Go fort and restore...
The 38-year-old shipwright-turned-conservationist has spent the last two years in charge of a massive restoration project, and he’s about to take it to the next level. “We’re very close to achieving what we’ve planned for,” he says, a week out from D-Day. “Please God it’ll be ready in time.” Standing in the middle of the site he’s been devoting every waking hour to recently, the Crosshaven man doesn’t sound at all nervous. Well, not very.
Brierley is the coordinator of the restoration of Camden Fort Meagher, the huge fort at Ram’s Head in Crosshaven that looks out over one of the deepest natural harbours in the world. Once a key defence point for the British Empire’s western frontier, Fort Camden, as it used to be known wasn’t formally handed over to Ireland until 1938, when the tricolour was raised over the fort and it was renamed in honour of the patriot Thomas Meagher. In the years that followed however, Fort Meagher was abandoned, its beautiful construction allowed to fall into decay. Now thanks to the remarkable efforts of Brierley and his team, the sadly overgrown warren of dank underground tunnels and derelict buildings that was once a masterpiece of military architecture is being restored to its former glory as a jewel in the crown of Cork’s Lower Harbour, and the crew are getting ready to show off all their hard work this weekend as part of Crosshaven’s Cork Week Celebrations.
For years, sailors and tourists alike have been flocking to Cork Week for the fast boats and high times that are part of the lure of one of the most prestigious sailing events on the international calendar. This year, as part of a drive to include families in the event, organisers are running a special train up to Camden during Cork Week. Visitors who make the trip up the hill to the fort will be treated to breathtaking 360 degree views of the harbour, tours of the corridors where soldiers once trooped, as well as access to a lovingly restored magazine, and the chance to get up close and personal with the 18 ton guns that still stand in the emplacements on the headland.
As historic sites go, Camden Fort Meagher is a treasure, and the public has already had a chance to see some of it, thanks to the volunteers. “We were open for 13 weekends in 2011. We had 10 different rooms and art installations, we lit up underground tunnels for a Bright Tunnel Tour, we took people along the Zig-Zag and the piers. This year we’re promising people a tea room and opening up the magazine tunnel and the spiral stairs,” Paul Brierley tells me, standing at the entrance to one of the Camden tunnels. The air down here is cold and smells of old earth, and the walls of the tunnel have been smoothed out over centuries, but fitted along them is a brand new track of stainless steel lighting that looks unmistakably 21st century.
“Our chief welding instructor is ex-army and he does all this work for us free of charge. We just buy the materials. Now people will come down this tunnel and it will be lit up with this whole string of LED lights, 16 cents for nine hours light! And the bulbs never blow, because they never heat. This will be a brand new tunnel, opening next Saturday, all these cables will come out and we’ll just do some patching down here.”
If Paul Brierley seems strangely sanguine, given the size of the task in front of him, it’s because he knows there’s no value to getting wound up. “I’ve worked for myself for 11 years, and I’m in the fire brigade as well. Losing your head gets you nowhere, I know that. But I am getting excited.”
Excited is an understatement. Brierley doesn’t walk around the Camden Fort, he races. It’s clear that he adores the place — “It’s a bit of an obsession. I’ve spent 12 hours a day here, six-and-a-half days a week,” he admits. His obsession has led to both a full-time job and a change of career for him. When he first got involved with the Rescue Camden project, he was a shipwright, working locally but now he devotes all his time to the fort, and says he’s lucky enough to get paid for it. “When I was doing this voluntarily, people were saying, ‘you’re going to lose your business’, but I came up and business was fine initially. Then it started falling off, and I got more involved here. There were meetings to be had, and I just kept going along to the next meeting, making the next phone-call, and here I am now and winning the Lottery wouldn’t do it for me, I’m happy out. In the meantime my whole industry has fallen apart. It’s good fortune.”
It’s a bit more than that. Brierley’s dedication has been crucial to the success of the Camden Fort Meagher restoration so far, but he refuses to take any credit for the success of a project that’s grown from a small, grassroots volunteer group to a scheme which now employs 25 people under a variety of FÁS and CE programmes, as well as a core of 20 volunteers.
“This is about ownership and we’ve got that. We’ve got it with the volunteers as well as with the workers, and it’s a genuine ownership, and you get it back tenfold. Everyone who comes in here can tell you all about the place, they feel like they own it.”
He also credits the local community with getting behind Camden. “Plant hire guys give us the equipment for free, farmers give us tractors and trailers for free, you offer them diesel they won’t take it. These are the real heroes. They’re not getting anything out of this, but they just want to see this work.”
Part of the appeal of Camden Fort Meagher is undoubtedly its stunning location, with its sweeping vista across the blue harbour of Cork, but Paul Brierley says the reason the restoration project is working isn’t because of its location, but rather because of its timing. In one sense, it’s a uniquely recessionary project.
“This wouldn’t have happened in the good days. I wouldn’t have been here, the volunteers wouldn’t have been here. The quality of the workers we have on the schemes is incredible, they wouldn’t have been here seven years ago, they were all on €1,000 or €1,200 a week. And the people coming through the gate, they wouldn’t be here either. They’d all be off in Paris, and Edinburgh, and Nice.
“If this project had started five or six years ago, there’d be contractors everywhere and it would have fallen on its face. But for Crosshaven, the silver side to the recession is a galvanised community. Camden’s time is now.”
Cork week features 10 races spread over five days, but this year, the entertainment programme is even more extensive, with seven days of music, events and family activities in Crosshaven.
July 7 and 8
A two day, free family festival kicking off festivities at Cork Week, with all sorts of water-based, interactive entertainment for kids and parents.
Highlights include ‘Under The Sea Marquee’ with sea creatures of all shapes and sizes, including The Whale Workshop, visiting Cork for the first time. Andy the Whaleman has over 20 life-size replicas of our friends under the sea, and children can meet dolphins, whales, sharks, giant turtles and seals.
At the ‘Sun, Sea & Stars Marquee’ kids can meet Captain Jack, win prizes for walking the plank, and be guided by the night sky in the Star Dome, a 6m x 6m pop-up planitarium, which will host a series of free sessions throughout the weekend. Grown-up kids can take the Captain’s Challenge and test navigation skills the old fashioned way to find out if they’ll escape the pirates or swim with the sharks?
Oceanworld Aquarium in Dingle will be bringing some of their smallest residents to meet the visitors to All Aboard for a real ‘hands on’ experience.
Plus: high-speed tours of the harbour, dragon boat racing with Meitheal Mara, whale workshops, touch pools, bubble workshops and face-painting.
July 7-13
The Bodega is setting sail. In a first for the event, the Cornmarket Street night club is providing DJ’s and bands shoreside for the duration of Cork Week.
Line-up of the main acts, from 8pm to midnight.
Monday: Pontious Pilate & the Nail Drivers
Tuesday: Death by Chocolate
Wednesday: Soul Driven
Thursday: Smash Hits
Friday: Papa Zitas Big Motown Band
Ticket prices
Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: €10 per night.
Thursday/Friday: €20 per night
Two night pass – option of Mon/Tues/Wed and Thurs/Fri: €25
Weekly pass: €50
Open to the public.
Military Week at Camden Fort Meagher. The volunteers and workers at the fort are organising an inaugural Military Weekend to celebrate the re-opening of the fort for visitors this summer.
Train rides from Crosshaven village to Camden will be available from €5. See www.rescuecamden.ie for details.
