Cork City’s history through a lens

James Joyce once posed a conundrum: how to get from one end of Dublin to the other without passing a pub. Most people who took up the challenge failed happily.

Michael Lenihan has posed another one: how to get from one end of Cork to the other without passing some place or object of historical interest.

Not so much a pub crawl as a sober walk through the lanes and lives of his native city. His latest book, Timeless Cork, is the third in a series of photo essays that celebrates the city and its people, taking us on an illustrated journey through the history of the city.

“I wanted to include every part of Cork,” he says. “I started with Blackrock on the southside but got diverted when I considered the industrial heart of the city on the northside. You could not do a book without looking at the city’s historical industries like the Lee Boot factory, Murphy’s Brewery and the Sunbeam factory, among others.”

As for pubs, there are plenty, but strangely, only one remaining on the main thoroughfare of St Patrick Street. “The Chateau is the only one left on Pana. There are plenty more around, of course, particularly around Barrack Street, but they are getting scarcer year by year.”

Lenihan sees the infamous burning of Cork by British forces in 1920 as something less than an unmitigated disaster.

“Some wonderful buildings were erected in the years after that destruction. Buildings like Roche’s Stores and Cash’s, Egan’s and the Munster Arcade were all constructed in splendid style, using cut limestone and employing local, highly skilled tradesmen. Roche’s and Cash’s were finished by 1927.

“While businesses were rebuilt within a few years it was not until 1932 that the foundation stone for the new City Hall was laid down. That was largely down to Philip Monahan, the city manager at the time. He had total power and he diverted £72,000 earmarked for rebuilding City Hall to social housing. That was the start of the Gurranabraher scheme on the northside and the creation of what became known as ‘The Red City’.”

Most of the banks escaped the 1920 conflagration, which was fortunate as they represented some of the most outstanding architecture of the city. So, too, the city’s churches, most notably St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, which has dominated the skyline of Cork since it was completed in 1877.

“William Burges got the contract. The stipulation was that it was not to cost more than £15,000 but it went over £100,000, a huge amount of money in those days.”

Lenihan suggests a grand tour starting on the city quays. “You can take in the churches, from Holy Trinity up to St Fin Barre’s, then on to UCC campus and back to the courthouse and SS Peter and Paul’s (formerly St Paul’s) Church.”

The latter was once the location of a set of stocks — a wooden pillory designed for punishment by public humiliation. The stocks now reside in the Cork Museum in Fitzgerald’s Park in the care of curator Dan Breen. “I was in the museum and I showed him the photo and he immediately ran upstairs and there were the actual stocks. He never knew where they had come from so I’m delighted with that little bit of detective work.”

nTimeless Cork, by Michael Lenihan is published by Mercier Press and is now on sale at €20.