Rebel Cork stubborn and so very proud

In response to Fr Butler’s letter (Aug 23) about rebel Cork, and Cork supporting Perkin Warbeck’s claim to the English throne: some four years before Warbeck’s claim, Lambert Simnel also was proclaimed king in Cork, thought by some to be one or other of the princes in the Tower, and was accompanied to London to seize the throne, by the mayor and officials of Cork.

On their way, the claimants stopped at Waterford in order for Waterford to proclaim the imposters king of England, but Waterford shut their gates against them and as a reward Waterford’s motto became ‘Urbs intacta’ (the ‘untaken city’). When they eventually reached London, both mayors came to a sticky end. Maybe if they had succeeded we would not have had the atrocities of the Tudors. Dublin’s Lords Mayor proudly show off their mayoralty chain (presented to the city by Oliver Cromwell — Cork would not surely boast about that connection!) and also boast that their chain is the oldest in Ireland.

Wrong! Cork’s oldest chain was presented by Elizabeth I, and is in Cork Museum. Cork did not have a Lord Mayor until Sir Daniel Hegarty in 1900. Before the Act of Union, the Corporation of Cork contemplated establishing a Dublin embassy.

We were always stubborn, proud and independent.

Pat Kelly,

Blackrock,

Cork