Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent,

 15 October 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 232)

Warfare, Disorganisation and Reconstruction

Whilst researching the death of Patrick Murphy in the Cork Examiner in the week following the Leemount incident of 14 September 1922, the researcher is exposed to other underlining historical narratives in the evolution of Cork in the early years of the Free State. These include the reconstruction of key infrastructure in the region and attempts to deal with rising poverty and unemployment and how proposed remedies affected.

Standing out in the press pages the trade of the city is presented as down. The agricultural community was ‘severely’ hindered owing to the condition of the country. Country markets were few and far between. Farmers were at the point of isolation owing to the dislocation of railways plus the many difficulties of road transport. The Cork Summer Show at the Cork Showgrounds had to be cancelled as exhibits could not be brought to Cork owing to impassibility of the roads and the dislocation of the railway services.  The argument is given by the Cork Examiner that many Irish industries in the south depended largely on their profits on the market which the Cork Agricultural Show supplied when farmers, cattle and others visited the city, inspected the latest and best that was to be seen and made extensive purchases of various kinds.

Trading was reduced to a minimum across the Cork region. With unsold goods, usual supplies were not ordered. The closure of post office services in the south because of proposed wage cuts led to the shutdown of telegraphs, telephones, postal and engineering. In addition the cutting of wires for Civil War purposes made Cork isolated from other centres in Ireland. An editorial in the Cork Examiner on the 12 September 1922 revealed that inland settlements in the south west were even harder hit. Shopkeepers of towns along the coast, as circumstances permitted, organised between fifty and sixty motor boats and steamers to ply between Cork City and the southern and western towns and villages including Limerick, Tralee, Kenmare, Goleen, Sneem, Cahirciveen, Skibbereen, Union Hall, Cape Clear, Sherkin, Schull, Castletownbere, Baltimore, Clonakilty, Bandon and Courtmacsherry. Cargoes, which arrived at the south jetties in Cork City in mid September 1922, comprised pigs, bacon, butter, eggs and fresh fish and the return of cargo consisting of flour, meal bran, groceries, salt and the products of local breweries and distilleries.

Debate was also carried in the council chamber of City Hall regarding the reconstruction of St. Patrick’s Street, a substantial portion of which had been burned out in mid December 1920. The journalist reporting on the Council meetings noted that a committee had been set up in Cork Corporation to engage and collect data and for the government, which was to be used in the compensation negotiations with the English government regarding the damage done to St. Patrick Street and the wear and tear of British trucks across the city’s streets.

A total of £300,000 had been advanced for the reconstruction of the street. The city solicitor noted that two investigators appointed by the Irish government and one by the British government had visited the city in the second week of August 1922. The British government representative was dealing with cases of damage done by their forces, which was the bulk of the damage in Cork City.  He made a promise of a cash payment to the decree holder i.e. Cork Corporation.

Coupled with this mechanism and it appears to muddle the compensation package available, an international body called the Compensation Commission (the Shaw Commission) had been set up, which was appointed for the express purpose of, amongst other things, reviewing awards already made in the cases of criminal injury applications not defended by a city or county Council. Cork Corporation in mid September 1922 was expecting the Shaw Commission to come to Cork. The minutes of the Corporation of Cork show the Council attempting to understand the two sources of compensation packages and the need to maximise any receipts of compensation packages.

Cork Corporation Council members pressed to harness the advance of £300,000 to provide much needed employment. An important decision was also taken to inform property owners within the destroyed area that the Corporation intended to enforce the byelaws with regard to the closure of temporary structures or timber walled shops. In the early part of 1921, they had emerged on the street and through good will from the Corporation had been allowed to stay but no legal right existed for their erection. A sub committee of the Corporation was to wait on the owners of property in the burnt out areas who had submitted plans for reconstruction work. The Corporation urged them to proceed with work. As a result of the Corporation’s plea, at the subsequent council meeting, the councillors were informed that six firms in the burnt out area were prepared to start rebuilding work. In several cases, traders informed the Corporation that tenders had been invited and in some cases works had already started. However it seems a large number of traders were not prepared to start. They were holding out to maximise any due compensation. Indeed it was to take another ten years before the new street emerged.

To be continued…

Captions:

561a. St. Patrick’s Street, c.1910 (pictures: Kieran McCarthy collection)

561b. St. Patrick’s Quay, Cork City c.1910

Kieran’s Article, Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent – 7 October 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 231)

At the Sword of Light

The quest in the last couple of weeks to write about the heritage of War of Independence memorials, such as the Ballycanon one and that of the Patrick Murphy Civil War memorial, has led to a series of individuals and groups contacting me wishing to elaborate on and debate the historical record. Many have drawn on collective memories that have been passed down and have also presented primary and secondary sources on the topics I have explored in the column.

Recently, I met up with Des O’Grady, an avid local historian, with the Cork based Phoenix Historical Society. He and the society record the people and narratives attached to memorials remembering the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War. We met under the shadow of the iconically carved An Claidheamh Solais sculpture within the Republican Plot at St Finbarre’s Cemetery. This cemetery contains one of the largest burial plots of Irish Republicans who died in the course of the struggle for Irish freedom, most of them during the 1920s but there are some from the late twentieth century as well.

Des outlined his work and thoughts on Patrick Murphy, who is also buried within the plot and whose grave is marked by a stone cross. Patrick was from Model Farm Road at Ministers Cross and the ruin of the 2 storey house, where he was born and bred, can still be seen there. According to the 1911 census, his father was Thomas (a farmer) and his mother was Kate. Patrick was the second youngest in the family being 18 at the time of the census. His sisters were Anne Marie, Queenie and Helena whilst he had one brother Thomas.

Volunteer Patrick Murphy was a member of H Company, First Battalion, First Cork Brigade, Irish Republican Army. The company was formed circa 1917 and comprised members of volunteers living in Glasheen, Bishopstown, Western Road and westwards to Carrigrohane townland. During the War of Independence, the H-Company had failures and successes. In one instance at Ballynacarriga or Inchigaggin Bridge, in an attempt to secure gelignite, an explosive, using in quarries in the areas, they were outgunned by British troops and forced to retreat. In more successful attempts, they captured two British troop lorries at Dennehy’s Cross, Cork City and burned them out. They were also involved in attacks and the burning out of Royal Irish Constabulary police barracks at Bannow Bridge near the Angler’s Rest and at Victoria Cross respectively.

During the Civil War, Patrick took the republican side. The passed down collective memory of his life highlights that Patrick was active in a Flying Column operating in the Inniscarra/ Blarney are and was involved in several operations, including the blowing up of Bannow Bridge at Leemount four days before his death. He was also involved in the raid on the Muskerry Tram on 8 September, with the Flying Column, who were looking for Free State soldiers, who were working undercover in the area. After the column searched all the passengers and the mail bags, they discovered that a Free State agent, hired to kill Sean Mitchell, who was Officer in Command, would pass through the Leemount area at about 11.30am, the following morning. At the time the Free State agent was planning to infiltrate the column posing as an IRA man wishing to get in contact with the column to offer his services. (Countering the Cork Examiner view of the narrative) The Officer in Command, Sean Mitchell and Volunteer O’Sullivan, Patrick Murphy went to Lee Mount Cross on the 9^th September to arrest, disarm and interrogate the Free State agent. The gathering of Free State agents encountered opened fire on the latter persons. In the event, Patrick was shot in the stomach. He died of his wounds on 11 September, two days later in the Mercy Hospital.

Patrick Murphy’s grave lies perhaps in one of the most sacred of plots in Cork’s cemeteries, the Republican Plot but perhaps also one of the most contested of Cork’s historical spaces. Indeed it is difficult to write about this great space without encountering different arguments and debates on what traits and deeds of those who fought for Irish freedom should be remembered. However standing in the middle of the plot, I was impressed by the carved An Claidheamh Solais or the Sword of Light, which is also depicted on Patrick Murphy’s memorial and many others, connecting a large series of memorials together. The work in one sense recalls the work of Padraig Pearse, a signatory of the Irish Proclamation of Independence but also an enthusiastic member of the Gaelic League, He was also editor of the League’s newspaper An Claidheamh Solais (The Sword of Light). However, this narrative seems to also be transcended when one looks at this depiction of an ancient sword. Here is a memorial that also seems to carry much symbolism of the early historical journey of the Irish state, a society within a country who fought physically and emotionally with Britain and itself. In essence, here is a powerful sculpture linked to national identity, national memory and political agendas, all very important parts of Ireland’s cultural heritage.

My thanks to Des O’Grady for his patience, courtesy and contribution

To be continued…

Captions:

560a. Photograph of Patrick Murphy (picture: Phoenix Historical Society)

560b. Grave of Patrick Murphy, Republican Plot, St. Finbarre’s Cemetery, Cork (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town article,

Cork Independent, 30 September 2010

In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre (Part 230)

Hauntings, Open Wounds and Whispers

 “In Berlin, it was precisely the question of what ghosts should be invoked, what pasts should be remembered and forgotten, and through what forms, that led to heated public debates over what and where these places of memory should be. People made memorials, created historical exhibitions, dug up the past and went on tours to represent, confront, and ignore a violent national past and to define and forge possible national futures. They made places as open wounds in the city to remind them of their haunting and to feel uncomfortable” (Karen Till, 2005, The New Berlin, p. 11)

Karen Till’s work on the thought and effort that went into rebuilding Berlin in the aftermath of World War II and the debate over what should be remembered and forgotten tends to draw huge parallels to the Irish Civil War. The civil war is a crisis of Ireland’s turbulent past. The 4,000 deaths between the two opposing sides (including Patrick Murphy at Leemount) and the aftermath make for horrific reading in the present. W.T. Cosgrave in October 1922 enacted a Public Safety Bill, which allowed for the execution of anyone who was captured bearing arms against the state or aiding armed attacks on state forces. William  Cosgrave’s position was that a guerrilla war could drag on indefinitely, making the achievement of law and order and establishing the Free State impossible, if harsh action was not taken. His reputation suffered after he ordered the execution without trial of republican prisoners during the civil war. In all 77 republicans were executed by the Free State between November 1922 and the end of the war in May 1923. These actions left Irish society divided and embittered. Those actions seem to linger if you just scratch the surface to reveal the deeper roots of Ireland’s principal parties. Hence the civil war tends to be continuously spoken about in whispers, fears, concerns and perhaps in uncomfortable truths.

To Karen Till, Berlin is a place haunted with landscapes that simultaneously embody intentional forgetting and painful remembering. That because of Berlin’s traumatic past, the past never settles or neatly arranges itself in horizontal layers – that the past is always contested by those who want to remember it and those who want to forget. Indeed, memorials like those that exist in Berlin to recall the holocaust for instance may be interpreted in a number of ways. However, each memorial seems to attempt to contain the past and to build memory so to speak. This latter statement also becomes very apparent in DeValera’s government of the 1940s when he commissioned the construction of War of Independence memorials across the country.

There has also been much work completed by historians and geographers on the memories associated with roadside memorials. Standing next to the Patrick Murphy memorial, one quickly gets the impression that this is a memorial one is meant to pass and not stop. It may have been different when it was built originally. On reflection, the memorial seems to have multiple meanings, differing between those who built it, those that maintain it today (the Timothy Kennefick Memorial Group) and those like myself who try to stop and interpret what it is trying to remember. Indeed the truth of why Patrick Murphy was selected to be remembered is intriguing and seems to remain hidden – one reason is probably because of his youth that on one level the monument is a marker of his life or perhaps it is a marker of his sacrifice or maybe it is a marker of heroism or it remembers the exact opposite – it is a marker of flaws in Irish society – that the monument was put there as a reminder of a painful past and meant to be always some kind of open wound in the continuous  making of Irish history- or  the monument is to remind the viewer that a whole nation was divided and fought for by opposing sides.

The memorial is also not a conventional grieving space or site of mourning associated with grief practices. There is a lack of offerings – there are no statues, flowers or photographs. The only strong symbols used on the memorial are that of carved sword and cross. The overall site reclaims public space for the celebration of Patrick Murphy, the individual but one gets the impressions he represents a lot more people through the conventional image of the sword, which connects this monument to other monuments.

However, for the all the raw power of this monument, it seems to avoid any new debates on civil war monuments. The Patrick Murphy Civil War memorial seems to not reflect on aspects such human rights, democracy, equality, the renouncing of violence, guilt and /or responsibility. Or maybe it does but these traits are ones that one regularly does not hear about when such monuments are being discussed. As Ireland approaches the nineteenth anniversary of the start of the Irish Civil war in 2012, perhaps monuments such as these will create new possibilities for thinking about and how one can represent national belonging in the future. The other item that came to my mind standing at this site is the need for modern memorials in the Irish countryside and recent generations to leave a positive mark.                                                                                                                                  

To be continued….

Captions:

559a. Inscription on Patrick Murphy Memorial, Leemount (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

 559b. Members of the Cork no.1 Brigade Flying column (from left) Mick O’Sullivan, Patrick O’Sullivan & Sean Murray, summer 1921 (picture Fr. Patrick Twohig)