Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 6 February 2020

Remembering 1920: Sir Edward Fitzgerald Speaks Out

    In a wide-ranging interview published on 3 February 1920 in the Cork Examiner senior councillor of Cork Corporation, 70-year old Sir Edward Fitzgerald of the Irish Parliamentary Party, is still hopeful but with a hint of political battle weariness. Being involved with Cork Corporation since the 1880s his voice consistently echoes through the Corporation’s minute books raising pertinent questions about the future of the city and about the city’s most acute social problems. As a builder and contractor in Cork, many of his contributions focus on issues such as the need for affordable and decent housing to replace some of the city’s most atrocious slum-ridden areas, the need for affordable rent fair rent, the need to promote Cork in Ireland and within the British Empire and the need for public spaces such as parks to walk in.

   Edward took an active part in municipal affairs and was also a member of the Cork Harbour Board, the Board of Guardians, and many social and political societies. He also filled the office of High Sheriff in 1880s. At the time of the Parnellite split he threw in his lot with the anti-Parnellites. He unsuccessfully contested North Cork City in 1910 as an Independent candidate against Mr William O’Brien and Mr George Crosbie. A decade later – once more a Nationalist member – he witnessed the demise of the once powerful Irish Parliamentary Party at the hands of Sinn Féin in the Cork Corporation Local Elections in January 1920. No more did his party have a majority but looked on as Sinn Féin took control over Councils up and down the country.

    Edward was elected Lord Mayor of Cork City in 1901 and held the position for two further years. In 1902 Edward took a prominent part in organising the Cork International Exhibition, which proved a remarkable success. As Chairman of the Executive Committee he travelled throughout Ireland and Scotland collecting funds for the project. The exhibition won additional fame through a Royal visit in 1903 from King Edward VII on which occasion the King conferred a baronetcy on Edward. So great was the success of the exhibition that it was continued a second year. After the exhibition the grounds were converted into a fine public park, which was given the name of Fitzgerald Park in honour of Sir Edward.

       In Edward’s February 1920 interview he is quick to note the principal issues of living in southern Ireland in his day – a region steeped in age-old land agitation and the ongoing quest for fair tenure and rents, the need to harness national industrial resources, the call to build more housing, solve poverty as well the alcohol abuse and mental health problems of the day.

     In the course of his remarks, Edward observed upon agricultural labour in Ireland; “I am a few years beyond the allotted span, that is seventy years of age, and, therefore, 1 have a very great knowledge of both country and city life. I lived in the country until I was twenty four years of age, and I have a very clear recollection of the conditions that prevailed amongst the agricultural communities at that time. The labourers and the great majority of the farmers were then, what I say with truth term, white slaves. The land laws that were then in existence enabled the owners of land to look upon the land as if it was their own and made for their own use and benefit, and also that the tenants and their families, that they placed on the land, were for their own use and benefit”.

   The conditions that then prevailed are, Edward was glad to say, had changed, but those conditions were only changed after years of agitation; “the change came, and I will say no more about it because I don’t wish to refer to the past or to try and stir up any old sores. After the great land agitation that raged acutely for forty years it was expected that peace and contentment would be the lot of the people of Ireland, but I regret to say that in the settlement affected at the time there was one class left out in the cold, and that class is the labourers of both the country and urban district”.

     In the interview Edward asked that citizens travel the Lee Valley from Macroom to Cork and see the great number of labourers’ cottages, which, certainly he deemed a great improvement on the state of things and far cry from “only mud cabins, with pools of stagnant, water in front of them”. Attached to them were small patches of ground, in which the occupiers grow a little potatoes and vegetables.

            Edward’s remarks concluded that those struggling to find accommodation could be given a house to rent with five acres of land for food allotments, and such land should be bought by government from farmers with large acreage in the area, across the Lee Valley. In essence, he wished for the mass expansion of the model cottage scheme, which was so successful in the Cork Rural District Council. It is unrecorded what the Westminster government official line was to his suggestion as the IRA attacks on regional RIC barracks consume the news columns of the regional newspapers with the advent of Spring 1920.

Captions:

1034a. Edward Fitzgerald as Lord Mayor of Cork, c.1901 (source: Cork City Hall)

1034b. Fitzgerald’s Park, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 30 January 2020

Remembering 1920: Arise Lord Mayor Alderman Tomás MacCurtain

    On 30 January 1920, one hundred years ago, the scene was set for Alderman Tomás MacCurtain to be declared elected as Lord Mayor in the Council Chamber of the old Cork City Hall. As Tomás rose from his seat in the Chamber to go to the Lord Mayor’s chair, much of the general public present cheered him. The men waved their hats and caps and the women their handkerchiefs. “The Soldier’s Song” was called for, and others shouted; “Up Blackpool” and as the newly-elected Lord Mayor signed the declaration accepting the office, The Soldier’s Song was sung.

     The Cork Examiner outlines that Alderman MacCurtain signed the roll of office and on receiving the chain of office, the outgoing Lord Mayor, William F O’Connor addressed him, saying; “I congratulate you, and your party, on your election to this high office. I wish you a happy and prosperous year of office, and I trust that under your chairmanship, as first citizen, of Cork that the members of the Corporation shall strive unitedly in using their best efforts to advance our city’s interests and prosperity”.

     Addressing the members, Tomás said his first duty was to thank Councillor O’Connor for his kind remarks on the taking the chair. He also thanked the members of the Corporation for having unanimously elected him to the position. He also wished to avail of the opportunity to thank the people of his ward who elected him alderman with a huge vote on the day of the election.

    Tomás felt that in accepting the position of Lord Mayor he had a double duty to perform. Elected as he had been, as a Republican, he deemed his first duty would be to serve the principles of the Irish Republic. His next duty would be, as far as it were in his power, “to assist every party and every man and every citizen who had the interest of the country at heart in furthering the country’s interests, including local enterprises and especially the larger issue of the freedom of their country”. In carrying out his duties he denoted that every member, no matter to what party he or she belonged, would get every opportunity of putting forward any idea that he or she had in connection with the welfare of their city and their country.

    Tomás continued in his speech that there were certain things in connection with the administration of the Corporation in the past that should be forgotten about and other aspects that should be emulated going forward. He expected from the members of the new Corporation a “sacrifice of time and a sacrifice, perhaps, of personal interest”. He expected from every member, no matter to what party they belonged to, that no self-interest would be put before the interest of the community at large.

    Tomás recognised that his Sinn Féin party were very pleased at the result of the municipal elections. They were also pleased that certain minorities were represented in the Council, because they recognised that in every staple community they had minorities that were entitled to representation in the government of the affairs of the country. Their motto in the future would, in the first instance, be self-reliance and, in their normal business of the Corporation, efficiency and economy. He also referenced the importance of the Irish language: “The opening of their proceedings had been very auspicious for one thing that was very dear to his heart, as it was also dear to the heart of the Irish people and that was the Irish language”. He was delighted to hear it introduced into their proceedings. He hoped they would preserve that bi-lingual attitude in the Corporation proceedings until they had a Corporation in the future in which the business would only be completely conducted in the language of their country.

   The minutes of the meeting, which survive in Cork City and County Archives, describe that the next business was to fix the Lord Mayor’s salary, which was set at £500 for the year. It was also decided to hold the quarterly meetings of the Council on the second Friday of April, July and October 1920 at 7pm.

   The next business was to select three gentlemen qualified to fill the office of High Sheriff, so as to enable the Lord Lieutenant, to select out of the list the new High Sheriff. Sinn Féin Alderman Tadgh Barry said that that was a matter that deserved the very careful consideration of the Corporation. Sinn Féin had had a divided mind on the matter. He articulated that he had read the oath and stated – “it was an oath that no self-respecting Irishman could take”. They were not going to ask any Irishman to take it. It was a position created by what he described as “an alien Government in the country”; Tadgh continued “While in the past some people had been proud to take such a job, they would have nothing to do with such people in the future”. He moved and was successful that they do not fill the office, and that they leave it to Lord French to consider his own candidate.

   Alderman Liam de Róiste then proposed a resolution that the Council pledge their allegiance to Dáil Éireann. Councillor Terence MacSwiney seconded, and it was passed by majority. He said that the authority of the Council must be definitely subject to some allegiance and they had next to consider what was the properly constituted authority in this country. Election of members to various committees was held at the subsequent Council meeting.

Captions:

1033a. Lord Mayor Alderman Tomás MacCurtain on his mayoral election night, 30 January 1920 (source: Cork City Museum).

1033b. Members of Cork Corporation in the old Council Chamber of the old Cork City Hall, 30 January 1920 (source: Cork City Museum).