Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 16 January 2020

Remembering 1920: The Newly Elected Corporation

    One hundred years ago today, 16 January 1920, boxes of votes for the city’s six local electoral areas and for membership of Cork Corporation began to be counted in Cork City Hall. The election had taken place a day earlier on 15 January. A total of 160 candidates looked on with trepidation on their fate as the ballot boxes were being opened. Only one female, Summerhill North resident Miss Anne Sutton representing the Sinn Féin and Workers Transport grouping and standing in the north-east ward, was on the ballot paper (who was successful).

   On 15 January, booths opened at 8am and closed at 8pm., after which the ballot boxes were taken to the City Hall, where the votes were counted. On Friday morning 16 January two trained staff groups counted the votes and two electoral areas were counted simultaneously. There were six groupings for the public to vote for – the  conjoined Sinn Féin and Transport Workers (30 seats won), Irish Parliamentary Party/ Irish Nationalist members (14 seats won), the Cork Rate Payer’s Association/ Commercial (4 seats won), Labour (3 seats won), Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers (2 seats won), and Independents (3 seats won). At the time the term of office was set at three years. The Sinn Féin and Transport Workers grouping had a clear majority of 30 seats out of 56. They also had great success in Waterford and Limerick.

   The first meeting of the newly elected Cork Corporation was to take place on Friday 30 January. At this meeting the principal business was to elect a Lord Mayor for the ensuing twelve months, to fix the salary of that office, to give three names for submission to the Lord Lieutenant of persons suitable for the office of City High Sheriff, and to set the dates and hours of quarterly meetings. In addition to the election of members to the several Corporation committees, the Council were to elect five of its number to the Cork Harbour Board. Three members of the old Council who were on the Harbour Board ceased to be members thereof when they ceased to be members of the Corporation.

    The Sinn Féin and Transport Workers grouping in the Corporation had a working majority over all other groupings. One of their number was in gaol, Alderman Frederick Murray, and J J Walsh MP was on the run from policing authorities. This, however, was not to affect considerably their power to control the Council’s work. Both the Sinn Féin and the Transport Workers groupings held separate private meetings when their agendas were discussed and agreed upon.

   Tracking the various meetings through the Cork Examiner, with one week to go, the selection of the name for the Lord Mayoralty had not been made, but J J Walsh, MP was being considered as the front runner. However, as he was on the run from policing authorities there were several challenges with his nomination. The point though was argued by some members of the Sinn Féin and the Transport Workers in favour of his election, as any future potential arresting of a Lord Mayor of the city would place the policing authorities in an awkward political position. Nevertheless, the Mayoralty position was offered to Tomás MacCurtain, the well-respected brigade commander of Cork no.1 Batallion within the IRA (since 1918). He has been active on the ground since his Irish Volunteer days and had spent several months in Frongoch prison. His family were also well-known manufacturers in Blackpool.

   On 31 January 1920 as early as 11.30am the gallery and available seats within the Council Chamber of the old City Hall were comfortably filled. Soon the place was absolutely packed with people. There were some clergymen present, and it was noted in the press for the first time in the history of such a meeting that a large number of women were present. Admission was by ticket and these were checked by firemen at the main entrance outside of which many people gathered.

   The first members of the Corporation to take their place in the council chamber were Messrs M J O’Callaghan (Independent), Daniel Gamble (Irish Parliamentary Party), and Daniel Horgan (Irish Parliamentary Party). Some minutes after, about 11.45am, the Sinn Féin members came in together, and were received with loud cheer with a special hearty welcome been given to Alderman Tomás MacCurtain, the selected of their party for the chair. A few minutes before 12noon the outgoing Lord Mayor William F O’Connor took the chair.

    At noon the Town Clerk called the roll, and 51 members answered out of the 56. The Sinn Féin Party gave their reply in Irish, answering ‘anseo’. When the name of Alderman Frederick Murray was called, Councillor O’Cuill said in Irish that he was in prison, and again, when Alderman J J Walsh’s name was called, he said in Irish, “Ta sé ar siúl” or in English he was “on the run”. Those remarks were given a sympathetic cheer. Immediately further cheers signalled the approval of the public present for the motion, spoken to in Irish by Councillor O’Cuill, proposing that Alderman Tomás MacCurtain to be Lord Mayor for the coming year. The motion was seconded by Councillor MacSwiney, MP, who also spoke in Irish.

   The Chairman asked: “Is there any other candidates?”. He declared Alderman MacCurtain unanimously elected (more in the next few weeks).

Have you a family member who was one of the original 56 councillors elected in 1920 or who appear on the famous roll of honour in Cork City Hall outside the Council Chamber (see picture), give me a shout with some more information at 0876553389 or email info@kieranmccarthy.ie. Many of the names have never been researched in any depth and much information has been diluted on their background and general context.

Caption:

Roll of Honour, Members of the First Council to have a Republican majority in the City Borough of Cork, 1920-1924, on display outside the Council Chambers of the present day Cork City Hall. The names also include those who were elected through by-election – an extra 12 names – within the electoral period of four years (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 9 January 2020

Remembering 1920: Attacks on RIC Barracks Begin

   The first week of January 1920 witnessed another scaling up of agitation by the general headquarters of the Irish Republican Army. Following the failure of the Independence petition at the Paris Peace Conference. the continued banning of non-violent republican organisations and the outlawing of Dáil Éireann, offensive action was officially sanctioned against crown forces. In the counties of Cork, Limerick, Cork, Tipperary, Kerry, Clare, and Dublin attacks on police patrols escalated.

  From January 1920 arms raids of Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks began. Those barracks in rural areas were the first to be targeted as many of them were not overly defended. Successful arms raids and the taking of mail for intelligence purposes gave many local IRA units purpose without real exposure to injury and death. Historian Dr Joost Augusteijn in the Atlas of the Irish Revolution details that by the summer of 1920, almost one third of all RIC barracks had been evacuated. By the end of 1920 a total of 553 Barracks were destroyed. Many of the attacks have been written about at length by local historians across the country and the events remembered as appropriate throughout the decades and live on in folk memory.

  Regional newspapers such as the Cork Examiner wrote at length on countrywide events in its crammed editorial sections. Journalists had to submit their work to the national censor’s office for fear of offence against the Defence of the Realm Act (1914 and its extensions). Whilst turning each page of the Cork Examiner from 1916 to the end of 1920 for research for this column from 1916 to the end of 1920, there is an apparent loosening up of what Republican activity stories could be published. It is clear that more and more information on IRA activity was published throughout 1920. That is despite the threat in September 1919 when the Cork Examiner suffered under the Crown’s censorship for advertising the Dáil Éireann Loan Scheme. However, agitation and harassment were felt by both sides through the IRA and through Crown officials.

   Between Friday 2 January and Sunday 4 January 1920, the Cork Examiner records that four County Cork police barracks were raided by members of the IRA – Carrignavar, Carrigtwohill, Kilmurry, and Inchigeela.

   In the early hours of Friday morning 2 January 1920 revolver shots were fired all long range through the upper part of the window of the police barracks at Carrignavar. An additional precaution against attacks on this police barracks had been taken before the attack. Sheet-iron plate inside the ground floor windows was erected to three-quarter length it. The shots from outside were well-directed as they hit the unprotected upper quarter of the window and some the bullets lodged in the wall of the room. None of the occupants of the barrack were injured and nothing was taken.

    In Carrigtwohill early on Saturday evening, 3 January 1920 the sergeant and two constables were on patrol duty. In the late afternoon, about 5pm men on bicycles began to arrive in the village. The police took little notice of the early arrivals, thinking they were men who, through one cause or another, were kept out later than they had estimated, and were, therefore without lights. But when men in twos and threes came along the road at only short distances apart, the police became suspicious, and, on the sergeant’s order, they endeavoured to hold up one man. The young man was not to be trapped by this sudden and unexpected challenge and took off on his bike but fell off shortly afterwards. He took heel and outpaced his pursuers.

   However, the police were convinced that something out of the ordinary was about to happen and they immediately returned to barracks. This was about 9.30pm and they telephoned another Barracks in Midleton with a warning. They tried to ring up a Queenstown but they found that the lines had been cut. Shortly after the attack on the barracks began as well. It was mainly from the back. Behind the barracks there was a wall about five feet high, and beside it is a hay shed. Concealed behind these the raiding party opened fire. That was shortly after 10pm and a continuous fusillade was kept up until 2.30am. It was only when the Barrack’s ammunition was exhausted that the raiding party ventured to approach the barracks. The attackers then blew away with gelignite one end of the barracks. They rushed in through the breech and took the police prisoners captive and handcuffed them. Some of the raiders were disguised, others were not but all had revolvers. They then searched the entire place, and took away rifles, ammunition and accoutrements.

   On Saturday night, 3 January 1920, a party of armed men attacked the police barrack at Kilmurry. The barrack comprised five policemen and the building was an ordinary-sized house. At 11pm the noises of rifle fire filled the air. This firing continued for some time. The police returned the fire, and after an interchange of shots, the attacking party were beaten off.

   The Constabulary barracks at Inchigeela was raided on Sunday 4 January 1920 by a party of armed men. The Inchigeela incident took place between 9.30pm and 1am. Dr Gould, the medical officer of the Inchigeela Dispensary District, who had been attending a patient on the Ballingeary side, was held up at a barricade in his motor car just outside the village. Eleven men of the Ballingeary IRA Company formed a scouting party whilst six armed with revolvers and shotguns took on the local barracks. Dr Gould was informed that he could not proceed for a period of two hours and was directed to a nearby cottage. The barracks was raided for arms and mail by the six members of the company. It was also targeted twice more in the ensuing weeks – 7 March 1920 and 23 May 1920.

Missed one of the 51 columns last year, which focussed on life in Cork in 1919, check out the indices on my website, www.corkheritage.ie.

Captions:

1030a. Main Street, Carrigtwohill, c.1920 with the prominent RIC Barracks building just right of centre (source: Cork City Museum)

1030b. 1030b. Location map of RIC Barracks, Carrigtwohill, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library)

1030b. Present day view of former site of Carrigtwohill RIC Barracks; the barracks remained a ruin till the 1960s and in time the site was redeveloped (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 2 January 2020

Remembering 1920: Preparing for Local Elections

   A new day and year, 1 January 1920, coincided with a bringing a sense of hope and renewal at the start of a new decade. But excitement and worry existed over the pending restructuring of the local government structure in Ireland. Proportional representation was to be tested in the 1920 local elections. The “First past the Post” system of voting in the local elections ended and proportional representation introduced a system of the single transferable vote for multi-member electoral areas.

     In the 1918 general elections the Sinn Féin party obtained a large margin of Irish seats in Westminster. Many seats achieved by Sinn Féin were not overtly challenged, and the elections utilised the “first past the post” system. Sinn Féin in all contested seats gained marginally less than fifty per cent of the vote. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919, facilitated by the British Government, promoted proportional representation as a method to lessen the strong support for Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin itself did not oppose the new system and saw it as way of moving local authorities away from swearing allegiance to the King to Dáil Éireann. Controlling local councils politically was deemed another step further to obtaining more political freedom from Westminster.

   However, at a local and neighbourhood level proportional representation was a game-changer in the chance it gave candidates to be elected especially if one was transfer friendly. Proportional representations also aimed at giving representation to “all classes in proportion to their strength”. The 5 January 1920 was the deadline for nominations by interested candidates in Cork City. The Cork Examiner lists that in the city of Cork 160 candidates (with only one female, Miss Anne Sutton representing Sinn Féin and Transport Workers) were nominated for 56 vacancies in the Borough Council. The term of office was to be three years.

   Over half of the outgoing members of Cork Corporation – 20 of 51 – were putting their names forward again as were the usual political interests in the guise of Sinn Féin and Transport Workers, Labour, Constitutional Nationalists, Ratepayers and commercial, and Independents. General debates/ hustings were held across the City and it was noted on more than one occasion that the varied interests involved made it difficult to forecast a result. A large proportion of the candidates had also not previously ran in local elections – mainly because it was six years since the previous local elections. However, political groups put forward as many good candidates as they could field. For example, there were 33 standing for the Nationalist ticket whilst 37 Independents put their names forward. The Cork and District Labour Council nominated 12 candidates.

    Twenty-two candidates were proposed by the Cork Rate Payer’s Association. In its manifesto they noted that it more difficult to manage the affairs of an ordinary business concern than it was six years previously. War, the shortage of labour and investment plagued cities, towns and rural regions across the country. It was hoped that proportional representation would sweep progressive and business-savvy candidates into the city’s council chamber. In particular, the election aimed to capture and give a voice to those who pay rates should be entitled to be represented in the administration of municipal affairs. Such candidates would also have knowledge of controlling expenditure and to act impartially and independently in managing corporate business.

   At a meeting of the Cork Ratepayers and Citizen’s Association on 1 January 1920, Sir John Scott presided with William Dorgan, solicitor, the honorary secretary. Mr Dorgan highlighted that he got substantial support financially from many ratepayers who were unable to attend their meetings. He hoped that they had a strong list of candidates who all sought to have a voice on where the city’s rates would be spent and the future striking of them. In late 1919, the rates stood at 10s 7 ¼ d in the pound. The candidates also expressed a worry about the paying back of a bank overdraft and the consideration of upping the rates even more. Housing for the working classes were also on their priority list.

   Under the new division of the city’s wards the electorate was divided into seven areas – Central (10 vacancies, 37 candidates), North East (10 vacancies, 26 candidates), City Hall (6 vacancies, 18 candidates), College and Evergreen Area (11 vacancies, 30 candidates), Sunday’s Well and Blarney Street (7 vacancies, 23 candidates), Shandon (6 vacancies, 13 candidates), and Blackpool (6 vacancies, 18 candidates). The creation of the new ward boundaries complicated the situation between candidates as some outgoing councillors now had new districts to contend with. Voting lists were busy with names especially the Central Area, which had ten vacancies and 37 candidates. The area was an amalgamation of the west ward and the old city centre wards. Sinn Féin put forward a full list in every area (e.g. in Shandon, 11 candidates for the 11 seats) bar only having eight candidates for the ten seats in the North-East.

  The polling day was to be on 15 January 1920 with the counting to take place in City Hall (more on this in the new few weeks). City Hall staff were to be trained in the new proportional representation model.

Happy new year to all readers of the column.

Caption:

1029a. Old Cork City Hall, c.1920 (picture: Cork City Library)