Ah camán lads: Sliotar found inside historic Cork clock as restoration work begins

Horologist Philip Stokes promised to keep the O’Neill’s sliotar safe in case the person who fired it at the clock wanted to claim it.

Emma Stokes and her father Philip Stokes of Stokes Clocks & Watches working on Mangan's Clock on St Patrick's Street, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

A mystery from times past emerged from deep within Cork’s beloved Mangan’s Clock yesterday as repairs on the historic landmark began.

Horologist Philip Stokes recovered a sliotar from internal works of the famous timepiece on the city’s St Patrick’s Street as he started working on his three-month long project to restore it to its former glory.

And not a minute too soon, it would appear, as the hole left by the sliotar was letting the rain in.

“We opened it up yesterday morning and found a sliotar inside,” Mr Stokes said.

"The ball made a hole in a panel on the dial between the 12 and the one. The rain was getting in and that has done a bit of damage inside, but the face is particularly delicate, so it’s lucky really that it only took out the one panel."

But who fired the ball, when and why, remains a mystery.

The damage to the clock’s northern face suggests that the ball was fired from the northside.

It was initially believed it could have happened way back in 2005 during celebrations for Cork’s last All Ireland senior hurling title. 

But photographs in the Irish Examiner archive, taken by photographer Larry Cummins in January 2021, show no evidence of damage to the clock's northern face, so it must have happened during the last two years or so.

Philip Stokes recovered a sliotar from the internal works of the famous timepiece. Picture Larry Cummins

It could have been a pot-shot as a result of a dare or a challenge. Some wits might even suggest it was the result of wayward free by a Glen or Na Piarsaigh forward.

Mr Stokes, whose shop, Stokes Clock and Watches, is based north of the river Lee, refused to be drawn on such wild speculation but he did say he would keep the O’Neill’s sliotar safe in case the person who fired it at the clock wanted to claim it.

He, and his daughter, Emma, 23, spent Thursday on scaffolding cleaning the clock's pillar and giving it its first coat of paint.

They then began to remove several internal gears from the internal clock mechanism for measuring, repair and restoration. The clock hands have also been removed for repairs.

Mangan's Clock has been a feature on St Patrick's Street since the 1850s, surviving the Civil War, the burning of Cork City, and the complete redesign of the city’s main street.

It is named after Mangan Jewellers, a famous family business of clock makers and jewellers, which was based from 1817 to the late 1980s in a shop on the site today of the entrance to the Merchant’s Quay shopping centre.

The business paid for the installation of the clock, which was driven initially by a mechanism inside the shop window, which ran outside, under the footpath and up inside the pillar, until the clock was electrified.

Mangan's craftsmen were also involved in the manufacture of the iconic clock on St Anne’s Church, Shandon, in 1847. It was claimed to be the largest four-faced clock in the world until the installation of the clock in London’s Big Ben just over a decade later.

Cork City Council is funding the repairs and restoration, which will include the refurbishing of the clock hands, repairing and replacing damaged parts and cleaning and painting its kerbside pillar. It could take three months to complete.

The council said the clock would then be replaced on its original location to “continue its role as a silent witness to the life of Cork City”.

Mr Stokes was recently involved in the repair and renovation of the famous Clerys' clock in Dublin.

“The Clerys' Clock is part of Stokes Clocks’ history since my late father, Chris, and I made the original in 1990,” Mr Stokes said.