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Cork in the 20th Century
from www.corkcity.ie

In the opening decades of the 20th century Cork was profoundly effected by events of international and national importance. Among these were World War One, the War of Independence and the Civil War. Ironically the century began very auspiciously for Cork with the Cork International Exhibition of 1902 – 1903.
 

The Cork International Exhibition

In 1901 the then Lord Mayor of Cork, Edward Fitzgerald, proposed that Cork should stage an international industrial exhibition in 1902. The proposal was enthusiastically received by all sections of Cork society and planning for the exhibition soon began. The site chosen was an area of parkland between the Cork County Cricket Grounds and Wellington Bridge, now renamed Thomas Davis Bridge. The plans for the exhibition were extraordinarily imaginative and ambitious. It promised to be by far the most spectacular exhibition ever hosted in Cork.

The grounds were laid out meticulously with pavilions, kiosks, ornamental walks, tea houses, an enormous water chute and a switchback railway featuring among the attractions. Exhibition halls were built and a house on the grounds named ‘The Shrubberies’ was renamed the Mansion House for the duration of the exhibition. The exhibition attracted exhibitors from across the globe, displaying their industrial, agricultural and artistic wares. It opened on 1 May 1902 amid scenes of celebration and enthusiasm. Its success surpassed all expectations, attracting visitors from all over Ireland, Europe and beyond. After it officially closed on 1 November 1902, it was decided to stage a similar exhibition in 1903. The 1903 exhibition repeated the success of its predecessor and was graced by a visit from Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

 

The Cork International Exhibition of 1902 – 1903 finally closed on 31 October 1903. Edward Fitzgerald was created a baronet by Edward VII. The grounds were donated to Cork Corporation as a recreational park for the citizens of Cork. The park was named, appropriately Fitzgerald’s Park. The Mansion House now houses part of Cork Public Museum. Films including scenes from the exhibition were discovered in Blackburn some years ago and were recently shown at the 2004 Cork Film Festival. The films form part of the Mitchell Kenyon collection and will be available commercially in 2005.

 

World War One

In the years preceding the outbreak of World War One political life in Ireland centred on the struggle to achieve Home Rule. On 28 September 1918 Asquiths Home Rule became law with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party led by John Redmond . Its provisions were immediately suspended for the duration of the war. World War One, as it came to be known was expected to be over in a matter of months. Redmond, William O'Brien and other nationalist leaders called for support for the war. The more radical wing of the nationalist movement opposed the war. This difference in attitude towards the war led to a split in the Irish Volunteer movement in Cork as in the rest of the country. Support for the war was widespread in Cork. Many men volunteered for the army and organisations were set up to support the troops, the wounded and the families of those in the armed forces. For a time divisions between nationalists and unionists appeared to be forgotten. The German invasion of Catholic Belgium outraged Irish Catholic opinion and anti-German sentiment was common among the population, fuelled by reports of German atrocities. As the war dragged on and casualties assumed horrific proportions enthusiasm waned. Cork got a taste of the horrors of the war when The Lusitania was sunk off the Old Head of Kinsale on 8 May 1915. The treatment of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and the attempt to introduce conscription to Ireland in 1918 caused widespread outrage. Members of the Cork City Corps of the Irish Volunteers occupied Saint Francis Hall on Sheares Street during the 1916 Rising but no actual violence occurred in Cork, thanks partly to the efforts of Bishop Daniel Cohalan and Lord Mayor Thomas C. Butterfield. The feeling that Britain would renege on the promise of Home Rule and the withdrawal of the Irish Parliamentary Party from Westminster were among the factors that led to the victory of Sinn Féin in the general election of 1918. The divisions between nationalists and unionists were to the fore again as Ireland slid seemingly inexorably towards the War of Independence. During World War One over two thousand Corkmen were killed, some eleven hundred of them from Cork City alone. Many of them lie buried with hundreds of thousands of other British soldiers in the cemeteries of northern France and Flanders.
 

The War of Independence

During the War of Independence Cork was one of the major centres of the conflict. Many of the most famous figures during that war came from Cork . Ambushes, reprisals, counter-reprisals, curfews, shootings and the notorious behaviour of the Black and Tans marked the period. Perhaps the three best-remembered episodes from those times in Cork City are the deaths of Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney and the burning of Cork City .

 

The Civil War

During the early days of the Irish Civil War the anti-treaty IRA controlled Cork city. It took over The Cork Examiner and used it to promote its side in the conflict. The newly-formed Free State army landed at Passage West on 9 August 1922, surprising the Republicans who were expecting an attack by land. The Free State forces encountered stiff resistance from the Republicans near Rochestown and Douglas during what later came to be known as the Battle of Douglas. Within days however the much better equipped army of the Free State had driven the IRA from the city

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slum Clearance 1920 - 1940

The founding of the Cork Town Planning Association in 1922 marked the beginning of a serious attempt to deal with the problem of the dreadful housing conditions in parts of the Middle Parish and the areas around Barrack Street, Shandon Street and Blarney Street.

In 1926 the Cork Town Planning Association produced Cork: a civic survey which provided a template for Cork Corporation’s housing developments at Capwell, Turner’s Cross, Gurranabraher and other suburban sites.
 

Cork Corporation itself had been dissolved in 1924 after an investigation into its activities demanded by the Cork Progressive Association which was founded in 1923.
 

Philip Monahan, who later became Cork City Manager, was appointed to administer the city during the period of the dissolution of Cork Corporation.
In 1929 Cork Corporation was reinstated after the passing of the Cork City Management Act that reduced the number of councillors and entrusted executive powers to the Cork City Manager. Philip Monahan was duly appointed as the first Cork City Manager. Monahan had initiated the building of the housing schemes that helped to clear the slums.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economic and Social Life 1930 - 1990
from www.corkcity.ie

 

Economics

 After the country had stabilised politically following the Civil War, Ireland endured decades of comparative economic stagnation.
Protected behind tariff barriers the Irish economy relied on its home market to a great extent.
 

The standard of living was poor by European standards and emigration was one of the great scourges of Irish life. Many older Cork people will remember the boatloads of emigrants boarding The Innisfallen at Penrose Quay. So many Cork men emigrated to work in the Fords factory in Dagenham that it became known as ‘Little Cork’. Many of the Dagenham emigrants returned home every year for their holidays. With their more fashionable clothes and the slight traces of English accents they became known, affectionately, as ‘The Dagenham Yanks’.
 

The most important employers in Cork during this period included Fords, Dunlop's, Sunbeam Wolsey, Irish Steel and Verolme Cork Dockyards. Many smaller enterprises engaged in the textile, agricultural processing, chemical and printing industries.

 

When Ireland, under the leadership of Séan Lemass, prepared to abandon protectionism in the late 1950s, the Committee on Industrial Organisation produced a report for the government outlining the structural weaknesses of the Irish economy which needed to be remedied before Ireland could face the competition arising from free trade as it prepared to join the Common Market.
While government grants and loans were offered to firms to remedy these defects, among which was the lack of cooperation between firms operating in the same industries, not enough Cork firms availed of the opportunities.
The economic historian Tim Meagher has written ‘The penalty for this failure was the slow demise of some of Cork’s traditional employers during the recessionary years of the 1970s and 1980s.’
 

The closures of Fords and Dunlop's in the early 1980s were hammer blows to the economic life of the city. While Cork had enjoyed a period of economic prosperity in the 1960s and early 1970s, the city was economically devastated during the late 1970s and 1980s with the indigenous industries unable to compete with foreign enterprises which had freer access to the Irish market since Ireland had joined the EEC (now the EU).
Thousands of young Cork people were forced to emigrate in search of work while unemployment rose to levels not experienced since the early 1950s.
 

Economic History 1990 to the present

 Ireland’s economy, and that of Cork city, began to recover in the late 1980s and record-breaking rates of economic growth were achieved in the 1990s, the era of the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ .
 

The transformation of the city from its run-down condition in the 1980s has been remarkable.
 

New hi-tech industries were set up in the city and its surrounding hinterland.
Some of the giants of the electronic, computer and pharmaceutical industries established factories in the area.
Unemployment levels fell dramatically.
New shopping centres were opened both in the city centre and the outlying suburbs.
 

The construction industry boomed with the demand for new houses far exceeding the supply. Unfortunately this had the effect of inflating the prices of new houses, a trend which continues today.
The communications and transport infrastructures of the city were improved enormously.
There was a rise in the standard of living for many.
Cork began to take on a continental air with young, fashionably-dressed people sipping coffee and beer inside and outside an increasing number of stylish new restaurants.
Cork diners could now be heard ordering cappuccinos and chorizos as often as the once staple tea and ham sandwiches.
Nowhere was the transformation more complete than in the Huguenot Quarter around French Church Street, Paul Street and Carey’s Lane.

In the late 1970s these streets had become dingy and shabby, exuding an air of gloom. Now they are among the busiest and liveliest streets in the city.

Of course not everyone benefited equally from the era of the Celtic Tiger.

There are still pockets of high unemployment and comparative poverty in certain areas of the city.
As is often the case, those who feel deprived and excluded from the increasing affluence around them frequently seek relief in drink and drugs which often results in violence and anti-social behaviour.
Despite this, those emigrants who left Cork in the hard times of the 1940s and 1950s could scarcely have imagined the vibrancy and prosperity of modern Cork.
 

 

Conclusion

 The days when Cork closed its gates from sunset to sunrise barring entry to enemies and strangers are long past. Cork is now an open, vibrant, welcoming city. On the streets of Cork the visitor will hear people speaking in many European and non-European languages. This is entirely appropriate. The site which became Cork city was traversed in prehistoric times by people about whom we know little apart from what we can deduce from the bone needles, stone axe heads and other implements which they left behind them. What is certain is that they, or their ancestors, came from Europe. Celtic monks and Scandinavian warrior-traders co-founded Cork city. Normans conquered the city and built its walls. Irish, Old English and New English developed it. The cultural and economic life of the city has been immeasurably enhanced by communities of English Quakers, French Huguenots and Eastern European Jews fleeing the pogroms of Czarist Russia. Thousands of Corkmen died on the battlefields of Europe during both world wars. The history and development of the city are inextricably set in a European context.

 

At the beginning of the twentieth century Cork hosted the great International Exhibition. At the beginning of the twenty first century it will host the European Capital of Culture event. There is a pleasing symmetry about this. A symmetry which mirrors the physical symmetry of this old city bounded to the north and south by the twin channels of its beloved River Lee. Given Cork’s long history and its unbroken economic and cultural links with Europe the European Capital of Culture 2005 could not have chosen a better home.
 

 

 

 

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