five years studying and writing about histories and memories within the valley.

Next Sunday, the 25^th, is the feast day of St. Finbarre, the Patron Saint of Cork. To coincide with this the annual Gougane Sunday, ceremonies (start 2.30pm) will be held and once more the memory of the saint and his relevance in this world will be re-activated. To mark this and to say thanks in a sense to all those who contributed to this series, on the island I will have a historical exhibition on display on people and places in the valley, entitled Voices of the Lee Valley. In addition I hope to run two short walking tours of the pilgrimage island next Sunday, one at 1pm and the other at 4.30pm (meeting at the exhibition on the island). These tours are free and all are welcome.

The new historical exhibition is one I have been work-shopping with the kind permission of the Diocese of Cork and Ross over a number of days over the last number of weeks. One of the aspects that have become an important strand of my research is the aspect of outreach, that in any landscape research project, one should walk the land and engage with those that respect it. I find it interesting as well to see some of the photos and memories collected over the Lee series on display in Gougane Barra. Of all the sites in the valley where participation in its heritage is encouraged as well as reflecting on its deep history is Gougane Barra.

W.G. Hoskins’ The Making of the English landscape, in his early research on landscape, represents the countryside as an ancient place, ‘throbbing’ with messages about the past that only some people could decode.  In a similar vein, another scholar Jim Duncan, asserts that the landscape serves as a vast repository of symbolism, iconography and ideology. Certainly Gougane Barra has these elements in abundance.

Perhaps the first to engage with the memory of St. Finbarre was the Catholic priest Fr. Denis O’Mahony. His advent in the late seventeenth century to the site brought his own thoughts of how to mark the story of Finbarre. Fr. O’Mahony introduced a memorial, a series of cells and gardens on the pilgrimage island. He chose to physically enhance the symbolism of the island site. It could be argued that Fr. O’Mahony built his monastery as part of a religious strategy to uphold, use and pass on it’s values to contemporary society. Fr. O’Mahony brought his own mindset and education as a priest and re-invented the folklore of St. Finbarre in a tangible way by building a new living hermitage and in turn created a living and working ruin to the saint.

However, all that remains in Gougane Barra are the cells and their enclosure wall – the gardens by Fr. O’Mahony are gone and have fallen to the ravages of time. The extant ruins in Gougane Barra have become an unquestioned part of the social environment of the way of life in the place. They are embedded in the landscape and convey powerful cultural and ideological messages. They are the collective representations, which organise and structure people’s perceptions of this space.

Sitting amongst the Fr. O’Mahony’s central ruin on Gougane Barra pilgrimage island and observing people and their interactions with the site, peoples’ relationships with the site are complicated and full of messages. Certainly each person I have observed and have spoken to over the last number of weeks have their own personal relationship with the site. Interestingly, the absence of historical panels explaining the site seem to heighten the interaction and connection with the site, with many people, who seem to visit the site for the first time asking those with them questions about what the pilgrimage cells are.  Anything that can be read is read. The old Irish script on the central cross, said to mark St. Finbarre’s hut, provides part of the forum to debate this place. There is a quest for understanding. Those who were regular visitors to the site or showing people around gave their perspective on the site.

In one half an hour of one of my visit, the array of conversations was varied. Themes such as St. Finbarre, the first Bishop of Cork, were raised as well as the region’s history were discussed such as Michael Collins to talking about other difficult times in Ireland’s history. As kids ran around the site, they were silenced and told to respect the place. All entered the cell spaces, viewed the cross signs in some of the eight cells. Few criss-crossed the site and many moved clockwise around the site. The site, if anything, starts participation, a reminiscing and a search for a personal connection.

Historical walking tours with Kieran, Gougane Barra Pilgrimage Island, Sunday 25 September 2011, 1pm & 4.30pm (before and after the Gougane Sunday ceremonies)

To be continued…

Captions:

609a. Gougane Barra lake, September 2011 (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

609b. Voices of the Lee Valley, Kieran’s new historical exhibition

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 15 September 2011

The Fruits of Sacrifice

“The opening of the City Hall-took place at 4pm. The building was packed in the gallery and on the main floor, while the attendance overflowed into the isde and amny were unable to gain admission. When the President walked through, the gathering rose to their feet and cheered vigourously. He was preceded by the Lord Mayor of Cork and members of the Corporation, in their official robes, the Corporation in their official robes, the Chairman and members of the Cork harbour Commissioners, the visiting Mayors, and many well known citizens of Cork. It is estimated there was close on 3,000 people in the hall when the opening ceremony took place.” (Cork Examiner, 9 September, 1936)

It was in Cork City Hall’s new Concert Hall on 8 September 1936 that the Lord Mayor, Sean French introduced the speeches section at the official opening ceremony of the building in front of over 2,000 guests. He was a city merchant and was Lord Mayor of Cork from 1924 to 1929 and again from 1932 until his death in 1937. He outlined that the former City Hall building (opened 1890) had been revamped in the early years of the twentieth century and officially opened on 4 October 1906 but then fell victim to its burning in December 1920. He noted that the Corporation in contemplating a new City Hall decided to invite designs from architects living and practising in Ireland.

A large number of designs were received and the adjudicator Lucius O’Callaghan, President of the Architect’s Association of Ireland, awarded first to Messrs. Alfred Jones and Stephen Kelly, architects, of Dublin.  The Irish architectural online archive noted that Alfred Jones was a man of wide interests. For the last eighteen years of his life he was engaged in compiling a biographical index of Irish architects and engineers and in transcribing relevant material from the Irish Builder and other sources to that end.

In the early 1930s, Messrs. Sisk and Sons were accepted as the builders. Established in 1859 by John Sisk, in his native Cork, it is as builders and contractors that the founder and subsequent generations have primarily built their reputation in business. As part of the City Hall project, they had to peg out 900 piles as foundations for the building to begin with.  Their specially designed new offices were located on, Douglas Street, into which the Sisk firm moved into in 1933. The classical styled Cork City Hall building is faced with dressed limestone, which was quarried locally in Little Island.

When Eamonn DeValera rose in the new Concert Hall to reply to speak, he spoke first in Irish and then continued in English. He noted of the sacrifices of Tomás MacCurtain and Terence McSwiney; “They united the people in Ireland and throughout the world as they had never been united before and steeled their resolution to make good their right to govern themselves; no matter what sacrifice it might entail. The people of today are enjoying the fruits of the sacrifices they made, the Irish nation is being restored and developed, and it lies with the young people  of Cork who are now growing up to see that the future is in every way worthy of the past.” Eamonn DeValera also paid tribute to Cork craftsmen plus concluded by noting; “The people of this city have clung tenaciously to their nationality with courage and hope even in the darkest hours. Surely that courage and hope will not fail them now when the dawn is at hand. In declaring this hall opened, I do so in the belief that it is a symbol of the resurrection of the Irish nation and that it will mark a new era of progress for Cork and its people.”

Shortly after Eamonn DeValera had commenced to speak, a young woman in the hall stood up and attempted to speak. She shouted “We protest” and “it is an insult”. Gardaí took the girl outside. At the conclusion of his speech another woman attempted to speak but was not heard due to the prolonged applause. She was also removed by Gardaí. Both women had attempted to voice their concerns that City Hall should not have been rebuilt until Ireland was fully united, that it was a betrayal of the memory of the two former Lord Mayors MacCurtain and McSwiney.

The article in the Cork Examiner also shows a montage of ads surrounding the news story of the official opening. These showcase the local craftsmen involved in the project.  W.J. Hickey of Maylor Street, Cork, supplied approximately 2,000 tons of cement used in the construction of Cork City Hall.  Barry & Co., Broad Street, Cork completed the terrazzo floors and tiling. Haughton’s Ltd., South Terrace, Cork, supplied the timber builder materials. John Buckley & Sons, Half Moon Street, Cork, provided the wrought iron balustrades. Cash & Co. Ltd, Cork, provided the Lord Mayor’s Chair, Council and Press Chairs. The Munster Arcade, Cork, furnished all the seating and carpets. J.S. McCarthy, 23 & 24 Castle Street, Cork, did all the painting and decorating. Brightside Engineering Co. (Ireland) Ltd provided the Central Heating System. Cork Iron & Hardware Co. Ltd. provided building materials such as re-inforcing bars, girders, wire, cut nails, expanding metal, sheet lead etc. The Typewriter Company (Ireland) Ltd., 28 Marlboro Street, Cork, equipped departments with Royal Typewriters. The South of Ireland Asphalt Company, Victoria Road, Cork supplied the mastic asphalt roof.

Fitzgerald & Co., 74 Grand Parade, Cork, installed the comprehensive electrical installations. The switchboard and distribution boards came from Siemens Electric Lamps and Supplies Ltd. Dublin while the three miles of steel conduit and seventeen miles of cables and twenty water heaters came from Siemens Schuckert, Dublin. Strand Electric, Covent Garden, London, supplied the stage lighting equipment for the Concert Hall. The tower clock, chimes and Master Clock was by Gillett & Johnson, Ltd. Croydon England. Research by Cork City Hall electrician John O’Sullivan in the current hall revealed that the clock was meant for an Indian palace but was bought by Philip Monahan due to its suitability for the top of Cork City Hall.

To mark the 75^th anniversary of the official opening of Cork City Hall, I have a small exhibition entitled Rebuilding Cork City Hall, 1920-1936 on display till 25 September in the foyer of the new building. A second exhibition on the 1930s design and plan of Cork City Hall has been compiled by Cork City and County Archives and this is on display outside the Council Chamber.

Captions:

608a. A floodlit Cork City Hall; it was floodlit in September 1986 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its official opening (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)

608b. Concert Hall, Cork City Hall

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent, 1 September 2011

Planning a City Hall

In an effort to mark the upcoming 75^th anniversary of the official opening of Cork City Hall on 8 September 1936, I wish to note some interesting histories about its evolution before its opening. Three years after the arson attack on the building (1920), a town hall competition looking for architects took place in July 1923. Plans were put up for public inspection in the Cork Municipal School of Art. On the 29 March 1924, Jones and Kelly architects were the chosen winners of the competition. The architectural partnership, between Alfred Edwin Jones ALFRED EDWIN and Stephen Stanislaus Kelly was formed in Dublin in 1919. The following year they won the competition for Ballymena Town Hall and in 1923 gained wider recognition as the winning entrants in the Cork City Hall competition. A contractor was then sought. Tenders were sought in November of that year.

However, in 1923 and 1924 the Irish Government found it necessary to remove the members of several local authorities and replace them temporarily by paid commissioners. Among the bodies removed were the Dublin and Cork city councils. Cork Corporation itself had been dissolved in 1924 after an investigation into its activities demanded by the Cork Progressive Association (which was founded in 1923). After some experience of the work of the commissioners in these cities there was a body of opinion in favour of retaining the commissioners after the elected councils were eventually restored.

The priorities of Cork Commissioner Philip Monahan were not in the rebuilding of City Hall. Housing and slum clearance became his priorities. a local committee of commercial and industrial interests was formed in Cork in 1926 to consider a scheme of city government and it appeared that the council-manager plan of city government would be acceptable. After discussion between the Minister and local representatives, the Minister, Richard Mulcahy, introduced as a Government measure the Cork City Management Bill, 1929 and it became law despite at times, vehement opposition to it. Dublin city got its Management Act in 1930 and was followed by Limerick in 1934 and Waterford in 1939.

With the return of Cork City councillors in 1929, focus was again on the rebuilding of a city hall. In April 1929, a sub committee was appointed to look at the costs of a new building. Connected with that, public discussions also took place in local and national newspapers in the ‘letters to the editor’ pages. One such discussion took place in late April 1929 when writer Daniel Corkery proposed a site for the new City Hall near Cork’s Coal Quay. He argued that the old City Hall site was not the way forward for a new building because of its close proximity to deep water quayage, the Customs House and Harbour Offices, the heart of City’s industrial and commercial activities. His proposal took in a semi-circular area extending from the corner of Kyrl’s Street, Cornmarket Street and looking down Lavitt’s Quay towards St. Patrick’s Bridge and swinging round Kyrl’s Quay to the northern end of Kyrl’s Quay.

At a Council meeting near the 23 October 1929, the Lord Mayor, Alderman Sean French noted that an agreement had been arrived at with regard to the site of the City Hall. The City’s Town Planning Association had agreed to the old Anglesea Street site but suggested that the main entrance should be on Anglesea Street and not on the quayside. With the councillors pushing the project, further discussion appeared in the makeshift council chamber in the Crawford Art Gallery.

In mid January 1932, the Corporation decided to ask the Minister for Local Government for his consent to go ahead with the job, on the assumption that they would get a £40,000 loan, plus cash on hand amounting between £12,000 to £15,000 and leave the borrowing of the balance of an estimated total of £150,000 to a future date. At a Council meeting in early February 1932, it was reported that three tenders had been received for the erection of the new City Hall. The City Manager noted that the three tenders did not conform to the terms of the advertisement, in regard to prices or to the construction time limit. It was noted that if the furnishing was taken out of the bill, the price for the completion of the building at least could be paid for. Hence the tender of John Sisk and Sons, Cork at £139,870 was accepted and in the last week of March 1932, the contract for the rebuilding was signed. In the event of certain provisional items being included, an extra £11,000 would be added.

The foundation stone was laid on 9 July 1932 by President of the Executive Council, Eamonn DeValera. In previous articles I have written about this. The foundation stone bore an inscription in Gaelic to the effect that on that day DeValera had laid it. He spread the mortar with a silver trowel and announced in Irish that the stone was well and truly laid. He added in English that he hoped that the new building would be “symbolic of the prosperity and the future glory of the country, to come as a result of the sacrifices, which had been made by the men like those to whom the Lord Mayor had referred to, Terence MacSwiney and Tomás MacCurtain”.

To be continued….

Captions:

606a. Ruined old Cork City Hall Building (pictures: Cork City Library)

606b. Cork City Hall under construction, February 1935