Cork Facts or Myths

Balmed Out

thought of a few more.

The Dublin firebrigade considered the destruction in Cork in the burning of Cork during the war of independance to be worse then that of Dublin after the easter rising.
In the British parliament a member of parliament claimed the fire was not done by crown forces and spread from pana to the old city hall naturally, despite a block of unburnt buildings and a river in between. The British did pay for the new city hall.

The fingerpost in Douglas was the site where a local rebel from the 1698 rebellion was hung.

William Penn set sale for America from Blackrock. He set up the state of Pennsylvania.

Ptolemy made a map about 150ad with a place he called Ivuernis where Cork city is now, so we may be older then st. finbarr

When Terence macswiney was on hunger strike during the civil war around 300,000 Brazilians petitioned the vatican to intervene.

a cork woman known as lola montez was the mistress of a bavarian king.

another cork woman eliza lynch is known as the evita of paraguay and is still a well known historical figure there(much loved by some hated by other). shes even got a big tomb in the capital Asuncion.

evilivor

The University of Berkeley in California was named after the philosopher George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. Its nickname, coined in the 1960s, is the "People's Republic of Berkeley" which inspired the famous Cork t-shirt slogan and a website that shall not be named here.

Also, there is no connection between the t-shirt maker and the website - merely the name in common although one may purchase t-shirts through the site.

SeaFields

In summation I think we can all agree : Cork..the best place in the world

Drucilla

Funsterdelux wrote: »

Our Lady's Hospital has tunnels too I heard, so they could ferry patients from one end to the other, without the public seeing them.

Our Ladys in Abandoned Ireland

It wasn't just so the public couldn't see them. it was because it was such a massive building and it saved them taking patients out in all sorts of weather or at night time etc. Very handy.

Padraig Mor

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

There's a tunnel under the road and houses on the atlantic homecare side of the Lough community centre.

First I've heard of that and I'm from there!

Owen

There's a fairly large cave network in the quarry near Beaumont School. Myself and a few friends used to regularly crawl in there as teenagers. Tiny shafts about 20 metres long just big enough to fit through on your stomach open into huge chambers about the size of a house. Loads of fossils inside, a few skeletons of dead animals that crawled in and couldn't get out, and if it's been raining a few days previously there's a small underground river that flows too. Neat place!

D'Agger

I must really research Cork more tbh - I'm living here long enough and should really know my way around better, have more facts about the place to hand etc.

Thanks for all the info given so far though

Padraig Mor

PaulieC wrote: »

I must really research Cork more tbh - I'm living here long enough and should really know my way around better, have more facts about the place to hand etc.

Thanks for all the info given so far though

Check out The Atlas of Cork City - pricey, but very interesting.

D'Agger

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Check out The Atlas of Cork City - pricey, but very interesting.

Cheers - but I'm terrible at reading books - I'm still not finished a novel I got last Christmas and it's not a hard read by any means.

I might look up stuff and do some sightseeing - take in some of the nice areas of Cork!


Same goes for restaurants and food here - yet to try out Novacentos pizza!

Funsterdelux

PaulieC wrote: »

Cheers - but I'm terrible at reading books - I'm still not finished a novel I got last Christmas and it's not a hard read by any means.

I might look up stuff and do some sightseeing - take in some of the nice areas of Cork!


Same goes for restaurants and food here - yet to try out Novacentos pizza!

Theres a lot of photos and pictures in it, so its nice just to glance through!

D'Agger

Funsterdelux wrote: »

Theres a lot of photos and pictures in it, so its nice just to glance through!

Thanks, Is it available in local bookstores?

Might pop into Waterstones or someplace and take a quick look at it before getting it.

Funsterdelux

PaulieC wrote: »

Thanks, Is it available in local bookstores?

Might pop into Waterstones or someplace and take a quick look at it before getting it.

It should be there or Easons.

jank

Our ladys hospital is the longest building in ireland, Across the river is/was tallest building in ireland, I think the elysian is taller now.

Lovers lane was actually called leapers lane. This was the back entrance to Cork in the old days for undesirables and those with eh... leprosy so they wouldn't infect the good up standing folk of Cork. The translation error was either someone mis-translating it from Irish to English or some of the neighbors (this area is a posh enough area of Cork) wanted the name changed to something a bit more pleasant. Probably a little bit of both!

The Duke of Wellington lived on the South Douglas Road or maybe its Nelson. Anyway one of them did.

Brian Stokers apparently got the idea for writing Dracula on a coach ride from crosshaven to rochestown on a dark winters night. Not sure about that one!:pac:

Got to chew the ear of my dad, he would have a few thousand of them...

Faith

jank wrote: »

Brian Stokers apparently got the idea for writing Dracula on a coach ride from crosshaven to rochestown on a dark winters night. Not sure about that one!:pac:

I wonder where Bram Stoker got the idea from, so? :pac:

evilivor

Faith wrote: »

I wonder where Bram Stoker got the idea from, so? :pac:

He got a love bite from a young wan behind the marquee at Cork Week.

Balmed Out

jank wrote: »

The Duke of Wellington lived on the South Douglas Road or maybe its Nelson. Anyway one of them did.

I dont think Nelson ever lived in Cork but the Duke of Wellington and the Duke of Marlborough did. They apparently used to drink in the Realt dearg (formerly the gateway) which (much debated) I have read is the oldest continuously licensed pub in Ireland

wheresmybeaver

Great thread.

I think ye lads would like the OSI website; it has modern satellite and street map imagery overlaid with historic maps; the oldest OSI map on there seems to predate the railway network in Cork (when you look at the most detailed maps) and I swear to God I have invested upwards of about 6 hours in the last week trawling through old maps of Cork, Glanmire, Midleton and Youghal. You can flip quickly between modern and old maps using the number keys. The accuracy of the mapping in those days is phenomenal. But it's incredible interesting to browse around the suburbs to see what old buildings / farms / big houses used to be there, and now lend their name to the area.

The link below is to the UCC site in Cork, where there appears to be no trace of a university; O'Donovans Road does not exist and most of the site seems to be the Gill Abbey to the East, and the County Gaol to the West. You can switch between old map and new map using the number 2 and number 6 keys.

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,566273,571423,7,7

It's also remarkable how much of the land in Cork is reclaimed from the river and the mud; practically all the docklands for example. There were a huge number of Big Houses with landscaped gardens all around them; a large proportion of them now are either hotels, government buildings, derelict or disappeared completely (example: Inchera House and Little Island House where the Little Island Industrial Estate is now). And there are breweries everywhere; we had our priorities straight back in them days.

D'Agger

Balmed Out wrote: »

I dont think Nelson ever lived in Cork but the Duke of Wellington and the Duke of Marlborough did. They apparently used to drink in the Realt dearg (formerly the gateway) which (much debated) I have read is the oldest continuously licensed pub in Ireland

I used to love the Gateway! Has it changed much with the new name/owners etc.?

Owen

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

I think ye lads would like the OSI website; it has modern satellite and street map imagery overlaid with historic maps

Spent a bit of time on that site recently trying to figure out the history of where I live. Turns out it I'm inside an old walled garden belonging to an large estate, cooler still, in the park behind my house there's a huge hump in the green area which runs in a straight line across the grass. Could never figure out what it was - the OSI site shows it to be a Viaduct. Probably still under there too! Pity Ireland doesn't have a Time Team, would love to see what it looks like.

Balmed Out

PaulieC wrote: »

I used to love the Gateway! Has it changed much with the new name/owners etc.?

Only there once in a blue moon and havent ever noticed much of a change but im the type not to notice.

D'Agger

Balmed Out wrote: »

Only there once in a blue moon and havent ever noticed much of a change but im the type not to notice.

Used to head up there for RAG week in college to play beat the clock, play a few games of connect 4, poker, playstation 2 - had some good times there

Balmed Out

Gaa colours / flag

In the early days the county wore a blue-coloured jersey with a saffron-coloured 'C' emblazoned on the chest. All this changed in 1919 when Cork were preparing to play Dublin in the All-Ireland Hurling Final. In the week leading up to the game, British forces broke into the county board offices on Maylor Street in the city centre and seized all of Cork's jerseys. Because of this the county board borrowed jerseys from the now-defunct Father O'Leary Temperance Association team. Cork went on to win the game, ending a sixteen-year barren spell. Because of this win Cork decided to wear the 'lucky' red jerseys in all future games.

Daithi.orian

If you want to hear some good stories on Cork history you should take the tour of Triskel Christchurch. Lots of very interesting tales in there. It's only €3 as well.

Dob74

ResearchWill wrote: »

Considering that cork is a bog is it really probable that so many tunnels exist.

The northside is solid sandstone only the city centre is a bog.
The train tunnel on the Dublin line must have a few smaller surporting tunnels leading into it. There's one outlet in the Glen, I believe there are two more.

ResearchWill

Dob74 wrote: »

The northside is solid sandstone only the city centre is a bog.
The train tunnel on the Dublin line must have a few smaller surporting tunnels leading into it. There's one outlet in the Glen, I believe there are two more.

While I can agree with your statement. My issue was with a tunnel from near blackrock castle to near the south infirmary that would have had to go through a lot of reclaimed land I would have thought.

Owen

That tunnel is documented, but I haven't a clue what in. I don't think the reclaimed land would be such an issue from Blackrock to South Infirmary, most of that is solid ground the whole way. The tunnel would most likely be defunct now anyway with all the construction over years.

discostu1

Re Turners Cross Church the story was that the builder committed suicide, Turners Cross is partly bog Curragh Road is Bothair an Corraigh (forgive me spelling) which is the Bog Road, if any of you ever walked "out the line" where the Road from the Kinsale road Roundabout goes back into town, you would remember the many lakes and ponds that were in that area stretching back towards the Douglas road. For older Southsiders remember Charley Coleman or Charlie out the bog with his dogs swimming in same ponds. Anyway when they were building the church the foundations sank or probably subsided twice and they had to go deeper and deeper until they eventually hit bedrock but this cost a fortune and the builder was nearly broke as a result. As far as I remember there is a little plaque to the memory of the builder by the water font just inside the main doors. Not sure how true the story is but I was born and raised about 50 yards from the church and that was the story us locals had.
Also the Tramore Road was always called the Hangdog Road. the story was that a rich landlord who had one child had several vicous hounds and one night his only child wandered into the hounds pen and was savaged until dead. The landlord hung the hounds and thus the road is always known to us oldies as the Hangdog road

MyStubbleItches

Fantastic thread.

Just my tuppence worth on the church in Turner's Cross. A mate of mine is a descendant of the bishop who commissioned the architect - Bishop Cohalan I think. Seemingly he was a right ba***rd and didn't pay the architect who ended up committing suicide over the affair. Purely anecdotal.

Re: tunnels - a few years back we did a job up the back of the Tellengana building on Centre Park Rd. There was an old tunnel entrance in the wall that we were reinforcing. Someone said it was an old British Army supply tunnel but I never followed up on it. Does anyone know it?

dhoun

Balmed Out wrote: »

Elizabeth fort was a black and tan base - you can walk the ramparts but locals never seem to.

I thought the ramparts were closed to the public - I have tried a few times to access them without success ...

dhoun

MyStubbleItches wrote: »

Bishop Cohalan I think. Seemingly he was a right ba***rd

Personally, I would agree with that statement. He was dead set against Cork Republicans fighting the British during the War of Independence and excommunicated most of them (the Corkmen that is) ...