Cllr Kieran McCarthy, in collaboration with
Meitheal Mara, is delighted to present two audio heritage trails this year as
part of this week’s National Heritage Week (14-22 August). Take a walk and
discover everything about the beautiful bridges of Cork with Kieran’s brand new
audio trail. Stroll along the popular Marina and find out about its rich
history.
The Bridges of Cork audio trail provides insights
into the histories of the Cork city centre’s bridges, their place in Cork and
some of their surrounding histories. The walk around the bridges is about two
hours in duration and the trail is clockwise from South Gate Bridge up the
south channel and down the north channel to cross back to the south channel. It
ends at Nano Nagle Bridge. All you need is your smartphone and some headphones.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “With so many layers of
history in Cork, there is much to see on any walk around Cork City and its
respective neighbourhoods. Covid, though, has scuppered my physical walking
tours for a second year in a row. However, I’m very excited about this new audio
trail, which provides insights into the histories of Cork city centre’s
bridges, their place in Cork and insights into some of their surrounding local
histories”.
“This trail around the bridges is about two hours
in length and the trail is clockwise from South Gate Bridge up the south
channel and down the north channel to cross back to the south channel”,
continues Kieran.
“A stroll down The Marina is popular by many
people. The area is particularly characterised by its location on the River Lee
and the start of Cork Harbour. Here scenery, historical monuments and living
heritage merge to create a historical tapestry of questions of who developed
such a place of ideas”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
The audio trails are free to download. Just access
them from Cllr McCarthy’s www.corkheritage.ie website under the History Trails
section.
1112a. Upstream view of the south channel of the River from Cork’s Parliament Bridge on a recent sunset; Discover the story of the city’s bridges and some of the rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 12 August 2021
Cork Heritage Open Day and Week Approaches
Cork
Heritage Open Day and Heritage Week are looming. Cork
Heritage Open Day which is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with
the Heritage Council, is a wonderful celebration of the built heritage in the
city. To mark the start of National Heritage Week, Cork Heritage Open Day will
take place virtually on Saturday August 14.
The
website www.corkheritageopenday.ie will go live on Saturday 14 August and will
feature virtual guided tours of over 45 historic buildings from all over Cork
City. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most
fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military. The event
showcases the many elements of Cork City’s rich heritage in a fun, family
friendly way. The team behind the Open Day do group the buildings into general
themes, Steps and Steeples, Customs and Commerce, Medieval to Modern,
Saints and Scholars and Life and Learning.
These
themes remind the participant to remember how our city spreads from the marsh
to the undulating hills surrounding it, how layered the city’s past is, how the
city has been blessed to have many scholars contributing to its development and
ambition in a variety of ways, and how the way of life in Cork is intertwined
with a strong sense of place.
It is always a great opportunity to explore
behind some of Cork’s grandest buildings. With the past of a port city, Cork
architecture is varied and much is hidden amongst the city’s narrow streets and
laneways. Much of its architecture is also inspired by international styles –
the British style of artwork pervading in most cases – but it’s always pays to
look up in Cork and marvel at the Amsterdamesque-style of our eighteenth
century structures on streets such as Oliver Plunkett Street or at the gorgeous
tall spires of the city’s nineteenth-century churches.
For my part I am involved in a short film on
the history of Cork City Hall. Cork has had a number of City Hall sites through
the ages but none as grand as the present one. In the age of the Anglo Norman
walled town and eighteenth century, civic business was conducted in King’s
Castle. Business was also conducted in Cork City Courthouse for a time in the
nineteenth century. In 1883, it was decided by a number of Cork businessmen
that the Corn Exchange should be converted into an exhibition centre, a centre,
which in 1892 became Cork’s City Hall. In December 1920, the premises were
burned down by fires attributed to the Black and Tans as retribution for
republican attacks. A new City Hall by architects Jones and Kelly was
subsequently built. The limestone like for so many of Cork’s buildings is from
nearby Little Island. The foundation stone of Cork City Hall was laid by Éamon
de Valera on 9 July 1932.
Sites
that also appear on the online Cork Heritage Open Day are Riverstown House in
Glanmire, the Quaker Meeting House and Graveyard, The Maryborough Hotel, Cork
Opera House, The Courthouse on Washington Street, Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills,
Blarney Castle, Cork City Hall, Cork Savings Bank, St Luke’s Church and the Military
Museum in Collins Barracks.
The virtual one stop shop
www.corkheritageopenday.ie celebrates various Cork Communities who through
interviews, video and imagery tell their story. For example, check out:
Memories of a Cork
Jewish Childhood, which has been
produced by Ruti Lachs and sees former Cork residents remember their childhoods
in Ireland, their Jewish upbringing, the synagogue and the characters.
Interspersed with photos from the last hundred years of life in Jewish Cork,
these stories paint a picture of a time and community gone by.
Anne Twomey from the Shandon Area History
Group speaks about Emma Hourigan, an extraordinary woman from the Maddens
Buildings in Cork who played a central role in the Irish Revolution 1916-1923.
Biddy McDonagh and Jean O’Donovan from the
Traveller Visibility Group discuss their language Gammon and Cant and the
tradition of the Beady Pockets in the Traveller Community.
Jim Fahy speaks about the language of the
Stone Masons “Bearlager na Saor”.
Valerie Power, Breda Scanlon and Suzanne
Dineen pay tribute to the Shawlies in Cork.
Historian Michael Lenihan uses historic
postcards to show how Cork has changed in the past 100 years.
For the first time, Cork Heritage Open Day, celebrates the natural
heritage of Cork and members of the public can enjoy a wonderful guided tour of
the Mangala in Douglas with William O’Halloran and a fascinating insight into
the Glen River Park with Julie Forrester and Gerard O’Brien. For those wishing
to test their knowledge of the streets, bridges and buildings in Cork, historian
Liam O’hÚigín has created a special quiz for Cork Heritage Open Day!
Heritage
Open Day is usually the start of weeklong heritage week events in Cork. For the
second year in a row, physical events have been curtailed. My own historical walking
tours remain ‘off the road’ at present. I have written up over fifteen of my
tours complete with pictures and some very short films and put them in a new
section on my website www.corkheritage.ie.
In
addition on the website I have partnered with Meitheal Mara and Joya Kuin in
putting together two audio heritage trails. The first is on the various
historic sites down The Marina and this came out in early June. Our Heritage
Week Audio Heritage Trail is on the 31 bridges of Cork. Start at South Gate
Bridge and make your way anti-clockwise around the South Channel and North
Channel of the River Lee. All you need is a smart phone and a set of head
phones!
Captions:
1112a. Upstream
view of the south channel of the River from Cork’s Parliament Bridge on a
recent sunset; Discover the story of the city’s bridges and some of the rich
local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section
at www.corkheritage.ie.
1112b. Canon
from the Siege of Sevastopol, 1854-55 on The Marina, Cork, present day;
Discover the story of The Marina and its rich local history on Kieran’s new
audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.
1112b. Canon from the Siege of Sevastopol, 1854-55 on The Marina, Cork, present day; Discover the story of The Marina and its rich local history on Kieran’s new audio heritage trail on the history trails section at www.corkheritage.ie.
Local historian Cllr Kieran McCarthy will participate in the virtual Cork Heritage Open Day this Saturday 14 August. Cork Heritage Open Day which is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with the Heritage Council. The website www.corkheritageopenday.ie will go live on Saturday 14 August and will feature virtual guided tours of over 45 historic buildings from all over Cork City. Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military.
Kieran will participate by showcasing some of the stories connected to Cork City Hall as an important heritage building within the city. Kieran noted: “Cork has had a number of City Hall sites through the ages but none as grand as the present one. In 1883, it was decided by a number of Cork businessmen that the Corn Exchange should be converted into an exhibition centre, a centre, which in 1892 became Cork’s City Hall. In December 1920, the premises were burned down by fires attributed to the Black and Tans as retribution for republican attacks. A new City Hall by architects Jones and Kelly was subsequently built. The limestone like for so many of Cork’s buildings is from nearby Little Island. The foundation stone of Cork City Hall was laid by Éamon de Valera on 9 July 1932”.
Maryborough Hotel will also feature in this year’s Heritage Open Day. For the first time, the Open Day will also celebrate the natural heritage of Cork and members of the public can enjoy a wonderful virtual guided tour of the Mangala in Douglas with William O’Halloran.
In addition, for National Heritage Week, Kieran has partnered with Meitheal Mara and Joya Kuin in putting together two audio heritage trails. The first is on the various historic sites down The Marina and this came out in early June. Their Heritage Week Audio Heritage Trail is on the 31 bridges of Cork. All you need is a smart phone and a set of head phones. The bridges audio trail can be found on Kieran’s www.corkheritage.ie website under history trails from 14 August.
1111a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 5 August 2021
New Book: Cork City Reflections
In
our new book Cork City Reflections, Dan Breen and I build on our previous
Cork City Through Time (2012) publication as we continue to explore Cork
Public Museum’s extensive collection of postcards. People have been sending, receiving and
collecting postcards for well over 150 years. They have always come in a
variety of forms including plain, comedic, memorial, and of course
topographical. Their popularity reached its zenith in the two decades before
the outbreak of World War I when people used postcards for a variety of
everyday reasons from ordering shopping to making appointments. Postcards have been
described as the ‘social media’ of the Edwardian period as it is estimated that
about one billion penny postcards were sold annually in the United States alone
between 1907 and 1915.
Since 1992, Cork Public
Museum has actively sourced and collected postcards of Cork interest. The
majority of postcards are topographical in nature and cover towns and villages
throughout County Cork. Presently, the collection numbers in the thousands but Dan,
the museum’s curator, is constantly on the lookout for rarer and more unique
examples or gems. In an age where digital photography and the internet have
made capturing and sharing images so effortless, it is easy to forget that in
the decades before the camera became popular and affordable; postcards were the
only photographic souvenirs of the landscape available to ordinary people.
The old postcards with
Cork City Reflections show the city of Cork to be a place of scenic contrasts. They are of times and
places, that Corkonians are familiar with. The city as a visually bright world with all its
shapes and contours challenge the photographer to take the best photograph, to
capture the best of the city. There is a power in these images – they all have
multiple interpretations; they are a window into the place, neighbourhood, people,
their lives and identity. Many of the postcards show or frame the River Lee and the tidal
estuary and the intersection of the city and the water. The postcards show how
rich the city is in its traces of its history. The various postcard also
reflect upon how the city has developed in a piecemeal sense, with each century
bringing another addition to the city’s landscape.
For the photographer it
took time patience to set up the picture. One had to wait for the people; the
weather to be right, the order and symmetry had to be right. The gathering of
memory, life, energy, the city’s beat, its light and shape had to be
considered. The same challenges were present when trying to retake old
photographs in the present day.
In
more depth, the postcards show people’s relationship to their world –
continuity and familiarity crossing past and present. They record a person, an
event, a social phenomenon, and attempt to reconstruct a sense of place. The
postcards let moments linger, reflect on life and showcase the the city as a work of
art. The tinting or colouring in of postcards adds in more subtlety and weight
to the image and to the concept of the city as a work of art. The tinting adds
more to the romanticisation of the landscape.
Some
public spaces are well represented, emphasised and are created and arranged in
a sequence to convey particular meanings. Buildings such as a City Hall, a
court house or a theatre symbolise the theatrics of power. Indeed, one hundred
years ago in Ireland was a time of change, the continuous rise of an Irish cultural
revival, debates over Home Rule and the idea of Irish identity were
continuously negotiated by all classes of society. Just like the tinting of the
postcards, what the viewer sees is a world which is being contested, refined
and reworked. Behind the images presented is a story of change – complex and
multi-faceted.
The
postcards freeze the action, conceptualise society and civil expressions – from
the city’s links with the natural world such as rivers and tide to its
transportation networks, commerce and social networks. Places of Cork pride,
popular culture and heritage, are depicted and are validated communicating the
ideas of those places. Indeed, some of the postcards have written personal comments on
the back. All types of emotion are represented from happiness in visiting Cork
to comments on how the addressee was missed.
We have grouped the
postcards under thematic headings like main streets, public buildings,
transport, and industry. The highlight of Edwardian Cork was the hosting of an
International Exhibition in 1902 and 1903 and through the souvenir postcards we
can get a glimpse of this momentous event. We hope that any reader of this book
will not only appreciate how Cork City has evolved and grown over the last
century but also how invaluable postcards can be in understanding the nuances
and complexities of studying images and their history.
The old postcards within the book are archived in the
Cork Public Museum and have been photographed by the museum’s digital officer
Dara McGrath. The present day pictures were taken by the authors. We would like
to also thank the staff of Amberley Publishing for their vision with this work
and for creating a now and then frame right throughout the book.
Cork
City Reflections by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen
is published by Amberley Publishing and is available in any good bookshop.
Caption:
1111a. Front cover of Cork City
Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.
1111b. South Mall, c.1900 from Cork
City Reflections.
1111b. South Mall, c.1900 from Cork City Reflections.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy is calling on
residents, and communities in the south east of the city and beyond to have
their say on the 2022-2028 draft Cork City Development Plan. The
draft Cork City Development Plan, has recently been published and provides an
overarching framework to help shape the transformation of the City over the
next six years by supporting the creation of 20,000 homes and 31,000 jobs.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “Eight weeks of public
consultation on the plan have just commenced and I encourage members of the
public, community groups, representative organisations to make a submission to
the draft plan before the closing date of 4 October. The draft plan can be
viewed at www.corkcitydevelopmentplan.ie and the public can have
their say on the Plan at https://consult.corkcity.ie/”
“There is some great ideas and opportunities within
this draft blueprint for Cork as the city embarks upon an exciting phase of
growth and change – with sustainability, quality of life, social inclusion, and
climate resilience at the plan’s core. In particular the need to protect green
spaces and create more in areas from Ballinlough to Douglas is essential”.
Cork City Council CE, Ann Doherty said: “This Plan
is significant in many ways; not least it is the first local policy-based
expression of the ambition for Cork contained in ‘Project Ireland 2040’ and the
National Planning Framework. The Plan follows widespread listening and
engagement with stakeholders in the first round of public consultation. The
draft plan’s rationale is further informed by a suite of evidence-based studies
on the various opportunities and challenges facing the city”.
1110a. Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan, 1920 (picture: Cork City Council).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 29 July 2021
Journeys to a Truce: Lord
Mayor Donal Óg Returns
The Truce amongst Cork politicians was largely welcomed. In
his diary, Alderman Liam De Róiste of Cork Corporation and TD comments at
length on the multitude of nuances and correspondence between Lloyd George and de
Valera. The diary can be viewed in Cork City and County Archives. He ultimately
embraces the truce but acknowledges the long road ahead to create a mutually
acceptable agreement on Irish and British sides. On the 9 July 1921, at 1pm
Liam De Róiste writes: “The details of the truce are to be published today.
There are many rough rocks in the road of peace yet, but this at least is the
evidence of the will to peace. I am sure the mass of the people are filled with
joy. As for me, I accept the matter calmly. We are not yet sure of our
footsteps. The joy of my companions here is also subdued. They incline to be
critical. A few moments ago, Black and Tans appeared: ‘Here They are’; a rush
to search a hiding place. They came on ordinary business to convey a poor
patient to the institution. The rush shows that through the dawn of the peace
appears with the announcement of the truce, the shadows of the night are still
dark and thick over the land”.
The Lord Mayor of Cork Donal Óg O’Callaghan had recently
returned after an eight months’ public speech tour across America to grow
interest in Irish Independence and to raise finance for Dáil Éireann. His campaign
work, which wove with the visit of de Valera and Harry Boland to the United
States is well captured in the fine book Forgotten Lord Mayor Donal Óg
O’Callaghan, 1920-1924 by Aodh Quinlivan. Through Aodh’s research, he
discovers that Donal Óg, on the whole, was welcomed by those communities he
engaged with. There were a number of small exceptions. Politically though,
Donal’s journey ended as America’s Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby came
under British diplomatic pressure to end his permission to stay longer in the
States. Through the Truce, Donal returned to a less threatening environment.
Heretofore he was on a most wanted list by the Black and Tans.
ln the course of an interview with a Cork Examiner
representative on 18 July 1921, Donal Óg noted that it was very gratifying to find the
state of affairs which existed in Ireland. He noted: “It seems possible that
the just object for which the people of this country have been fighting for
years is at last about to be secured through negotiations. Like the President,
the people of Ireland heartily desired to see peace, to see the end of the
state of war and destruction which has been obtaining in this country for some
years past, desired to devote themselves to the work of reconstruction and to
the general development of the prosperity of our country”.
The Lord Mayor continued that the manner in which the Truce
has been observed throughout the country was a tribute to the discipline and
unity of the people of Ireland. He noted: “Nowhere has it been more loyally
observed than in Cork. While I would regret at the moment to say a word which
might be construed as calculating to interfere with the existing peace. I feel
bound to say that the truce doesn’t appear to have been on loyally kept by the
British Army in Cork as it might have been. For the past few days I have seen
police and military fully armed parading the streets; armoured cars and lorries
containing armed troops driving through the city, in what I can only regard as
a wantonly provocative planner. I trust that this matter will be immediately
remedied, and that nothing will occur to mar the favourable conditions of the
moment or the atmosphere of the negotiations
about to take place, which we all sincerely hope will be successful, and
will make the temporary peace of to-day the lasting peace of to-morrow”.
In his press interview the Lord Mayor also thanked the
people of America for the manner in which they received him while in the United
States, and to thank them, on behalf of the people of Ireland for the deep
interest they took in Ireland fight for freedom and what he described as “the
spirit animating them in doing all they could to assist in the fight”. To the
people of Cork he wished to say that he left Cork, and left
momentarily the duties to which they had elected him, “as the result of an
order from the Republican Government”. Only on such an order would he leave
them or lreland under the circumstances. He noted: “While the people of Ireland
hoped to see their freedom achieved as a result of the present negotiations
going on their spirit and determination are alike unimpaired, and should they
have to continue the fight for freedom they will continue to rely on the
liberty loving people of America for assistance”.
A few days after the 18 July, the Cork Examiner
records that Cork Corporation had a Council meeting but it was again chaired by
Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Barry Egan. Donal Óg had gone to Dublin to be part of
the welcoming group for the Peace Delegates at Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire),
Dublin. De Valera had returned from talks in London with the British Prime
Minster Lloyd George. A famous picture was taken by photographer W D Hogan of the
welcoming group and this forms part of the National Library of Ireland
photographic collection. In the picture is Donal Óg as well as Chairman of
Dublin County Council, H Friel, the acting Mayor of Limerick, Máire O’Donovan,
Waterford TD Vincent White, Limerick TD Kate O’Callaghan, and Cork Corporation
Alderman and TD Liam De Róiste. All six greeted de Valera as well the large
number of general public waiting. All six were also involved in the early peace
talks in the summer of 1921 offering advice and support.
Captions:
1110a.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan, 1920 (picture: Cork City
Council).
1110b. Welcoming group for the Peace Delegates at Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), Dublin with Chairman of Dublin County Council, H Friel, the acting Mayor of Limerick, Máire O’Donovan, Waterford TD Vincent White, Limerick TD Kate O’Callaghan, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan, and Cork Corporation Alderman and TD Liam De Róiste (picture: William Hogan Collection, National Library of Ireland).
1110b. Welcoming group for the Peace Delegates at Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), Dublin with Chairman of Dublin County Council, H Friel, the acting Mayor of Limerick, Máire O’Donovan, Waterford TD Vincent White, Limerick TD Kate O’Callaghan, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan, and Cork Corporation Alderman and TD Liam De Róiste (picture: William Hogan Collection, National Library of Ireland).
Independent Cllr Kieran
McCarthy wishes to remind business owners that grants applications are
still being received for outdoor seating and accessories for tourism and hospitality
businesses in Cork City for 2021.
Cllr
McCarthy noted: “Outdoor hospitality was much enjoyed by the public last summer
and is playing a key role this year as well in welcoming people back to a
vibrant and safe Cork City. A new outdoor seating and accessories grant
scheme, supported by Fáilte Ireland in partnership with local
authorities such as Cork City Council, is now open for applications. Grants
are available to support businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector in
enhancing their outdoor offering”.
Any restaurant, cafe, bar,
hotel, visitor attraction or other hospitality/tourism business where food or
drink is sold for consumption on the premises. The scheme is open to
existing businesses located throughout Cork City.
Applicants should
have no commercial rates outstanding to Cork City Council, or have a payment
plan in place. Applicants must have signed up to the Covid 19 Safety
Charter (Apply for the Covid 19 Safety Charter. All applicants are required to
comply with planning codes, legislative requirements and other compliance
requirements. Only premises branding is permitted. No fixtures with
commercial/product advertising are eligible.
Those
businesses availing of public land for outdoor furniture must be in possession
of a Street Furniture License for 2021 from Cork
City Council before availing of the scheme. Each business can apply for up
to €4,000 per premises (exclusive of VAT) towards the above eligible
costs, up to a maximum of 75% of the total cost. Applications can be accepted
at any time between now and 5pm on Thursday, 30 September 2021. More
information can be got from outdoordininggrants@corkcity.ie or log onto
the Council’s website home page at www.corkcity.ie
1109a. Colourful front cover of first Anvil Books paperback edition (1962) of Guerilla Days in Ireland by Tom Barry (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 22 July 2021
Journeys to a Truce: Guarding
the Truce
On the advent of the Truce, Michael O’Donoghue, Engineer
Officer with the 2nd Battalion of Cork No.1 Brigade, remarks in
witness statement (WS1741) of the Bureau of Military History of a new-found
freedom. He had been based in the West Cork Brigade in the early summer of 1921
and decided to return home to Cappoquin in Waterford to study for his final engineering
exam in UCC. He returned though via Cork and ended up staying in his old digs in
the Shamrock Hotel on the Grand Parade, where he spent a few days and nights
before heading for home. On his first post Truce night in Cork, he notes that
he was amazed at the reactions of the public to the abolition of curfew and
other restrictions on their freedom.
“At 10pm they could be seen sitting on the
pavements, in doorways everywhere, on the streets under the open air, as if
they were trying to assure themselves that it was really true that British
tyranny no longer operated and that they were now free and no longer under the
baleful hostile gun-muzzle of Tan and Tommy. But Republican Police appeared
like mushrooms and enforced the licensing laws with strictness and even
harshness. The RIC and Tans strolled around aimlessly and at ease and seemed to
regard the rather puritanical activities of their successors in law–enforcement
with amused benevolence. The citizens played holiday round their streets until
well past midnight each night, rejoicing in their new found liberty. The young
girls, particularly, fell over themselves in their admiration for the returning
Republican Volunteer youths, and I and young IRA men like me basked in the
sunshine of female smiles and admiring glad eyes”.
West Cork Brigade Commander Tom Barry in his book Guerilla
Days in Ireland gives a chapter to the Truce negotiations and the impact of
the peace. He relates that the sudden ending of hostilities left IRA men dazed at
first and uncertain of the future, as no one considered during those early July
days that the Truce would continue for more than a month. Tom notes that his own
concerns were not eased by the arrival of a dispatch on 9 July, from Sinn Féin
headquarters, stating that the President de Valera had appointed him as Chief
Liaison Officer of the Martial Law Area of Cork or an important post making
sure the ceasefire and peace was kept. Tom describes of the Truce:
“As
July 11 approached one slowly began to appreciate what the Truce and all it
entailed signified. Gradually it dawned on me that the forcing of the enemy to
offer such terms was a signal victory in itself; that days of fear were ended, at
least for a time, and that one could return to normal life and thought, away
from the hates, the callousness and the ruthless killings of war. The respite
might only be brief, but one would not dwell on that. The sun blazed from God’s
Heavens during those cloudless days of the longest and most brilliant summer in
living memory, as if to remind man that the world held brighter things than the
darkness of war. At peace and relaxed we rejoiced with our own people, who had
been so good to us in the troubled past, until it was time for me to leave for my
new liaison post”.
The Bureau for Military History has a number of
files in its archives on the correspondence and work of the Office of the Chief
Liaison Officer. It operated from the Gresham Hotel, Dublin and was set up
following the successful negotiation of a Truce between the British Government
and the Army of the Republic (also known as Irish Republican Army), effected on
11 July 1921.
Representing the British was General Sir Nevil
Macready Commander in Chief, Colonel J Brind and A W Cope, Assistant
Under-Secretary, acting for the British Army. They agreed as follows that there
would be no incoming troops, Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), auxiliary police
and munitions. There would be no movements for military purposes of troops
and munitions, except maintenance drafts. There would be no provocative display
of forces, armed or unarmed. It was understood that all provisions of the Truce
apply to the martial law area equally with the rest of Ireland. There was to be
no pursuit of Irish officers or men or war material or military stores. There
was to be no secret agents, noting description or movements, and no
interference with the movements of Irish persons, military or civil, and no
attempts to discover the haunts or habits of Irish officers and men. There was
also to be no pursuit or observance of lines of communication or connection.
Commandant Robert C Barton TD and Commandant Éamonn J Duggan TD, acting for the Army of the Republic
agreed as follows; Attacks on Crown forces and civilians were to cease. There was
to be no provocative displays of forces, armed or unarmed. There was to be no interference
with Government or private property. There was to be no move to “discountenance
and prevent any action likely to cause disturbance of the peace which might
necessitate military interference”.
The Chief Liaison Officers included Commandant Éamonn Duggan, Commandant F Murphy and Commandant Emmet
Dalton. By December 1921, the Office of the Chief Liaison Officer was
liaising with 30 appointed Liaison Officers with locations amongst 30 counties
and liasing with the British authorities in reporting and investigating alleged
breaches of the Truce.
Caption:
1109a. Colourful
front cover of first Anvil Books paperback edition (1962) of Guerilla Days
in Ireland by Tom Barry (picture: Kieran McCarthy).
19 July 2021, “This is great news; apart from a possible judicial review by the developer, the legal planning processes have now been gone through- it is clear that the potential of babies buried beneath parts of the grounds has seriously hindered future development; More and more the process is leading to the need for State intervention on the future of Bessborough and other Mother and Baby Home sites”, Independent Cork city councillor and historian Kieran McCarthy also welcomed ABP’s decision, Developers unsuccessful in their appeal of refusal for apartments at Bessborough site, Developers unsuccessful in their appeal of refusal for apartments at Bessborough site (echolive.ie)
Independent Cllr McCarthy wishes to remind residents and businesses in the vicinity of Monahan Road that Cork City Council’s Monahan Road Extension (MRE) project is now open to public consultation until 3 September.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “The new roadway will begin on Monahan Road, at the existing junction with the ‘Marquee Road’ where a new cross-roads junction will be formed. From there, the extension project will extend eastwards and pass to the northwest of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. At the eastern end of the proposal, the road levels will be elevated above existing ground level to connect to the future Eastern Gateway Bridge over the River Lee estuary. Approximately 400m of new four-lane two-way carriageway (two eastbound and two westbound) with central reservation, verges, cycle tracks and footpaths is proposed”.
Plans and particulars of the proposed development, including an Appropriate Assessment screening report and an Environmental Impact Assessment screening report are available to view by visiting https://consult.corkcity.ie.
