Category: Heritage - Reading the Signs

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A Nod to Percy Metcalfe

25/1/2026

Beware of The Bull

Rock Street, Tralee, Co. Kerry

This piece of street furniture is beautiful. It brought a big smile to my face: I had to stop and photograph.

I suspect that many walk up and down Rock Street and do not see it – it may be in their vision but the detail may not register on the conscience.

In late 2024, I saw online a plaque in Yorkshire to Robert Percy Pulliene. It was made by Percy Metcalfe, a sculptor and medallist whose work was known to all Irish people for decades even if the absolutely vast majority may never have heard of Percy Metcalfe - like me, upto then.

I have been inactive on Twitter for many months. I am in the process of transferring to a Word document all of my bookmarks, those posts that I saved for checking back on. Last month, I again saw the post with Percy Metcalfe’s work. A few weeks later, in Tralee, the bull was observed – sufficient stars aligning to justify a blog post.

The leg positions of the Tralee Bull differ from the shilling-bull, so it is not a replica. To my eyes, it is a definite nod – not the first and hopefully not the last.

The Dead No Longer Write

21/9/2024

This blog post germinated at 8:30 on a July Thursday morning as I pulled up outside St. Mary’s graveyard in Old Ross, Co. Wexford. I had come to visit the grave of Margaret and John Hornick but before I even exited the car, it was the postbox on the entrance walls that got my attention; or, more particularly, the ‘Out Of Service’ message signalling the death of the postbox.

My mind went into overdrive. ‘Postboxes being only for the dead’; ‘letter writing being a dead art’ were among the thought rattling around my brain as I travelled back towards the N25 Wexford road. Just past Courthoyle Cemetery, another postbox, another ‘Out Of Service’ notice.

That evening, driving home, I took a road not travelled before. My first visit ever to Castlecomer, brought me face-to-face with my third terminal notice. ‘Out Of Service’ related not just to the postbox but also the post office. Just like the R.I.C. before it, its time had passed.

A few weeks later, This American Life threw up an episode called Letter! Actual Letters which shortened the journey to Carlow but did not do much to provide hope for the humble postbox.

Since that July day, I have been thinking of the many disued postboxes that I have met on my travels. I have written more handwritten letters in the last month that in the previous year but I suspect that they will not be sufficient to stave off even more ‘Out Of Service’ notices.

“On Sunday morning, the 4th of March, 1923, a pony and cart was discovered on the side of the road. Inside, in a pool of blood, lay the bodies of John and Margaret Hornick, both brother ad sister. John was 25 while his sister was only 12. Both were the children of a well known farmer from Kilgarvan, Taghmon and they had set out the previous evening in a spring cart drawn by a pony heading to their grandfather’s house where they usually spent the weekend.

In the subsequent inquest that followed, Free State Soldier, Private Phelan, who was on sentry duty at Palace East described how he became aware of the cart after they passed the railway bridge. He called on them three times to halt. When after receiving no reply, he fired a warning shot into the air. The cart kept moving and he fired again but this time aiming in its direction.

It subsequently came to a halt but he was refused permission to go and inspect by his superiors. The cart therefore wandered the countryside throughout the night. It was found the next morning by passers-by several miles away.

The medical evidence described how both victims had bullet wounds to the heads despite there being only one shot fired.”

The Railways and County Wexford’s Revolutionary Period – Barry Lacey, Historian-in-Residence

#A_Door_A_Day

1/1/2024

There can be beauty in ironmongery; a carving in wood; or, even flaking of paint.

It was many years ago when we visited Casa Battló in Barcelona. As part of the tour, we were told that Gaudi had spent a significant amount of time in the design of the door handle, to best be accommodated in the profile of the hand.

It was so tactile.

Last Summer, we were in the photograph gallery in Castlegregory village. There was a lovely image of the handle and lock. The post office green was a bit of a giveaway. The image – I think by Bernard Fitzpatrick – has been the prompt to catalogue the very many door details among the building features that I have photographed.

I am not sure if I will be able to maintain for 365 days but today, the hashtag #A_Door_A_Day has been born

The type of thing that is to follow

Keeping – but Adapting – Customs

3/12/2023

It was an article from 1921 that educated me as to the custom of placing crosses at a hawthorn bush as a funeral party made its way to the cemetery. The article suggested that it had died out in Cong, Co. Mayo and was lessening in the only other part of Ireland where it was known to exist, at Brandy Cross in the parish of Kilmore in Co. Wexford.

The Schools Collection from the 1930’s does have a number of mentions recorded by children of the district – James Newport; from Thomas Doyle – of placing a cross at the hawthorn or ash tree on the way to the cemetery.

A few years back, Aoife directed me towards an article on Irish Archaeology and also a piece by A. M. Cousins on Sunday Miscellany.

Last week, on the last Tuesday in November, the sun was very low in the sky so on my trip to Kilmore Quay, I did well to stay on the road such was the glare from the sun. I saw very little to the side of the road. On the return journey, I was indeed ‘struck by the unusual sight of a heap of wooden crosses’.

Crosses used to be made of the left over pieces from the assembly of the coffin. Now the timber crosses, used by funeral directors to stand at the head of a grave until a headstone may be cut, are placed on the pile.

The crosses used to be placed at a tree on an old mass path. When a new cemetery was opened, a new tree was planted at a new location. The custom was relocated but continued.

“When the coffin is supplied, the pieces of wood which remain over are cut into small crosses measuring two feet eight inches in height by eleven inches wide across the arms. These crosses are painted in various colours - green, blue, red and yellow. They have pointed shafts and one, which is meant to be planted in the soil at the head of the grave, is laid on the coffin, while the others are carried by the chief mourners behind. At the cross-roads nearest the cemetery there is always a tree, either hawthorn or ash, at the foot of which the procession pauses, and the cross-bearers lift their crosses to its branches, where they fix them and leave them. In some places the tree has fallen from age or other causes, but its root remains, or at all events the memory of the place where it grew ; and so the practice is continued, and the crosses are thrust in a heap, lying upon one another, till a mound often eight or ten feet high may be seen.”
“Ancient Funeral Custom in Kilmore Parish”: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 2 (Dec., 1921), pp. 146-148: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

“Visitors to Kilmore are always struck by the unusual sight of a heap of wooden crosses under a thorn tree on the roadside near Brandy Cross. The crosses are placed there by the mourners attending passing funerals, and I have often been asked for an explanation of the origin and meaning of the custom”

“Ancient Funeral Custom in Kilmore Parish”: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 2 (Dec., 1921), pp. 146-148: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

“When Grange closed in the 1950s, a communal decision was taken to maintain the ancient ritual and a new sceach between Kilmore village and the new cemetery was blessed and commissioned to carry the crosses for funeral generations. Since then hundreds of funerals have stopped at the crossroads and paused for a moment so that grieving families and friends can leave a wooden cross there to honour the memory of their loved ones and to continue our of most scared customs.”
A. M. Cousins - Funeral Crosses in the Sceach – Sunday Miscellany 03 November, 2019

“We may ask what connection is there between the crosses which Miss Stokes found near Cong, those she saw near the mouth of the Somme, and those to be still seen in the parish of Kilmore ?

Did St. Fursa establish the custom near his early hermitage in Mayo in the seventh century ? Did he bring it with him to France and establish it on the spot where he first landed there ? And did our Norman ancestors bring it back to Ireland and establish it where they landed ? It is greatly to be regretted that their descendants, after over seven hundred \ ears, should allow it to disappear.

Miss Stokes writes (see appendix VII)?" This Irish custom seems to belong to the worship of the Instruments of the Passion, and to be connected with the Passion of Christ. The hawthorn, the whitethorn, and the blackthorn, all claim to have been used for the Sacred Crown of Thorns. . . . The form of procession, carrying in our hands ivy, sprigs of laurel, rosemary, and other evergreens, is said to be emblematic of the soul's immortality. So the bearing of the cross to a point, where at the meeting of four roads, that road is chosen which leads directly to the grave, is emblematic of the soul's submission ; while the laying down the cross upon the thorny branch that made the Saviour's Crown is an instance of Christian symbolism still lingering among our peasantry that ought not to pass unrecorded."”

“Ancient Funeral Custom in Kilmore Parish”: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 2 (Dec., 1921), pp. 146-148: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

Opercula - Is Its Time Up?

9/7/2023

Predicting More Cork Heritage To Be Removed

Then

Now

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”

J. O’Dell’s Work

8/7/2023

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

A Railway Gate

7/7/2023

I think it was from James Dillon on twitter that I learn of a design for gates used by railways company/companies

Last Saturday, I was on the wrong side of the tracks for the Knocklong Rescue plaque but was very happy to be rewarded with a meeting with a railway gate.

On other side of Limerick-Limerick Junction rail line

MacFarlane Castings

6/7/2023

I have blogged previously as to the attraction and admiration of the Blacksmith and his forge – and not just once or twice.

It does bring a smile every time I see a maker or foundry name marked into a iron railings; road gulley; manhole cover; bridges; or, as in this instance, a gate.

This gate was on my way to secondary school and I have walked past in the decades since but it was only recently that I spotted that the name of MacFarlane Castings

David Mitchell on twitter educates that Walter MacFarlane, born in 1818, created what became ‘the largest architectural ironfounding firm of its kind in the world’ – you could do worse than spend a few minutes scrolling there

Planning permission was recently granted for adaption of the building. The applicant and the architect do give home that I will be seeing MacFarlane Castings for some time

Another Benchmark

5/7/2023

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

A Little Piece of Heritage – Gone

13/6/2023

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

Another Lightning Strike

13/12/2022

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

Does 164, 165 & 166 get into Top 100?

27/11/2022

Yesterday I spotted that Siobhán Doyle was a guest on Donal Fallon’s podcast Three Castles Burning and it sent my memory recall in all different directions.

On a nice May evening, in 2018, we stopped with friends at O’Connell’s bar in Skryne in Co. Meath. As I was on driving duty, I explored the nearby cemetery, as one does, and the surrounds with the younger generation.

The numbering on the seating in an outside shed did have us puzzled for a while – this is the place where one remembers to turn the lights out, not on.

Returning to the counter, the barman did confirm that these timber planks, with their numbers, did, as we guessed, come from Croke Park – the old one that was demolished.

Christmas advertising is nearly a month old this year already but I do not think that I have yet seen this year the advert showing snow at a closed O’Connell’s.

I have to travel to a meeting on Monday and the Three Castles Burning podcast will be my choice of listening.

It will be a bit longer before I find out if the Smoking Room in Skryne made it into the Top 100 in Siobhán book – this being a Santa’s letter of sorts.

Josephine McCoy

27/11/2022

Yesterday, driving on the Back Douglas Road, I spotted the name of an as yet unfinished development. A U-turn was executed and I returned to what will be Josephine McCoy Mews. This had me intrigued.

Buildings, roads or structures named after females are not that common. If the sub-grouping of female saints is excluded, the number would be very very small.

I remember mentally screaming at the car radio about ten years ago when there was a, what proved to be successful, campaign to name the suspension bridge over the Dublin to Belfast M1 after former President Mary McAleese. Someone on the radio was saying that it would be the first structure named after a women, ignorant of the Cork footbridge erected in 1985 and named after Nano Nagle.

Mary Elmes Bridge, Rosie Hackett Bridge and others have followed since then – but the numbers are still so small that I did return and photograph what will be Josephine McCoy Mews. Heading onwards towards the Nursing Home, I did think as to who Josephine McCoy was and whether I had read of her previously.

As it transpired, I had actually stopped at the grave she shares with her (second) husband. John Borgonovo’s piece on RTE Brainstorm gave the answers – well worth a read.

“ – Aren’t Cork people funny all the same, I said. I mean like see that footbridge there, there are two footbridges along this stretch of the river. This one here was opened by Gerald Goldberg, Cork’s Jewish Lord Mayor, it leads from Goldberg’s office in the heart of the city to the Synagogue on South Terrace and on into the Jew Town of Albert Road; but the funny thing is that bridge is known locally as the Pass-Over. Then we have the other footbridge up by the Quay Co-op. It’s called the By-Pass, ya see Joe McHugh was the City Manager at de time dey were building it, and sur poor aul Joe had to go under the knife with his heart… de By-Pass, gas or wat?”

Passion Play – Cónal Creedon (1999)

Use It …………………………..Or…………………..Lose It

10/9/2022

A few weeks back, I learnt from Eoin’s tweet that his uncle’s butchers stall in The English Market was to close. I spotted the closed stall today and it confirmed once again that not all progress is good.

Stealing some me-time on our holidays, which started with lovely steaks from McCarthy’s of Kanturk, I did receive the task to get some chops for the dinner. I walked the main shopping streets in Tralee but could I see a butchers – not one. This is not surprising as in Cork, outside of the English market, there is only one butchers shop trading in the city centre.

Calling to the workplace of a friend, I received directions to a small butchers shop on the North Circular Road – Waddings. The only regret with the chops purchased was that I didn’t buy enough.

That morning, I got chatting with the two butchers on duty and explained that I did not want a prepacked meat. I wanted meat that was recently carved and open to view on all sides. I learned that, similar to Cork, the number of butchers shops had significantly reduced – trade lost to the supermarkets.

The Butcher's apostrophe

Waddings, Tralee

A few years back, walking on the slopes of Baurtegaum on the Dingle peninsula and meeting a sheep farmer, he told of times past when his family would have had animals ready for killing, a message was sent to the butcher who would collect the animal, cut and sell in their shop. Regulation has done away with many of the butcher/abattoirs but that morning I learned that Waddings believed that they were the only butchers shop in Tralee still buying full beef carcass and doing the butchery themselves – many others buying the joints and cutting them in the shop.

Local shops and newsagents have significantly reduced from when I was younger. I don’t think there is a tobacconist in Cork and only a couple of cobblers. Post Offices are closing. Recently, a chat with a few friends revealed that the many different insurance and life assurance brokers that we all used had all been taken over and subsumed into larger entities and contact is now with a call-centre-type set-up; personal contact and connection is gone.

Last year, an article in the Irish Times reported that ‘ It is one of Ireland’s great culinary treasures to have such a wealth of independent meat shops. And apparently it is a treasure that a new generation of shoppers is rediscovering.’ I do hope that the article spoke the truth. We do enjoy the fare from O’Mahony’s of the English Market but I do fear the future of mass produced sameness and blandness driven by the supermarkets, the mass producers and the regulators.

I do hope we take a turn on the road to the Brave New World………………

One of Cork's last Victuallers

P.S. Bresnan’s is likely to be the end of reference in Cork to Victualler???

Mark of the English at Collins Barracks

4/8/2022

A few months back, I attended a very enjoyable talk at Collins Barracks in Cork by Prof. Tim Hoyt as part of The Irish Civil War National Conference held by U.C.C. .

Collins Barracks was known as Victoria Barracks at the time of the handover, one hundred years ago. It was subsequently named after Michael Collins and retains that name to today. Gerry White’s talk at the conference on the handover is available online, 48:20 minutes in.

I learnt during the conference that when the British Army handed over the barracks, one of the last things that they did was to cut down the flagpole – seemingly this is always done when a stronghold is being vacated, ‘a long British Army tradition’.
Leaving the Officers’ Mess after the talk, I smiled that not all signs of things English had been removed. Looking down, I noted that the manhole cover was manufactured by Ham, Baker & Co of Westminster.

It remains, most probably ignored by the majority who pass by, on the southern side of the Main Square.

p.s.
I have previously blogged on the War Department, Board of Ordnance markers, which also remain.