Memorabilia of former mayor offers snapshot of city in 1800s

THE fascinating archive of businessman Richard Dowden, who was the mayor of Cork in 1845, has finally been catalogued after a painstaking 12-month project by staff at the Cork City and County Archives.

City archivist Brian McGee said the collection contains over 1,800 items, including notebooks, manuscripts, correspondence, posters, handbills, printed material, and scrapbooks that contain a wealth of unique information on the history of Cork from 1820 to 1860.

“It is a very special collection with some very rare material,” he said.