Well, maybe not a thousand – a thousand is a lot for a ten year old.
Spot the escape route
Our ten year old is in a group, with two classmates, participating in the Cork Schools History Project. One of the topics relate to the Burning of Cork in 1920. The destruction of much of the city centre, City Hall and Carnegie Library was precipitated by an ambush on K Company of the Auxilary Division at Dillon’s Cross.
The young historians have visited the site and seen the plaque. They have watched the documentary by Cónal Creedon. They have read sections of the Burning of Cork – and have had other sections read to them.
They have visited the library and seen the photographs in the Cork Examiner with all the buildings knocked and that helped so much to identify the extent of damage that occurred on the night.
One aspect that they could not really understand, or possibly relate to, was how the ambushers hid and escaped from Dillon’s Cross. All they could see was houses.
Then a Grandad stepped up to the mark – a Grandad who worked in construction; a Grandad who, for some reason, kept at the bottom of a drawer photographs from over 40 years ago when the NBA houses were built for Cork Corporation at Mayfield, Togher and the Glen.
These photos clearly show that there was no Glen Avenue, no North Link Road, and no Ballyvolane Shopping Centre. There was nothing built between Dillon’s Cross and Goulding’s Glen.
The escape route for the ambushers was now clear – ‘Why didn’t you show us that before?’ was the thanks the Grandad got as the pieces of the jigsaw formed in the minds of three ten year olds.
It makes a lot more sense.
They are now onto those thousand words – or maybe a few short of that.
The young historians have visited the site and seen the plaque. They have watched the documentary by Cónal Creedon. They have read sections of the Burning of Cork – and have had other sections read to them.
They have visited the library and seen the photographs in the Cork Examiner with all the buildings knocked and that helped so much to identify the extent of damage that occurred on the night.
One aspect that they could not really understand, or possibly relate to, was how the ambushers hid and escaped from Dillon’s Cross. All they could see was houses.
Then a Grandad stepped up to the mark – a Grandad who worked in construction; a Grandad who, for some reason, kept at the bottom of a drawer photographs from over 40 years ago when the NBA houses were built for Cork Corporation at Mayfield, Togher and the Glen.
These photos clearly show that there was no Glen Avenue, no North Link Road, and no Ballyvolane Shopping Centre. There was nothing built between Dillon’s Cross and Goulding’s Glen.
The escape route for the ambushers was now clear – ‘Why didn’t you show us that before?’ was the thanks the Grandad got as the pieces of the jigsaw formed in the minds of three ten year olds.
It makes a lot more sense.
They are now onto those thousand words – or maybe a few short of that.
