A Yankee's Corkboard: Cathedrals and Cannons and Crypts, oh my! (part 2)

Castles and Cannons and Crypts,oh my! (part 2)
It was only after my original post that I realized the more accurate title would have had 'cathedrals' rather than 'castles', but so it goes *shrugs*
As promised, all too long ago, here is the second part of my geography class' field trip.
Part three of this trip, and the report on this Wednesday's field trip should be posted later ;)
This post will be updated as well as the report for class fleshes out!

After a much too short visit at St. Finbarr’s we took our leave, exiting from the same gate we entered. We took two turns left and we walking down Dean’s Street when we stopped in front of a seemingly random building, still in sight of the cathedral. The building had a blue door upon which there was a modest brass plaque which read “organists house”. This was where the organ player for the cathedral lived during their time in employment for the church.

Walking down Bishop’s Street and Dean’s Street one can find the residences of those who held offices or positions at the church—the dean, the bishop, the organist, or the choir boys! The building’s were sometimes clearly marked—as you mightexpect the door to the secretary’s office to be. (e.g. Choristers house)

Just a few meters down the street there was also a red building we were told was the cathedral’s library and primary school. Everything was in easy walking distance for the sake of convenience.

Mentioned to us was a house a little ways down Vicar’s Street where we would find a house with particular windows. Ciara and I decided it was worth the little side-quest. We found with no trouble at all a house that seemed to fit the bill and I took a picture of it (fig. 4). The story goes that in said house was a catholic priest, hiding in plain clothes under the shadow of the cathedral! Stories like this really seem to make the city come alive—any small, unassuming building may have the most interesting history behind it! Seeing how we had pleasant weather and were were a bit ahead of schedule, we decided to take a quick jaunt over to Prosperity Square.

(pictures of prosperity square will be added later)

Turning the corner from Prosperity Square onto the aptly named Barrack’s Street we were faced with the wall and front gate of Elizabeth Fort. Before entering, however, we took the time to point out a few older buildings along the way: Coach house, Gateway Cottage, and Reeds Cottage...

The Gateway Bar is so named as it is placed directly in front of the fort’s gateway. One can imagine walking by on a night long past, soldiers from the barracks coming to and from between the fort and the bar laughing and joking with one another…though before I could get too lost in my imagination we came up to the fort gate.

Just a few days afore, walking with friends down past city centre on our way to a haunted house, I was given a brief rundown on the looming stone walls in passing. My friend Francis told me that the fort had been originally made out of wood. It was destroyed by the upset citizens of Cork in 1603—razed to the ground. Ironically, it was then rebuilt at the citizen’s expense. Using the same basic outline for the new stone fort, it was rebuilt by 1624.

"Whatcha take a picture of a trash can for?" I was surprised to hear that this random hole in the wall was actually an old WWII air-raid shelter. I actually took a peak behind the wooden boards and saw that there was indeed something behind there. Why cover it up I wonder? For whatever reason, putting a rubbish bin in front was ingenious--nobody wants to be around refuse.

walking across the parking lot of the garda Station now stationed there, we came up to a cannon--quite a small cannon compared to the guns that used to be positioned there as evidenced by the tracks they would be moved along.
I understood what these were from a recent visit to Old Fort Niagara in New York just two months previous.

As seen in the pictures from St. Finbarrs, a cannon was fired in 1690 when the fort was being occupied by Williamite forces—the cannonball which hit St. Finbarr’s spire was found by Burges when he was rebuilding the cathedral in the 19^th century. I kept wondering why it hadn’t been found before then? One would think it would be pretty hard to miss the fact that the building was hit by cannon-fire.

The fact that St. Finbarr’s was hit by a cannon fired from the fort brings up another interesting point. When the class was asked if there was anything strange or anything that stood out about the cannon or the view from the gun-port I noted, “is it pointing out towards the city?”

The fort has had many purposes—it has been used as an all-female prison, a military barracks, and it is currently acting as a garda station. Due to its ideal location it relatively kept its original identity—an institution for keeping order. This explains why guns would be facing towards the city—people are much less likely to get ideas of revolting over things they disagree with if whenever they look up they

are reminded that there are guns pointed at their homes and livelihoods

a smaller set of tracks for cannon upon which was written, “the most beautiful window in Cork”. Ciara and I had to agree, that was a poetic end to our short visit to the fort that day

As we turned to leave, I spun around to take one last picture which shows the blue garda station door and a spire of St. Finbarr’s Cathedral in the background. Again it struck me how connected everything seemed to be. I am used to cities in the United States whose roads use a grid system, not a “plate of spaghetti system” as my stepfather would say. The fact that you can walk for ten minutes in one direction and ultimately end up across the street from where you originally started is altogether unfamiliar to this girl from the suburbs of Chicagoland.

As I stood at the gun port, looking out over the city, the magnificent view made me realize something quite obvious I hadn’t thought of before—we were on a hill. Holding the high ground would definitely give a military fort the advantage in many aspects. Everything else on our class’ tour from the fort onward were downhill, towards the River Lee.

One clear indication of the hill the fort rests on in the view down Keyser’s Hill. The walls were close together and it was impossible to see around the corner, giving a claustrophobic feeling, I know it was a snug fit for the class to stand there—though there were sporadically smaller doorways leading into back gardens and yards, or bricked-in wall where windows once where that made me think that this

street probably hasn’t changed much since it was first built.

As we emerged out onto the side of French’s Quay we could see across the river the Beamish Brewery. It is understandable that the brewery would be placed directly on the riverside as it could take advantage of the river’s water in the production of the beer. After watching the brewing process many a weekend morning back home I am aware of just how much water is necessary!

The class in groups crossed the road where there were gaps in traffic and entered the building I had passed so many times before—Christ Church. I had been told that the building was simply a café at the edge of the park. I had no idea it was originally a church. To be fair, it didn’t appear very church like—it gave

more of a museum-like atmosphere. I found this building to be quite disorienting: it was a café, it was a theater, it was a church, it was a crypt… Not many people have so many diverse skills on their resumes! After leaving the closed-door pews and making our way back towards the door on our way out the majority of us students took the time to walk down into the small glass viewing-box showing the crypt. Simply walking down a few steps into a crypt seemed strange nd out of place when compared to the appearance of the building as it is now

We were getting closer to the end of our class,and so we made
our way across Bishop Lucey Park next door and stopped just inside the
gate to see the early medieval city wall which was excavated by UCC’s archaeology department
in 1985