Last August, I was on a road not-before travelled, the best type of road to feed the O.C.D. of sign-spotting, memorial-spotting, and finding things new. I turned off the N70 Ring of Kerry. I had passed Dooks Golf Club and was on my way towards Cromane when I spotted this sign. My initial thoughts were as to the odds of the person returning the troughs having read the sign; and, whether spending money on the printing of the corriboard sign was a good investment. These photos remained foldered away on my drive for thoughts and rambles that may turn into a blog at some stage. On Saturday, I was chatting with Colm whose fishing routine has been interrupted in recent years by the theft overnight of outboard engines – such engines seemingly departing the country. This has had the consequence of less boatmen in the market to cater for the needs of fishermen. Then later that day, I spotted the tweet from @CorkCoast with the hand written sign requesting return of stolen garden roller. These were enough relocate those photos from last August into the blogged folder. | The spelling issue was not necessary to justify inclusion in this blog – but it definitely helped…. As I drove off, another thought was whether ‘Cattle Nut Troughs’ or ‘Cattle Nuts Trough’ was the more appropriate. Google did not think either appropriate: Cattle Feed Trough being their preferred description. |
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I don’t think I’ve seen that before I have seen qualifications and trades noted on headstones. I have seen names of companies where the deceased worked. I have seen record of involvement with sports and community organisations. These all were important enough in the life of the deceased to be cut into stone.
Baltimore Industrial School left its mark on John Griffin – so deep that it stays with him even in the grave. The ‘sea of barbarism’ was how John Griffin described the institution. The Irish Times quotes him in response to the Laffoy Commission report, "It's now there on the record for generations to take heed and realise what happened to us." The engraving on the headstone is a prompt towards that record. The Southern Star article after his dead has the headline ‘Storyteller John could put a smile on anyone's face’ – on a cold November afternoon at St Patrick’s Cemetery in Skibbereen, he did to me. This particular rabbit hole was inspired by Michael Harding’s book, Chest Pain. I spotted it on my first visit to the library post cardiac incident and it just had to come home. Towards the end, page 363 to be precise, there is a story about damage to a statue to the Blessed Virgin Mary that was not spotted by any of the parishioners, even after the bishop had thrown a ‘skite’ of water on it as a blessing.
“Words are in dictionaries because they exist – they do not exist because they are in dictionaries”
My inclination would be to spell the name as JOHANNA. In 1811, maybe JOHANA was a variation in use. But JOHAXA just looks wrong. Maybe that was her name. Maybe it was a correction of a mirrored N – similar to Liscleary – but one would expect removal of the incorrect diagonal if that were the case. If a correction was to be done, I would have expected IHS to have been transformed into HIS. Predicting More Cork Heritage To Be Removed Following on from the post about the benchmark at the bottom of St Patricks’s Hill, it looks suspiciously like more aspects of Cork Heritage may not be compatible with current public realm design. These iron covers on the lower section of St Patrick’s Hill are not manhole covers. They most probably have not been used for very many years. These are remnants of a time past when coal was delivered and the large houses had a coal bunker, generally under the footpath. Coal was delivered into the coal bunker through these coal plates. Many of the bunkers have been blocked up so most of these coal plates remain as just a visible record off times past. They are non-functioning but is that a reason to strip them out and replace them with the bland palate of our public realm designers? I do like reminders of past work practices and of how people lived. These coal plates could easily be retained and incorporated into a street design but as it is Cork City Council, I am not hopeful. Opercula, the plural of Operculum, is the name used for the structure to cover an opening. Christopher Howse on twitter has photographed over a thousand London coal plates – many of which are decorative, as are some in Dublin. A book by Shephard Taylor called Opercula: London Coal Plates was published in 1929. I have encountered coal plates in Cork on Lover’s Walk, Montenotte Road, Patrick’s Hill, Summerhill, Wellington Road, and Upper John St.. Most are not very decorative. If this is meant to be the Victorian Quarter, I would have thought that this was an opportunity to incorporate into a tourist trail of how things were done, but I do not hold out much hope.
p.s. The response from Cork City Council to the now Lord Mayor about the benchmark was:
“it is not possible to retain the benchmark in its current location; it is to be incorporated into the new public realm enhancements in the vicinity” Another piece of architectural heritage from the childhood neighbourhood – this one on O’Mahony’s Avenue Another name marked into ironwork that I did not see until recently J. O’Dell does not have the same internet profile as MacFarlane Castings so has gone onto my own To Find Out More List
Unlike St Patrick’s Hill, this one is still in-situ A few weeks back, spotted a benchmark on top of the key wall at Camden Quay. I have walked this way more than once or twice but only noticed it a few weeks ago. Hidden in plain sight
The above photographs were taken at the bottom of St Patrick’s Hill on the 24th May. When I saw the eastern side of the hill barricaded off, I did fear for the fate of the benchmark. Benchmarks as a useful piece of data have long been replaced by GPS. As a mark on the fabric of the city recording how things were done in the past, they are a mark of history. I particularly liked this one as it was in the kerb on St. Patrick’s Hill. I have seen many on stone pillars, less in brickwork – on a kerb is very rare. The photographs below were taken just 5 days later, on 29th May. The kerbs had all been removed. They have not returned since. When demolition of the existing warehouse was being carried out in advance of the construction of 1, Albert Quay, I did ask as to whether the old fire cock sign might be available. I was told that it was being retained and was to be re-applied to the new building. It is now on the new building, complete with a new colour scheme. It is as functional as a benchmark but its heritage value was appreciated by someone with decision making powers - thankfully Last Sunday, once again, I received the lesson that one is very unlikely to record all of a particular thing – there always is the rick that one exists somewhere I just have not been before. This time is was the E.S.B. Lightning logo.
Castle Avenue in Monkstown was the road not travelled before. And there it was. It has prompted me to put a webpage together of those that I have encountered and recorded - HERE Our conversational Irish walk was a bit puzzled yesterday. Our monthly siúlóid took us through Monkstown Demense. As we we exiting the estate before heading back down Glen Road to the village, we tried, and failed to figure out the meaning of the words carved into the archways on either side of the road. LÁMH FOIS TENACHABÚThe archways facing the road read Monkstown Demense so it was not a translation. Lámh Fois Tenachabú had us stumped – not too difficult for my level of Gaeilge but it had all of us beaten. Jerry did think it may have something to do with the motto for the estate – top marks. Learning can be difficult enough – even relearning. But it definitely does not helped when the mason or letter carver sets out not to make things easy. The number of stones in the arch mean that these two options would have been equally easy to cut:
The latter option may well have been read as Lámh Foistenach Abú which translates as The Steady Hand To Victory. If there was an O’Sullivan among the group, we may have had greater success in interpreting as it is the motto of the O’Sullivan’s. LÁMH FOISTENACH ABÚIt is a long time since I even thought of the headwear of the Catholic clergy. I do recall the Canon in the local parish church regularly wearing a hat that the other priests did not wear – a black Biretta if memory has not faded too much. The Eucharistic Procession would also show that the bishop wore a mitre. What I did not realise until a couple of weeks ago is that there were/are quite a number of different types – and I did not see real hats, paintings or photographs to realise this, just picture frames. I was deliberately early for a meeting which allowed me to stop in Maynooth and look for the Seamus Murphy statue of St Patrick. The directions I received were spot on and there he was inside the main door of the enclosed quad – once again a piece calling out to be touched. It was only when I had touched and photographed St Patrick did I realise the paintings along the corridor. Then I spotted the hats incorporated into the top of the frame. And then, that not all of the hats were the same. The corridor gallery brought me back to the Capuchin Cemetery in Rochestown, Co. Cork where I went looking for the Celtic Cross headstones made by Seamus Murphy for Fr. Albert and Fr. Dominic whose bodies were repatriated in 1958 – 23 years after the death of Fr Dominic who was chaplain to both Cork Lord Mayors who died in 1920, Tomás MacCurtin and Terence MacSwiney. But there was no sign of a Celtic Cross. The graves of Fr Dominic and Fr Albert were marked with a cross – a simple cross just like all of the others in the cemetery. A friend did ask a member of the Capuchin community in Rochestown who recalled that some years ago, a Provincial decided that all priests and brothers were equal and should be recognised as equal. The location of the Celtic Crosses removed to make way for the uniform simple cross memorials remains unknown. The principle of all being equal in death did not extend to the African Missions Cemetery in Wilton in Cork. It appears to have been introduced in Maynooth but not retrospectively – the newer paintings appearing to have no adornment on the picture frame. I foresee that I will be in a rabbit hole in the future trying to understand the different hat syles and meanings……
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