William Murphy

COBH TRAIN STATION ON A REALLY WET DAY

May 21, 2023 by infomatique

IN MAY 2023

When I arrived in Cobh the weather was beautiful but about twenty minutes later I had to return to the station in order to shelter from an intense thunder storm. I decided to get the next train towards Cork city centre but as the weather had improved I got off the train at Rushbrook but after about twenty minutes more rain arrived.

Cobh railway station serves the town of Cobh, County Cork. It is located in a red brick building adjacent to the town’s Cobh Heritage Centre.

It is the terminus of the on Cork-Cobh section of the Cork Suburban Rail line. Travel to Glounthaune station to transfer to Midleton.

The station opened 10 March 1862 and was closed for goods traffic on 3 November 1975.

It began life as the terminus of the Cobh (then Queenstown) section of the Cork, Youghal & Queenstown Railway.

The present station occupies only a small part of the old station building. The original station was expanded greatly during the latter part of the 19th century as it served what was then Ireland’s largest emigration port which was also an important way-point as the last port between Western Europe and North America. The station was also the main receiving centre for mail for Ireland and Britain from the United States and Canada. Mail would be brought by ship to Cobh, processed and forwarded by mail express trains to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) on the outskirts of Dublin and on to Holyhead. This was faster than conveying by ship directly to Liverpool.

It is famous for being the station where hundreds of survivors of the RMS Lusitania disaster left the town of Cobh after surviving the sinking.

With the development and growth of transatlantic air traffic Cobh lost its importance as a mail and passenger centre. A significant part of the train station remained largely unused until the opening of the Cobh Heritage Centre in the front part of the station in the 1980s. At that time the station was also reduced to a single platform. The freight yard of the station has now become a public carpark while another part of the station has become a covered carpark for Cobh Garda Station.

ADVERTISEMENTS

ST FINBARR’S CEMETERY IN CORK

May 13, 2023 by infomatique

THE MAIN STRUCTURES

I made three attempts to visit and photograph this cemetery. The first time I got the wrong bus and ended up miles away and had to wait an hour for a return bus. The second time I had to abandon the session because of a thunder storm. The third time the rain held off for about forty five minutes.

St Finbarr’s Cemetery, which opened in 1868, is the largest cemetery in Ireland outside of Dublin. The keeper’s house (office) is inside the gate to the left. Inside the graveyard there are two small churches (Catholic and Protestant) that were built when the cemetery was first opened and were used for funeral services for a time.

The freestanding cruciform Roman Catholic mortuary chapel was consecrated in 1867. This chapel, designed by Sir John Benson, has a Hiberno-Romanesque influence, most evident in the round tower to the north elevation. The use of basalt stone for a building is very unusual in this part of the country and the polychromatic use of the paler limestone with the basalt results in a distinctive character and appearance. The scalloped slate to the roof and decorative cast-iron rainwater goods are examples of the type of architectural ornamentation favoured during this period. Although very similar to the Protestant chapel in the cemetery, this building displays subtle differences such as the location of the entrance porch and round tower.

SOME OF THE DERELICT BUILDINGS REMAIN

May 7, 2023 by infomatique

RICHMOND STREET SOUTH

I refer to the street as South Richmond Street rather than Richmond Street South. In case your are wondering about it there is a North Richmond Street but it is on the North Side of the city (O’Connell Secondary School is located there).

When I was young I visited the street once a week as it was home to the Caroline Record Shop a few years later I opened my own record shop in Bray County Wicklow and then moved on again to work for Memorex (magnetic tapes) in California.

A number of years ago I mentioned South Richmond Street was at the same time interesting and ugly mainly because there were so many buildings that are derelict or in very poor condition. Some of the derelict buildings have gone but the street has not become less ugly.

The 1837 Ordnance Survey map showed one building on the western side of Richmond St. (excluding property belonging to the Portobello Hotel), which corresponds to no. 34, which was the Caroline Records shop (closed in 2003).

The hotel at the nearby harbour was opened in 1807 (the architect was James Colbourne). In 1858 it was taken over by a Catholic order of nuns, who used it as an asylum (St. Mary’s) for blind girls. A few years later they successfully appealed to the Guardians of the South Dublin Union for some finance (it cost £10 to keep a girl for a year), though the Irish Times in an editorial frowned upon this proselytising by “Romanists”, while they lauded the efforts of the Protestant-run “Home for Orphans” at 7 South Richmond Street (which advertised frequently for “fresh souls to save” in the same newspaper).

Ten years later the Asylum was sold to a Mr. Isaac Cole, who renovated it and returned it to its original function as a hotel, to accommodate 100 persons. It was popular among officers visiting the nearby Portobello Barracks (who would occasionally pop across South Richmond Street to the Grand Canal Tavern for a drink) and claimed it was the nearest hotel to the Royal Dublin Society grounds. However, it was slow in providing catering facilities – in 1871 a Rathmines businessman, in a letter to the Irish Times, lamented the absence of restaurants in the neighbourhood, and enjoined upon Mr. Cole to provide same, preferably a two-course meal for two shillings (the price to include beer and punch).

BRETZEL BAKERY ON LENNOX STREET ESTABLISHED 1870

May 7, 2023 by infomatique

ORIGINALLY A JEWISH BAKERY

Back in the the 1980s I lived close to this bakery and visited it on a regular basis but back then it looked very different (or at least I think that it did).

The bakery established in 1870 but it is no longer operated by the same family as it was purchased in 2000 by William Despard and Cormac Keenan.

My understanding is that the bakery was established by a Jewish baker known as Mr. Grinspon but it became Elliman’s Bakery in 1900 which was later taken over by the Stein family and later again by the Hacketts.

A WALK ALONG WEXFORD STREET AND CAMDEN STREET

May 6, 2023 by infomatique

ALSO PHOTOGRAPHED THE BLEEDING HORSE PUBLIC HOUSE

ABOUT THE BLEEDING HOUSE PUBLIC HOUSE

Camden Street links Ranelagh/Rathmines (Dublin 6) to the southern city centre of Dublin via Wexford Street. It is divided into Camden Street Upper (southern end) and Camden Street Lower (northern end).

The name is likely derived from the Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714-94). The fact that the street name first appears on maps in 1778 would rule it out as originating from his son John Pratt, Marquess Camden (1759-1840) who became Lord Lieutenent of Ireland in 1795. An attempt to connect the name to Saint Kevin (Old Irish Cóemgen) is regarded as spurious.

A prominent company located on Upper Camden St for over a century was Earley and Company (1861–1975). They were ecclesiastical furnishings and stained glass manufacturers and retailers. The firm was one of the largest and most prestigious ecclesiastical decorators both in Ireland and the U.K.

An intact Edwardian shop interior existed at number 39, Carvill’s Off Licence until the early 21st century. The Bleeding Horse pub is also a notable building, with a public house sitting on the site since 1648. It is mentioned in the work of Sean O’Casey, and both James Clarence Mangan and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu were patrons.

There were two cinemas on the street: The Camden Cinema and the Theatre De Luxe. The Camden Cinema was located at 55 Upper Camden St., where the headquarters of Concern Worldwide is now located. It closed around 1912. The Theatre De Luxe was opened in 1912 by Maurice Elliman, a Jew who escaped the pogroms in Eastern Europe. The first building was designed by Frederick Hayes, MRIAI, and built by George Squire & Co. It was enlarged and rebuilt in 1920. The exterior was remodelled in Art deco style in 1934. It closed in 1975. The building is now a hotel, Hotel De Luxe, and a night-club.