Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent 

2 February 2012

Technical Memories (Part 4)

A Question of Life or Death

 “In this country, he went on, the question to which we invite your attention to is literally one of life or death; it is a question, which involves that other great question, whether we are going to stop that terrible drain of emigration, which has been sapping the strength of this country far too long…the technical education movement might itself be used to stem that tide of emigration”, Journalist on Bertram Windle, Industrial Conference at Cork, 21 November 1905.

The exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction’s at the Cork International Exhibition 1902 was deemed a great success. It enthused those involved in education down south to do as much as they could to rally support for the movement. In the years following the exhibition one of the key figures to emerge in Cork and to push the movement was Bertram Windle (1858-1929), who became the President of Queen’s College Cork in 1901. In setting out his background and work in Cork, at the outset one of his notable traits was his mass of interest and experience in different matters concerning education in not just Cork but across the country. There is also the matter of the energy he put into his various pursuits. On the study of Windle one is blessed with a myriad of archival material in UCC’s Boole library and great reviews of his life and times by John A. Murphy, and Ann and Dermot Keogh. There are also the myriad of obituaries, which appeared in local and national newspapers at the time of his death in July 1929.

By the time Staffordshire born, Bertram Windle arrived in Cork in 1901, he already had a notable academic career. Starting as a senior moderator in natural science, after qualifying he was appointed Demonstrator in Anatomy and Histology at the Irish College of Surgeons, and in the following year Pathologist at the General Hospital in Birmingham. In this city he was destined to spend twenty years of his active career. He soon became Professor of Anatomy in the Medical School, which at that time was affiliated to the Queen’s College as an Anglican theological seminary.

Shortly afterwards, Bertram Windle started a movement, which resulted in the transfer of the medical school to the undenominational Mason College where he became Dean of the Medical Faculty. His ability to lobby government transformed it subsequently into the University of Birmingham. During this time he converted to Catholicism and also married Madoline, daughter of W. Hudson of Birmingham. He began to write and publish a number of books on medical and topographical subjects. These books were the fruits of his historical and literary studies. His closing years in Birmingham were sadly marked by the death of his wife and two infant sons. He also had two daughters.

His association with the Catholic life of Birmingham, in which he played an active part as a member of the Society of the St Vincent De Paul and otherwise, brought him in contact with the Irish exiles in that city. He became a supporter of various Nationalist organisations as well as being keenly interested in the future of Ireland. He also began to take an interest in the wider aspects of education, having served on the Birmingham School Board, and also as a member of the Consultative Committee to the English Board of Education. These activities led to the Presidency of the Queen’s College, Cork, which was offered to him in 1901 by George Wyndham, then Unionist Chief Secretary for Ireland, and which after personal investigation, he accepted.

At that time Queen’s College Cork was little more than an excellent medical school, which created doctors, many of whom emigrated. The priorities for the college at this time was its low numbers, poor morale, lack of finance for development, the absence of any real university context, the unrepresentative nature of its ruling body, and general public indifference. The figure and voice of the new President began to change those issues. New projects for the development of the College were successfully launched. With the warm support and assistance of old students from all over the world, a student’s Club was erected, new faculties were inaugurated, new lecturers were appointed, and money for additional buildings squeezed from the reluctant Westminster Treasury.

Betram Windle’s activities during these years were by no means confined to Cork. As President of the Irish Technical Association, at the Industrial Conference in Cork in November 1905, he noted:

“The technical movement was open to every Irish man and woman; it knows nothing of political or religious difference, as that great meeting showed. We want to make the movement a practical one, and not a Cork conference…I ask whether it would not be a useful thing to bring about a closer touch between the Technical Education Committee and the Industrial Development Associations, which were springing up over the country…Delegates should attack their task. You are met with the object of doing a piece of work for yourselves and by yourselves, because you think it is a good thing that it should be carried out”.

To be continued…

Caption:

626a. Photograph of Bertram Windle (picture: UCC Library)

Ordnance Survey Ireland is the national mapping agency of the Republic of Ireland. Their primary product is mapping services.

Their historical maps are now online, click here:

 http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,591271,743300,0,10

The Ordnance Survey produce a very comprehensive range of urban, rural, tourist and leisure maps at a variety of scales. These maps are produced in digital form as well as on paper. The base data used to create the map series is also used to produce other products such as aerial photography and digital terrain models.

Their products are available directly from our shop (+353 (1) 8025300) at our HQ in the Phoenix Park (near Castleknock Gate), their website, and through their national agency network distributed throughout the country.

The Cork City Council Weekly newsletter is distributed to a wide range of artists, arts organisations, community and voluntary groups and other public agencies. It includes information on upcoming events, grant aid announcements and other announcements of opportunities for artist and arts organisations. If you would like to have a notification included in the newsletter please forward it with all contact details to maeve_dineen@corkcity.ie on or before Thursday of each week to be included in that week’s newsletter. For further information on the City Arts Office events www.facebook.com/corkcityarts

Subscribe to the newsletter here:

http://www.corkcity.ie/services/corporateaffairs/arts/artsofficeweeklynewsletter/

 Question to the City Manager:

To ask the City Manager about the appeal process for parking fines? How long does the average appeal take to pass through the parking fines office? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

Motions:

That the Council mark the centenary of the Titanic tragedy (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

That the Council consider the creation of a Rory Gallagher Music festival for the city (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)

Twinning Grants Available

Cork City Council has an open call for providing grants to Cork city based groups who are willing to pursue activities to promote the twinning links between any of the twinned cities subject to certain conditions. Cork city is twinned with 6 cities, Cologne, Germany, Coventry, United Kingdom, Rennes, France, San Francisco, U.S.A., Swansea, Wales and Shanghai, China.

Chair of the San Francisco sub-committee on the Cork side, Cllr Kieran McCarthy noted “In particular I am seeking projects that strengthen the links between San Francisco and Cork in the guise of an arts/ cultural/ heritage project. The twinning grant scheme is an ideal source of funding to get ideas off the ground and connect Cork people to other cities of international importance. The nature of the activity may be community based, voluntary, social, business, cultural, educational, sporting or of general social and economic benefit”.

An activity which is likely to develop and deepen links and generate new contacts with a twinned city will be given extra consideration. The twinning activity may involve travelling to a twinned city but travel is not a pre-requisite for awarding a grant. The maximum grant awarded is €1,270. All applications must be supported by detailed programmes and financial projections.

Application forms, together with the conditions applying, are available from the Reception Desk, Cork City Council, City Hall, Cork or alternatively phone tel. (021) 4924037. Closing date for receipt of applications is 5.00p.m on Friday, 2^nd March 2012.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 26 January 2012

Technical Memories (Part 3)

Renaissance Ireland

Three years after the passing of the Irish and Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act 1899 and the beginning of its associated Department in Dublin, Cork showed leadership in providing ample space for the Department to showcase its work at the Cork International Exhibition in 1902. Held at the Mardyke, the exhibition showcased the cause of industrial revival in Ireland and all its actions, programmes, ongoing discussions and ideas.

One of the exhibition halls was given over to the exhibits of the Department of Agricultural and Technical Instruction and its details can be viewed in archival catalogues that have survived in Cork City Library. The decoration of its stalls were designed and executed by the students of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and were an adaptation of old Celtic designs. A special feature and a most notable piece of decorative work was an exact reproduction of the doorways and apse of Cormac’s Chapel at Cashel. This was and still is generally admitted to be the best example of Celtic Romansesque architecture in existence. Modelled in fibrous plaster by a Cork craftsman, the interior of the structure was used as a reception room and main office by the Department. This was situated just within the chief entrance to the Department’s section, which was through an elaborately beautiful openwork Celtic screen, designed and executed by the students of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art.

The exhibits of the Departmental section were classified under various divisions: Firstly the agriculture section contained exhibits on dairying, cheese-making, horticulture, cottage gardening, forestry, bee-keeping, willow culture, poultry keeping, fruit and vegetable drying, and preserving, and some of the applications of technical instruction to these subjects. Indeed in the western section of the exhibition grounds there was a series of demonstration plots with different varieties of farm crops, calf feeding experiments, model byre and feeding sheds, a school garden and examples of cultivation suitable to labourers’ allotments.

The Department also established on the far west end of the exhibition grounds a working dairy, where there were exhibitions of butter and cheese manufacture based on the Scotch system, and one adapted to the means of the small farmer. The butter was made in hand churns by girls from the Munster Institute. About 80 gallons of milk were used in each day’s butter making, whilst the quality of milk used in the daily manufacture of cheese amounted to 120 gallons.

The second division showcased the application of art, science and technology and the work of technical schools and art schools, Irish, British and Continental. It featured decoration and works carried out by the art schools of Dublin, Belfast and Cork and a working boot-making exhibit under the management of the Cork Technical Institute. Two of the most popular features of the division and exhibition were a full sized science laboratory and workshop equipped and fitted up for twenty students each. There, through demonstrations by pupils of the Christian Brothers School or the North Monastery School and their supervisor Brother Dominic Burke, the Department’s programme for day secondary schools was displayed.

The third division presented illustrations of industries, which were deemed suitable for introduction into Ireland, and of some industries, which existed in the country already, and which were capable of improvement and development. The exhibits consisted of charts and models illustrative of the use of water power, and of the applications of electrical power and of gas and oil to small industries. There was a working textile exhibit containing a selection of modern looms and other improved machines intended to demonstrate means of developing the smaller woollen mills of Ireland. There were looms on display for the manufacture of carpets, and the weaving of ribbons, braces and belts. There were working exhibits illustrating the manufactory of pottery and glass, clock making, paper box making, straw hat making, Swiss wood-carving, the making of toys and dolls, artificial flower making, mosaic working, art enamelling and art metal working.

The fourth classification was fisheries, which covered illustrations of current methods used in sea and island fisheries of Ireland, and of manufactures connected with it and of developments, which could be introduced. Examples encompassed artificial propagation, trout farming, oyster culture, model hatcheries, boats and gear, net-making etc.

Next to the fisheries was the Statistics and Intelligence section, which presented charts, diagrams, maps, and publications and which demonstrated the economic circumstances of the country. Section six was about the country’s raw materials. Specimens of Irish minerals and ores were on display as well as clays suitable for pottery and sands applicable for the manufacture of white glass, and of building and ornamental stones.

Section seven was made up of the historic arts and crafts section. A loan collection was showcased and was illustrative of some artistic crafts, which formerly were practised with distinction in Ireland, and whose traditions could influence modern work. The collection included specimens of old Irish furniture, silver plate, cut glass, book bindings and reproductions of antique Celtic work. Indeed section eight involved the display of Celtic design and utilised Celtic elements of ornament with a view to reharnessing such designs in modern design.

To be continued…

Captions:

625a. Illustration of the central grounds of the Cork International Exhibition, 1902 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

625b. Illustration of the central grounds of the Cork International Exhibition, 1902 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

 Letter from Garda Dan Cowman, Douglas Garda Station:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the next meeting of the Douglas Community Partnership Forum at 8pm on the 8^th of February at the Nemo sports complex on the South Douglas Road, 8pm.

Please find below the minutes from the last meeting of the Douglas Community Partnership Forum which took place on the 12th of October.

We look forward to seeing you on the night. Please RSVP by email to daniel.d.cowman@garda.ie or by post to Garda Dan Cowman, Douglas Garda Station, Maryborough Hill, Douglas, Cork.

Yours Sincerely,
Dan Cowman.
daniel.d.cowman@garda.ie
(021)4857675

Douglas Community Partnership Programme

Nemo Rangers GAA Club,

Extract from Minutes from the meeting on 12/10/’11

Sergeant Ronan Kennelly gave a break down of current crime trends for the area and these included:

•  
  • Road Fatalities - 0
  • Assaults - down 20% and with a 70% detection rate
  • Drugs Possession – 120
  • Drugs for sale or supply – 10
  • Burglaries – 48
  • Theft from MPV – 67 up 40%
  • Criminal Damage – Slightly increased
  • Public Order – Down 18%

At this point it was brought to the attention of the meeting that Grange Change were holding a public meeting at the Rochestown Park Hotel. One of their proposals was a walkway from Grange into the Kinsale Road landfill. It was also stated that there would be a focus on Vernon Mount House. The meeting was to take place on Monday the 17^th of October 2011.

It was brought to the attention of the meeting that the following had been carried out since the last meeting:

•  
  • Sergeant Kennelly also stated that Off-licences were being inspected on a regular basis.
  • CCTV has been very beneficial in the Community Park
  • Timber fencing bordering the South Link has not been fixed yet however *** stated there has been some work on this, and the council was written to on this.
  • Work at the Zebra crossing at Willow Park will be carried out soon.
  • Grange area and Japanese Gardens have seen increased arrests for Public Disorder. 50 JLO’s from the Japanese Gardens, 50% of these are for section 4 Public Order (drunken offences). A letter from a Ballinlough Resident thanking Gardai for their increased extra patrols was received. The writer expressed gratitude for the presence and that it let to a quiet summer.
  • Car crime has increased, but extra patrols have been put on in the effected areas.
  • Burglaries are now accounting for 20% of crime.

Silicon Republic, Ireland’s leading technology news website, has listed an interview with Denis Collins, Chairman of it@cork as one of the top 10 business videos of 2011.

it@cork is a leading not-for-profit independent business organization which represents the interests of both consumers and suppliers of ICT in Cork. It is a unique blend of executives, multinational representatives, government leaders, public sector representatives, academia, entrepreneurs, legal community representatives and consultants joining together to drive thought leadership, collaboration and global strategic alliances. It is one of many initiatives highlighting the strengths of the tech sector in Cork to a global audience.

To view the interview please click on the link below:

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/25157-the-top-business-videos-of/

Cork City and County Archives now has over 86 full collection lists online on their web site, covering some major archival and manuscript collections.

(Most collections date within the 1600-1990 period, but they also have small amounts of material dating from pre-1600).

See their main collection page for links to descriptive lists:  http://www.corkarchives.ie/collections/

For a list of collections listed over the past year, see their Recently Listed Collections page http://www.corkarchives.ie/collections/recentlylistedcollections/

They have also begun to place documents online in our Digital Archive http://www.corkarchives.ie/collections/digitalarchive/

All collections are open, by appointment, to those holding a Readers Ticket.

Opening Hours by Appointment: Tuesday – Friday 10am to 5pm (including lunchtime)

The Archives is a 10 - 15 minute walk from the Opera House.

See their web site www.corkarchives.ie for general info.

Enquiries are welcome archivist@corkcity.ie