In late June 1919, citizens of Cork welcomed the announcement that Mr Edward Grace, Managing Director with a party of engineers from Messrs Ford’s Tractor Works had arrived in Cork to expedite the completion of the Marina factory. There were visible signs of big developments at the works. The glass roof on the newly erected iron work was making rapid progress as well as the installation of the large amounts of glass work in the main buildings. The First World War was deemed responsible for the building delay. Many cargoes of materials such as steel fell victim to submarines attacks off the Irish coast.
By 3 July 1919, the first Ford tractor left the assembly line. An obligatory commemorative picture was taken at the time. In addition, the Cork Examiner carried a notice that from 30 June 1919 hours and pay were posted up at the office of the tractor works. The work hours were Monday to Friday inclusive, 8am to 4.30pm with a half hour lunch break from 12.30 to 1pm. Saturday’s hours were 8am to 12pm. The total working hours were therefore 44 per week. The minimum rate per hour paid at the works for men over 18 were 2s 5d with a share of profits per hour set at 3d. The total rate per hour was 1s 8d. For boys under 18, wages were 6d per hour with share of profits set at nil. Profit sharing was based on good conduct and was paid at the discretion of the company. It was also subject to employment for at least six months. Male office staff over 18 were paid 1s 5d per hour and a share of the profits at 6d per hour. Female office staff over 18 were paid 1s per hour with 3d share of the profits. Girls under 18 in the office were paid per hour with no share of the profit.
By the end of 1919, 303 Fordson tractors had been built at the Cork factory. During 1920, which was the first full year of production, 3,626 tractors were produced. The sum of £327,000 was also spent on a machine shop, foundry expansion, new wharves and equipment. The sale of the Fordsons was primarily in Ireland and Britain. Large numbers were shipped to Bordeaux, Cadiz, Copenhagen, Romania and the Near East.
In April 1920, the acquisition of Henry Ford & Son, the company, from the Ford family by directors of the Detroit Ford Company, meant disorganisation in sales strategies. Fordson tractors that were previously sold by specialist dealers were now been sold by car and truck agents with limited knowledge of the product. The tractor venture became more and more uneconomical. World markets also suffered depression and many European countries adopted a protectionist approach. Tariff and currency barriers also made exporting difficult. Political unrest on the Irish scene hampered the consistent arrival of workers to the plant every day.
Edward Grace, managing director, realising that it was uneconomic and unwise for the Cork factory to rely on tractor production noted a number of home truths. The high cost of establishing the Cork factory and maintaining an efficient work force meant that it was cheaper for European distributors to buy Fordson tractors in New York and ship them across the Atlantic, rather than purchase them in Cork. Grace’s solution to the profit problem was logical. Manchester needed extra production facilities for Model T cars. Cork had a machine shop and foundry that were not being used to their full capacity. To get parts made in Dearborn, Michigan would have been cheaper but freight costs from the States was more expensive than exporting from Cork to Britain where there would be no import duty. This was due to Ireland’s part of the United Kingdom.
By August 1921, the foundry at the Cork plant was producing all Manchester’s cast-iron requirements, including the engine. However, in 1921, tractor output from Cork fell to 1,433. The plant could only operate economically with 1,600 men. The 1918 Corporation lease of the land had specified that Fords provide work for 2,000 Cork workers. In February 1922, Cork Corporation ordered the Company to comply with the terms of the lease or face expulsion. The directors of Henry Ford & Son opposed the rationale claiming that the economic and political climate had changed radically within three years of the company setting up in Cork. Cork Corporation backed down from their requests.
During the rest of 1922, the Cork company narrowed its tractor operation by clearing its stocks and building another 2,233 Fordsons. On 29 December 1922, the 7,605th Cork-built tractor came off the line. Edward Grace assembled all the equipment used in Tractor manufacture and shipped everything to Dearborn, Michigan. The Cork factory now focussed on being an assembly plant, producing cars for the Irish market. In fact, in the early 1920s, whilst a Ford factory was being built in England, Cork also manufactured components for the home and export markets. Cork manufactured Model T parts and supplied both UK’s Trafford Park and the Continental Ford Plants with all their requirements of engines and rear axles up until 1927 when the European production of the Model T ceased.
Upcoming historical walking tours:
Saturday 13 July 2019, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour with Kieran of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 11am (free, duration: two hours).
Sunday 14 July 2019, Sunday’s Well, historical walking tour with Kieran; discover the original well and the eighteenth-century origins of the suburb, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge, North Mall end, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours).
Captions:
1005a. Mr Edward Grace of Messrs Ford’s Tractor Works sits on the first Fordson tractor to roll off the assembly line, 3 July 2019 (source: Cork City Library).
1005b. Workers in the machine shop of Messrs Ford’s Tractor Works in August 1921 (source: Cork City Library).
Saturday 13 July 2019, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour with Kieran of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 11am (free, duration: two hours).
Sunday 14 July 2019, Sunday’s Well, historical walking tour with Kieran; discover the original well and the eighteenth-century origins of the suburb, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge, North Mall end, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours).
For me the derelict site fine has become too blunt an instrument to deal with dangerous buildings in older parts of the city. At this moment is time, landowners are fined 3 per cent per year of the land value. However, it was heard during a Council finance committee meeting last week that under five per cent of the fines can be only drawn down by the Council due to many long term derelict sites in limbo with their legal title and in NAMA.
There are over 100 registered derelict sites in Cork City, which have been identified as derelict and unsightly and whose landowners have been fined. It’s an absolute disgrace that some owners have left their buildings in such a state over decades. I have no problem with someone who genuinely cannot develop their premises for financial reasons and who board up their building accordingly plus then develop when they can- But I have a huge problem with landowners with no sense of civic responsibility, who let their properties fall into disrepair and who create rotting concrete wildernesses”.
Even in my own ward from Ballinlough to Donnybrook, there are empty properties- where the owners seem to have disappeared. Many could be turned back around into housing units. Many are the ongoing concern of neighbours – fearful of rodents or fire or generally bringing down the calibre of an area. There must be quicker mechanisms to cut through the red tape- especially legal title and NAMA related properties.
There is a need to have a proper inner-city renewal plan. For too long places like North and South Main Street, Shandon, Barrack Street & Blackpool are limping on….indeed only for the Shandon Area Renewal Area group, volunteers, Cork Community Art Link…Shandon Street would be further down the road of dereliction…indeed such groups have added to the creative hub of the city. We need to build more of such groups.
Barrack Street is more or lost except for the traditional pubs that survive on student trade.
It always seems to me that there is no vision for such streets, no way forward. Shandon Street should be recognised officially as key heritage quarter.
History is oozing out of these areas.
And I see this week as well its two years since the burning of the former St Kevin’s Hospital. it is still now an abandoned and burned heap of heritage with no plan for it…the city needs a vision for such heritage markers.
The city centre needs to the core attractive place to live, work and visit; to safeguard, protect and enhance the built heritage and promote a sustainable, diverse and integrated residential and business community.
Update on maintenance at Douglas Cemetery from Parks and Recreation, Cork City Council
“Cllr McCarthy, In relation to Saint Columba’s cemetery in Douglas. We acknowledge that the maintenance at the cemetery needs to be addressed.
We are currently reorganising resources to tackle the work in this cemetery to bring it back up to an acceptable standard. As you can understand we are still in an adjustment period for the expanded city and are planning further maintenance works to commence in this cemetery tomorrow.
The large bins at the cemetery were collected last Friday and we are awaiting delivery of new suitable bins from our supplier. The remaining litter will also be rectified shortly”.
To ask the CE for an update on the progress of the successful Urban Redevelopment Funding projects, and also a listing on those projects, which were not successful? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)
Motions:
That the public lighting on Wallace’s Avenue, Ballinlough be improved (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
That the City Council give consideration to the CPO-ing of the derelict Lakelands Bar on Avenue de Rennes, Mahon as it is in a very poor condition and there has been no sign of redevelopment for many years (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
In light of dereliction, traffic and spatial planning challenges that a Douglas Village Local Area Plan be created (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
That the City Council appoint a dedicated Cycling Officer in order to build a positive narrative on the benefits of cycling and associated cycling community projects (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).
Cork City Council must act upon derelict sites through compulsory purchase order especially if they are long term blights on the landscape, says Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy.
In recent City Council debates on dereliction in Cork City, Cllr McCarthy has voiced concern again that the derelict site fine has become too blunt an instrument to deal with dangerous buildings in older parts of the city. At this moment is time, landowners are fined 3 per cent per year of the land value. However, it was heard during a Council finance committee meeting last week that under five per cent of the fines can be only drawn down by the Council due to many long term derelict sites in limbo with their legal title and in NAMA.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “There are over over 100 registered derelict sites in Cork City, which have been identified as derelict and unsightly and whose landowners have been fined. It’s an absolute disgrace that some owners have left their buildings in such a state over decades. I have no problem with someone who genuinely cannot develop their premises for financial reasons and who board up their building accordingly plus then develop when they can- But I have a huge problem with landowners with no sense of civic responsibility, who let their properties fall into disrepair and who create rotting concrete wildernesses”.
“Even in my own ward from Ballinlough to Donnybrook, there are empty properties- where the owners seem to have disappeared. Many could be turned back around into housing units. Many are the ongoing concern of neighbours – fearful of rodents or fire or generally bringing down the calibre of an area. There must be quicker mechanisms to cut through the red tape- especially legal title and NAMA related properties”, continued Cllr McCarthy.
In late June and early July 1919, the Cork Sinn Féin Executive arranged a series of public lectures aimed at increasing local activism whilst critiquing Westminster social policies in Ireland. The lectures were delivered by Professor Alfred O’Rahilly (1884-1969) to an interested audience, in the Council Chamber of Cork City Hall. Obituaries across various national newspapers for the professor in 1969 detail he was a native of Listowel and was educated by the Holy Ghost Fathers at Blackrock College, south of Dublin. Eamon de Valera was one of his contemporaries in the college. Having obviously a vocation to the priesthood. Alfred chose to join the Jesuits on leaving school and after the usual period of novitiate he went to Stonyhurst. His studies in philosophy there resulted in the award of a Roman Doctor of Philosophy. He was still with the Jesuits when he entered the old university college conducted by them in Dublin under the Royal University. There Alfred widened his earlier courses in modern languages to concentrate on science. Before long he was to receive a Doctor of Science for his large project on electro magnetics. However, he left the Jesuits to form a new career as a militant layman.
In 1914 a vacancy arose as a lecturer in mathematics in University College Cork under Bertram Windle’s presidency. Professor Windle at once welcomed Alfred and his ability and training. In a few years, Alfred had become Professor of Mathematical Physics. He was elected Registrar of the College in 1920, and much of his constructive work within the college was pursued during the ensuing 30 years under the presidency of Dr Merriman (whom he succeeded as President in 1943).
In the late 1910s Alfred became intensely concerned with social reform and economics and with the ardent narrative of younger nationalists. His theological and philosophical training enabled him to become a spokesman for Sinn Féin when ecclesiastical censure was threatened. He was always prepared to challenge authority and military repression in Ireland when he disagreed with it. He was elected to the Cork Corporation, and as a member of it in 1920 he proposed the election of Lord Mayor MacCurtain and afterwards of Lord Mayor MacSwiney (to replace him). Alfred took charge of the public funerals for both Lord Mayors, in defiance of all forms of British intimidation.
Professor Alfred O’Rahilly’s lecture on 27 June 1919 at Cork City Hall was written up in the Cork Examiner and focused on the topic of “Co-operation in a Republic”. He pointed out that the ideal of a Republic was very vague and negative, and that there was great need for constructive and positive aims. In his personal view was that the “Irish Ireland” had been lacking in social and economic thought – that what confronted Ireland’s future was a lack of trained ability and competence and business knowledge and organising ability. Co-operative thinking and bringing people together in business and enact a form of “democratic control”.
On Tuesday 1 July 1919 Professor O’Rahilly’s lecture was entitled “Some Suggestions for a Sinn Féin Labour Policy”. He pointed out that there was really no Labour programme policy in Ireland, and, except as regards the land, there never was. For many reasons, it was high time to produce a coherent policy. He outlined that Ireland was the victim of centralisation policy with powers taken away from counties, towns and cities. As a contrast to the English system he gave the example of Switzerland, whose area was half that of Ireland, whose population in 1919 was half a million less. Professor O’Rahilly outlined that Switzerland was a Federal Republic and consisted of twenty-two sovereign States. He suggested that Ireland should have a federalism system at work; “Each county and each large county borough should be autonomous. We in the rest of Ireland should make it clear that we have no desire whatever to interfere with, say, Belfast and its prosperity. Similarly, Cork is quite competent to manage its own affairs, and has as much right to independence as Antrim”. The ideal should be not be a bureaucracy in Dublin, but “ample local liberty, and in the Irish capital (a) a National Council elected by adult suffrage, and (b) a Council of States or counties with, say, two deputies from each”.
Professor O’Rahilly’s second focus at his July lecture was the quest for sovereignty of the people. He proposed that a referendum should be held, whereby, for example, eight counties, or 30,000 voters, could insist that any legislative Act passed by the National Assembly must be submitted to the direct vote of the people for ratification or rejection. The power of such an initiative, for example, would mean that the Transport Workers could draft a Bill, without consulting the Government.
Professor O’Rahilly also dealt with some social and industrial projects, in particular with housing, drink control, and education. He noted that one of the most pressing needs in Ireland’s future would be the organisation of a system of national credit for the financing of now or neglected industries, and the utilisation of Irish resources. He considered that foreign capital constituted a danger, “as Irish capital was being artificially drained out of the country”.
July Walking Tours:
Saturday 6 July 2019, The City Workhouse, historical walking tour with Kieran; learn about Cork City’s workhouse created for 2,000 impoverished people in 1841; meet just inside the gates of St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 12noon (free, duration: two hours, on site tour, part of Friends of St Finbarr’s Hospital garden fete).
Saturday 13 July 2019, The Victorian Quarter; historical walking tour with Kieran of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Wellington Road and McCurtain Street; meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill, 11am (free, duration: two hours).
Sunday 14 July 2019, Sunday’s Well, historical walking tour with Kieran; discover the original well and the eighteenth-century origins of the suburb, meet at St Vincent’s Bridge, North Mall end, 2.30pm (free, duration: two hours).
Caption:
1004a. Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, c.1944 as President of University College Cork, now on display in the Aula Maxima in the college (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Well done to Mervyn Horgan of the Lifetime Lab for his brainchild and to the principal sponsor Science Foundation Ireland with the support of Cork City Council 🙂
Many thanks for the invitation to address you this evening. Congratulations on organising another year of the Cork Cycling Festival. The small organising committee are a group of committed individuals who I know have the promotion of Cork at its heart. Cork is a city of festivals – we have over 30 of them and over 110 days. It seems the last few weeks Cork has seen several high profile festivals where there has been much focus on Ireland’s southern capital.
A breakdown on any of these festivals show that many of their organising committee are also small but have continued to put Cork on the cultural map. All too often the City does not reflect on the committees as almost family like structures, whose knowledge build-up is organic and is based on foundations of years of experience, and a real belief that the festival is positively important to the city’s DNA.
The Cork Cycling Festival draws on these latter points – it is a family, it has years of experience, it’s ongoing knowledge build up is organic, and speaking with any of the organisers, they clearly have an infectious positive outlook. And what may look like a festival, which ticks away annually, it is the origins of the species when it comes to promoting cycling and all its positive narratives within our city and the methodologies gleamed from previous festivals should not be forgotten about. In particular I love the idea that the festival works and splices with other aspects of Cork’s DNA – its landscapes, its histories, the passing down of heritage, its food, education, lifelong learning elements, its communities. Not every festival within this fair city does that or can boast that the whole city is its playground.
This positive and spliced narrative is one which supporters of cycling in the city need to champion. Whilst knocking on almost 8,000 doors recently, the narrative on cycling is one which is very split in a whole series of different perspectives – many of them more or less statement-like. I recorded in my notebook some citizen perspectives or quotes which I wish to briefly share….
“Cycling is my mode of commute to work sets me up for a positive day”.
“My friend was knocked down by a speeding cyclist on the old railway line, who didn’t stop”.
“I enjoy watching my kids learning to cycle – it is a great skill to have”.
“Cyclists should be taxed if they wish to use the road”.
“I feel healthy. It’s a great feeling to cycle along and view Cork and its beauty”.
“Many cyclists abuse the rules of the road”.
“The Coke bike scheme had its millionth customer last year. There is an interest in cycling”.
“Very few people cycle in this city”.
“We need to improve the cycling networks and infrastructure to make it easier for anyone interested in cycling to engage with it”.
“Gardai should be out in force stopping cyclists cycling on footpaths”.
“Cycling is a way of life we have forgotten”.
End quotes:
I have no doubt that many of you in this room from the amateur to the passionate cyclist agree with some of these and disagree with some of them. For me coming away from the doors, I thought about what do all of these statements and what do they mean about the future of cycling. What is clear is that there are passionate stances about the future of cycling in the city but it always seems like when it comes to cycling the city walks on eggshells. The cycling narrative in our city seems more like a battleground, with an evolution needed on all sides of the debate more so than a revolution.
There is a really great need to find some kind of common ground about the positives of cycling but also deal with the negative aspects. For me in an ideal world this community festival is one such targeted approach to resolving issues arising out there. However, we need more of such positive community approaches to cycling. In the Council chamber I have asked the Council appoint a dedicated cycling officer, whose post would be to draw the various positive strands of thought together on cycling in this enlarged city. That for me remains my plan of attack in the short term.
I wish to thank all the sponsors attached to the Cork Cycling Festival.
