History of Cork

Patrick Street, Cork. Photochrom print c. 1890–1900.

Cork, located on Ireland's south coast, is Ireland's second largest city and the largest city in the province of Munster. Its history dates back to the 6th century.

Origins

Cork has it beginnings in monastic settlement, founded by St Finbar in the sixth century. However the ancestor of the modern city was founded between 915 and 922, when Viking settlers established a trading community. The Viking leader Ottir Iarla is particularly associated with raiding and conquests in the province of Munster. The Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib connects this with the earliest Viking settlement of Cork.[7] The Norse phase of Cork's history left a legacy of family names, such as Cotter and Coppinger, peculiar to Cork which are claimed to have Norse origins. In the twelfth century, this settlement was taken over by invading Anglo-Norman settlers. The Norsemen of Cork fought against the Norman incomers, mounting an expedition of 32 ships against them in 1173, which was defeated in a naval battle.[8] Cork's city charter was granted by Prince John in 1185.[9] Over the centuries, much of the city was rebuilt, time and again, after numerous fires. The city was at one time fully walled, and several sections and gates remain. The title of Mayor of Cork was established by royal charter in 1318, and the title was changed to Lord Mayor in 1900.

A settler outpost

For much of the Middle Ages, Cork city was an outpost of Old English culture in the midst of a predominantly hostile Gaelic countryside and cut off from the English government in the Pale around Dublin. Neighbouring Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman lords extorted "Black Rent" from the citizens to keep them from attacking the city. The Cork municipal government was dominated by about 12–15 merchant families, whose wealth came from overseas trade with continental Europe – in particular the export of wool and hides and the import of salt, iron and wine. Of these families, only the Ronayne family were of Gaelic Irish origin.

The medieval population of Cork was about 2,000 people. It suffered a severe blow in 1349 when almost half the townspeople died of bubonic plague when the Black Death arrived in the town. In 1491 Cork played a part in the English Wars of the Roses when Perkin Warbeck a pretender to the English throne, landed in the city and tried to recruit support for a plot to overthrow Henry VII of England. The mayor of Cork and several important citizens went with Warbeck to England but when the rebellion collapsed they were all captured and executed. Cork's nickname of the 'rebel city' originates in these events.

A description of Cork written in 1577 speaks of the city as, "the fourth city of Ireland" that is, "so encumbered with evil neighbours, the Irish outlaws, that they are fayne to watch their gates hourly...they trust not the country adjoining [and only marry within the town] so that the whole city is linked to each other in affinity".[10]

Wars of religion

The character of Cork was changed by the Tudor conquest of Ireland (c. 1540 – 1603) which left the English authorities in control of all of Ireland for the first time, introduced thousands of English settlers in the Plantations of Ireland and significantly, tried to impose the Protestant Reformation on a predominantly Catholic country. Cork suffered from the warfare involved in the reconquest, particularly in the Second Desmond Rebellion in 1579–83, when thousands of rural people fled to the city to avoid the fighting, bringing with them an outbreak of bubonic plague. Cork by and large sided with the Crown in these conflicts, even after a Spanish expeditionary force landed at nearby Kinsale in 1601 during the Nine Years War. However, the price the citizens demanded for their loyalty was toleration of their Roman Catholic religion. In 1603, the citizens of Cork along with Waterford and Limerick rebelled, expelling Protestant ministers, imprisoning English officials, seizing the municipal arsenals and demanding freedom of worship for Catholics. They refused to admit Lord Mountjoy's English army when it marched south, citing their charters from 12th century. Mountjoy retorted that he would, "cut King John his charter with King James his sword" and arrested the ringleaders, thus ending the revolt. It was an ominous sign for the coming century.

In 1641, Ireland was convulsed by the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Cork became a stronghold for the English Protestants, who sought refuge there after the outbreak of the rebellion and remained in Protestant hands throughout the ensuing Irish Confederate Wars. An ineffective Irish Confederate attempt to take the city in 1642 was beaten off at the battle of Liscarroll. In 1644, Murrough O'Brien, Earl Inchiquinn, the commander of English forces in Cork, expelled the Catholic townsmen from city. Although most of them went no further than the city's suburbs, this was the beginning of Protestant domination of the city that would last for nearly two centuries. The population of Cork by this times was around 5000, most of whom lived outside the city walls.

In 1649–53, Ireland was re-conquered by an English Parliamentarian army under Oliver Cromwell. Inchiquin had briefly led Cork into an alliance with the Confederates, in 1648, but the garrison changed sides again in 1650, going over to English Parliamentarian side under the influence of Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery.

In 1690 during the Williamite war in Ireland, Cork was besieged and taken for the Williamites by an English army under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

Eighteenth century Cork

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries French Protestants (Huguenots) arrived in Cork fleeing from religious persecution at the hands of Louis XIV of France. Their influence can still be seen in the names of the Huguenot Quarter and French Church Street. Many new buildings were erected in Cork in the 18th century. Like Dublin, much of Cork's medieval architecture was replaced by neo-classical Georgian buildings. Examples of this include, Christ Church (1720–26), St Anne's Shandon (1722–26) and a Customs House (1724). During the 18th century, trade in Cork's port expanded considerably. Cork merchants exported large amounts of butter and beef to Britain, the rest of Europe and North America.

Population explosion, famine and emigration

During the early 19th century the population of Cork expanded rapidly. By mid century Cork had a population of about 80,000. The increase was due to migration from the countryside as people fled from poverty and in the 1840s, a terrible famine. This led to extremes of poverty and overcrowding in Cork city during this century. Another effect of this influx was to reverse the denominational character of the city, which became predominantly Catholic again.

However, in the later 19th century the population of Cork declined slightly due to emigration, principally to Britain or North America. In 1825, over 1,800 Irish residents departed from Cork to emigrate to Peterborough, Ontario, Canada assisted by Peter Robinson (who organised the scheme on behalf of the British Government). This resulted in the area known as "Scott's Plains" being renamed "Peterborough" as a tribute. Cork and also nearby Cobh became major points of departure for Irish emigrants, who left the country in great numbers after the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s.

During the 19th and early 20th century important industries in Cork included, brewing, distilling, wool and shipbuilding.[11] In addition, there were some municipal improvements such as gas light street lights in 1825, two local papers, the Cork Constitution published from 1823 and the Cork Examiner, first published in 1841 and, very importantly for the development of modern industry, the railway reached Cork in 1849. Also in 1849, University College Cork opened.

Much 19th century architecture can still be seen in many areas around the city such as the neo-Georgian and Victorian buildings that now house Banks and Department stores. The Victorian influence on the city is noticeable in place names such as Victoria Cross (after Queen Victoria), Albert Quay (after Prince Albert), Adelaide Street (after Queen Adelaide) and the Victoria Hospital on the Old Blackrock Rd.

Since the nineteenth century, Cork had been a strongly Irish nationalist city, with widespread support for Irish Home Rule and the Irish Parliamentary Party, but from 1910 stood firmly behind William O'Brien's dissident All-for-Ireland Party. O'Brien published a third local newspaper, the Cork Free Press.

Tans, troubles and civil war

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914 many of Cork's National Volunteers enlisted to served with the Royal Munster Fusiliers, suffering heavy casualties both in Gallipoli and on the Western Front. In the period 1916–1923, Cork was embroiled in a conflict between radical Irish nationalists and the British state in Ireland. The turmoil of this period ultimately led to substantial Irish independence for 26 of the 32 Irish counties in 1922, but also to a bitter civil war between Irish nationalist factions in 1922–23.

In 1916, during the Easter Rising as many as 1000 Irish Volunteers mobilised in Cork for an armed rebellion against British rule but they dispersed without fighting. However, during the subsequent Irish War of Independence 1919–1921, Cork was the scene of much violence.

Aftermath of the "Burning of Cork" in December 1920

In particular, the city suffered from the action of the Black and Tans – a paramilitary police force raised to help the Royal Irish Constabulary combat the Irish Republican Army. On 20 March 1920, Thomas Mac Curtain, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork was shot dead, in front of his wife at his home, by Policemen. His successor as Mayor, Terence McSwiney was arrested in August 1920 and died on hunger strike in October of that year. On 11 December the city centre was gutted by fires started by the Black and Tans in reprisal for IRA attacks in the city. Over 300 buildings were destroyed and two suspected IRA men were shot dead in their beds by British forces on the night. This atrocity did not stop IRA activity in the city however. Attacks and reprisals continued in the city until the fighting was ended in a truce agreed in July 1921.

Another, highly disputed aspect of the War of Independence in Cork was the shooting of informers. Historians such as Peter Hart have written that 'enemy' groups such as Protestants and ex-soldiers were targeted at random by the IRA. Gerard Murphy's "Year of the Disappearances, (2010) put the number of Protestants killed in Cork at 73. This thesis is disputed by other scholars such as John Borgonovo, who write that their studies suggest that the IRA's 30 or so confirmed civilian victims in Cork do seem to have been targeted because the IRA believed they were passing information to the British and not for any other reason.[12][13]

Civil War

The local IRA units, for the most part, did not accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiated to end the war -ultimately repudiating the authority of the newly created Irish Free State. After the withdrawal of British troops in early 1922, they took over the military barracks in Cork and the surrounding area. By July 1922, when the Irish Civil War, broke out, Cork was held by anti-Treaty forces as part of a self-styled Munster Republic -intended to be a stronghold for the preservation of the Irish Republic annulled by the Treaty.

Cork however, was taken in August 1922 by the pro-Treaty National Army in an attack from the sea. The Free State forces landed at nearby Passage West with 450 troops and several artillery pieces. There was fighting for three days in the hills around Douglas and Rochestown, in which roughly 20 men were killed and about 60 wounded as the anti-Treaty IRA contested the National Army's advance into the city. However the badly armed anti-Treaty forces did not make a stand in Cork itself and dispersed after sporadic fighting, burning a number of buildings and the barracks they had been holding (for example at Elizabeth Fort and Collins Barracks).[14]

Subsequently they reverted to guerrilla warfare and took to destroying all the roads and bridges connecting Cork with the rest of the country. Michael Collins, commander in chief of the National Army, was killed in an IRA ambush at Beal na mBlath, west of the city on 25 August 1922.

Guerrilla warfare raged in the surrounding countryside until April 1923, when the Anti-Treaty side called a ceasefire and dumped their arms. There were attacks on Free State troops in the city, but not on the scale of the campaign against British forces in 1919–21.

Late Twentieth Century Cork

In the post independence period, Cork has been acknowledged as the Republic of Ireland's second city. It has produced a number of political leaders, notably Jack Lynch – who became Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) in the 1960s. Its citizens half jokingly refer to it as the "real capital".

Cork's inner city slums were cleared by the municipal authority from the 1920s onwards, and their inhabitants were re-housed in housing estates on the periphery of the city -especially on its north side. Many of these new suburbs have since suffered from social deprivation and high crime rates – a pattern repeatedly found in Irish urban development.

Cork's economy dipped in the late 20th century as the old manufacturing industries in Cork declined. The Ford car factory closed in 1984 as did the Dunlop tyre factory. Shipbuilding in Cork also came to an end in the 1980s. As a result of these closures unemployment was high in Cork in the 1980s.

However, in the 1990s new industries came to Cork. For instance, Marina Commercial Park was built on the site of the old Dunlop and Ford plants and Cork Airport Business Park first opened in 1999. Cork, like other cities in Ireland benefited somewhat from the Celtic Tiger economic boom, with growth in industries such as information technology, chemicals, brewing, distilling and food processing. The Port of Cork is also a busy and important port. Into the 21st century, tourism has grown in economic importance, and in 2005 Cork was named European Capital of Culture.

Annalistic references

See Annals of Inisfallen (AI)

Notes

  1. ↑ For 1653 and 1659 figures from Civil Survey Census of those years, Paper of Mr Hardinge to Royal Irish Academy 14 March 1865.
  2. ↑ Census for post 1821 figures.
  3. ↑ http://www.histpop.org
  4. ↑ http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census
  5. ↑ Lee, JJ (1981). "On the accuracy of the Pre-famine Irish censuses". In Goldstrom, J. M.; Clarkson, L. A. Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
  6. ↑ Mokyr, Joel; O Grada, Cormac (November 1984). "New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700–1850". The Economic History Review 37 (4): 473–488. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x.
  7. ↑ Todd, pp. 30–1
  8. ↑ Hansen, p. 256
  9. ↑ "Your Council » Charters". Cork City Council. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  10. ↑ Maxwell, Constantia (1923). Irish history from contemporary sources (1509-l610). G. Allen & Unwin. p. 368.
  11. ↑ http://www.scribd.com/doc/32717516/1919-Cork-Its-Trade-and-Commerce| pg 168
  12. ↑ Irish Examiner: Eoghan Harris review 5 November 2010
  13. ↑ http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/03/09/book-review-the-year-of-disappearances-political-killings-in-cork-1921-1922/
  14. ↑ Interview with historian John Borgonovo

Sources

External links

See also

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