CORK CITY AND COUNTY

CORK CUSTOM HOUSE JULY 2022

August 5, 2023 by infomatique

CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY

The Custom House is located at the eastern extremity of Cork City’s centre island, where the north and south branches of the River Lee reconverge.

The Custom House is an early 19th-century building in Cork, Ireland. Originally developed as a custom house and opened in 1818, the Cork Harbour Commissioners (later reorganised as the Port of Cork Company) took over the building in 1904. The Port of Cork Company vacated the building in early 2021. The Custom House is, together with a number of other buildings on the same site, listed by Cork City Council on its Record of Protected Structures.

The main building is a two-storey three-bay structure over vaults. The facade is in Cork grey limestone: the top two thirds are of dressed ashlar and the lower part is rusticated. At street level there are three recessed arcades with round arches.

The committee room (boardroom) is a wood panelled room with pale cream and gold wallpaper and patterned ceiling. The Custom House also holds a collection of maritime art owned by the Port of Cork Company.

Other buildings on the Custom House site include bonded warehouses (protected structure PS163), and the Revenue Building (protected structure PS818), both also built in 1814.

As of 2021, the Harbour Commissioners had vacated the building, and a number of developments were proposed for the site. Aspects of the proposed developments, including the proposal to “largely demolish the Revenue Building” (a protected structure on the Custom House Quay site), have been the subject of some opposition, including by the Irish Georgian Society and An Taisce Corcaigh.

THE GREAT WAR MEMORIAL

August 2, 2023 by infomatique

THE SOUTH MALL IN CORK CITY

I photographed this War Memorial in August 2021 but upon processing the images I discovered that the inscriptions were unreadable. I now have a different workflow and the text should be readable but that may depend on your device.

At the South Mall is a memorial to those Irishmen who died in the First World War. It was erected in 1925, and is one of the few example Irish examples of its type. Carved in relief on a modest limestone obelisk, sitting on a plinth, is the profile of a Munster Fusiliers soldier in full military uniform, head down, gun at rest. Each November wreaths are laid here to mark the anniversary of the armistice of 1918 at the end of the War.

LEAST WE FORGET

erected
by public subscription
under the auspices of
the cork independent
ex-servicemens club,
in memory of their comrades
who fell in the great war
fighting for the freedom
of small nations

1914 – 1918

“Greater Deed Hath No Man Done

“They Shall Grow Not Old,
As We That Are Left Grow Old.
Age Shall Not Weary Them,
Nor The Years Condemn.
At The Going Down Of The Sun,
And In The Morning
We Will Remember Them.”

1939 – 1945

“When you go home,
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow we gave our today

This memorial commemorates the residents of Cork who were killed or missing in World War I and World War II. Many such memorials were erected after the First World War. After the Second World War, the names of those who died in that war were also added to the memorial.

The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1922. It traced its origins to the East India Company’s Bengal European Regiment raised in 1652, which later became the 101st Regiment of Foot (Royal Bengal Fusiliers). The Royal Munster Fusiliers were formed in 1881 by the merger of the 101st Regiment of Foot and the 104th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Fusiliers). One of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, it had its home depot in Tralee and served as the county regiment for Cork, Clare, Limerick and Kerry. At its formation the regiment comprised two regular and two militia battalions.

The Royal Munster Fusiliers served in India before the regiment fought in the Second Boer War. Prior to the First World War, the regiment’s three militia battalions were converted into reserve battalions, and a further six battalions were added to the regiment’s establishment during the war. The regiment fought with distinction throughout the Great War and won three Victoria Crosses by the conflict’s conclusion in 1918. Following establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922, the five regiments that had their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new state were disbanded and the Royal Munster Fusiliers ceased to be as a regiment on 31 July 1922.

HE HAD A REPUTATION FOR CURING SPEECH IMPEDIMENTS

August 2, 2023 by infomatique

FATHER FLYNN MEMORIAL AT PASSAGE WEST IN CORK

It has taken me many years to establish the story behind this memorial which has 1881-1961 on the base instead of 1881-1962.

Such was his reputation for curing speech impediments that the BBC producer Hywel Davis made a half-hour documentary based on his life entitled ‘It happened to me’, broadcast in June 1961. As a result, O’Flynn received hundreds of letters from all over Ireland and abroad from people seeking his advice and assistance. The programme won second prize at the international conference of catholic television at Monte Carlo in March 1962.

O’Flynn, James Christopher (1881–1962), priest and Irish language activist, was born 12 December 1881 in Mallow Lane, Cork, son of Cornelius O’Flynn who was employed in the butter market and his wife, Catherine Uppington, who was of protestant stock. O’Flynn was from a musical background and had a good singing voice. He received his earliest education in the national school in Blackpool, Co. Cork and afterwards in the North Monastery CBS. After two years as a clerk in a warehouse he decided to enter the priesthood. From 1899 to 1902 he studied in St Finbar’s Seminary, Farranferris. Subsequently he entered St Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he was ordained on 20 June 1909. While a student there he was a member of Cuallacht Cholm Cille and developed an interest in Shakespeare and elocution under the guidance of Professor Mac Cardie Flint. He was appointed to Farranferris to teach elocution in 1909 and spent fifty years teaching there on a weekly basis. The following year he was appointed chaplain to the asylum for the mentally ill in Cork until becoming curate at north cathedral, Cork in 1920. He was appointed parish priest of Passage West, Co. Cork in 1946 and remained there until his death.

MANNIX AND CULHANE IN CORK CITY

August 2, 2023 by infomatique

WASHINGTON STREET AND SOUTH MAIN STREET

Large old clothing store at 42 Washington Street, Cork, County Cork, Ireland.

Apparently there was an upper storey which was demolished as the result of a incident on the street on the 31st Of January 1999.

On the last day of 1999 Ms Aoife Bell (20), from Kerry Pike, just outside Cork city, was fatally injured when the parapet of two adjoining buildings in Washington Street collapsed and showered masonry on to the pavement below. As a result, the corporation served notice to vacate on the owners and occupiers of 16 properties in Washington Street. Among the affected buildings are drapers Mannix & Culhane’s, at the corner of Washington Street and South Main Street, and a bar, hairdressing salon and nightclub on South Main Street.

It appears that the roof of the building occupied by a company known as Cork Film Services became unstable early in the evening as some people were passing by. The collapse of the roof happened shortly before 5 p.m. and at 6.48 p.m., when the authorities were briefing the media on the on the street, a gas explosion occurred at a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the street.

My lens 70-200mm lens detached from the camera body as I was getting off the bus and hit the floor of the bus before falling onto the street, It did not perform at its best for the rest of the day so many of my photographs were substandard and unusable which was a pity as I have been unable to revisit many of the places that I had explored in August 2021. However, I have managed to reprocess many images to the extent that I can now publish them but some may appear over-processed or a bit strange.

MARIAN GROTTO IN BLACKROCK VILLAGE

August 2, 2023 by infomatique

CORK AUGUST 2021

Back in 2007 it was suggested that this grotto at Pier Head on the Marina should be relocated to the new Blackrock park to allow improved vehicular access to the slipways. When I visited in September 2018 and August 2021 it was still at its original location … I wonder what happened.

Note: Pier Head may actually refer to a Pub or a restaurant rather than the actual location of the grotto.

A short distance from the village is Blackrock Castle. There has been a castle on the site since medieval times but the present castle was built in the mid-19th century in mock-baronial style. It now houses an observatory and planetarium.

The Marina, a tree-lined avenue (not strictly a marina) runs along the southern bank of the River Lee from Blackrock Village past Páirc Uí Chaoimh and is a used for a number of recreational activities such as rowing, walking and cycling. The Atlantic Pond, in the shadow of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, is also used by walkers and is populated by wildlife, mainly ducks and swans.

Dundanion Castle, overlooking the Marina but difficult to access, is a ruined 16th-century castle. It is from this spot that William Penn reputedly sailed on his first voyage to America in 1682 before founding the state of Pennsylvania.