I noticed now how I mistakenly published my earlier post with this title, even though it was the second half of the second field trip...now I attempt to remedy that!
Here we go:
We would later take two consecutive Wednesdays for our second field trip around the historic city of Cork. Ending and then starting afresh at the Cork Vision Center, but I am ahead of myself. Our second field trip started out in the misty morning in front of the Connolly building. As we departed from the square we made our way directly across the street and over the bridge to the River Lee Hotel. I must have walked past this building dozens of times before then, but know nothing about it. Between the drizzling rain and the business women chatting behind me it was difficult to catch some pieces of conversation, though by the end what I understood was the hotel was built in the early 2000s when it was placed on a small island situated in the River Lee. The land there was actually used as a railway station—this came as a surprise to me—I would have thought that all the marshland would have made it too difficult to make anything more than waterways or simple roads. As I have passed by this building most every day since my arrival in early September, the thought of its less than common appearance has been in the back of my mind, but I always brushed the thought aside as some architect taking artistic liberty and having fun with their design.
When one is walking on Sunday’s Well Road, the spires from St. Finbarr’s Cathedral are visible, but the building of the hotel was threatening that precious view—as such, the local residents threw a fit—and the building’s shape now accommodates their wishes to keep their aesthetic vision of the city. I can attest to this as I weekly travel along Sunday Well’s Road to the UCC Music Department building. From there I can clearly see the hotel and St. Finbarr’s behind it, and I took pictures to prove it!
Tucked between shops is a humdrum grey building only set apart from its height and slight distance from the street. The Cork Vision Center, once a Roman Catholic Church—St. Peter’s—was reopened to the public in 1998 after being deconsecrated and left dilapidated in 1949
The Cork Vision Center is located off of North Main Street, halfway between Washington Street and the River. I often surprises me how churches, burial grounds and other holy sites will seemingly appear out of nowhere; the Huguenot burial ground on Cary’s Street, a holy well on a beach in Dingle, Cork Vision Center on North Main Street
Inside is now an art gallery and events center, though weddings can now take place there. The main floor is dominated by a large scale-model of the city.
Above: St. Finbarr's Cathedral
Below: darkened section = original area of the medieval walled city
One can still see little pieces of the building’s past; there is a 1664 baptismal font standing guard at the front door with the initials of the church wardens carved on its face, a tall window still sporting it’s now faded gold leaf décor for what probably lit the high alter when still a functioning church, and there are two memorial plaques on the wall inside as well as a larger memorial in a side-room, both quite impressive. We all gazed over the to-scale layout of Cork city stretched across the main floor and then made our way to our next appointments until next week.
We would later take two consecutive Wednesdays for our second field trip around the historic city of Cork. Ending and then starting afresh at the Cork Vision Center, but I am ahead of myself. Our second field trip started out in the misty morning in front of the Connolly building. As we departed from the square we made our way directly across the street and over the bridge to the River Lee Hotel. I must have walked past this building dozens of times before then, but know nothing about it. Between the drizzling rain and the business women chatting behind me it was difficult to catch some pieces of conversation, though by the end what I understood was the hotel was built in the early 2000s when it was placed on a small island situated in the River Lee. The land there was actually used as a railway station—this came as a surprise to me—I would have thought that all the marshland would have made it too difficult to make anything more than waterways or simple roads. As I have passed by this building most every day since my arrival in early September, the thought of its less than common appearance has been in the back of my mind, but I always brushed the thought aside as some architect taking artistic liberty and having fun with their design.
When one is walking on Sunday’s Well Road, the spires from St. Finbarr’s Cathedral are visible, but the building of the hotel was threatening that precious view—as such, the local residents threw a fit—and the building’s shape now accommodates their wishes to keep their aesthetic vision of the city. I can attest to this as I weekly travel along Sunday Well’s Road to the UCC Music Department building. From there I can clearly see the hotel and St. Finbarr’s behind it, and I took pictures to prove it!
As we opened our umbrellas,
put up our hoods, and prepared to venture out into the wet once more we were told
to look to our left when crossing the
bridge so we could see what, to me, looked like large bowls. These were
supports for a bridge which no longer stands, used by trains to exit the little island. The trains would run along where the bus lane
now sits on Western Road going towards the Western end of Cork.
This whole area was a merchant area.
All seemed to be clicking into place: the train going through the area, the
shipping docks, the vault bar and shops along the road…Reidy’s Vault Bar is a
charming spot in town with a really friendly host who is always willing to chat
or suggest fun places to visit. The atmosphere of the building itself only adds
to its character, it survives from the merchant era, its interior as well as
its exterior call to mind this time now gone.
Our next stop was the courthouse—another
landmark used by locals and visitors alike—I had walked past this even more
frequently and had never been inside. We packed into the entrance and after
shaking off the wet and pulling out our notebooks, we made sure to turn off our
phones and put away our cameras as there was no recording equipment allowed in
the courtrooms (which I found to be a pity as the robes and wigs tickled me
pink!). I had passed by the courthouse once awhile back and seen a few folks
standing just outside the doors wearing the robes and wigs—but I had thought
then that it was part of the Cork culture week or part of some special event—It
hadn’t occurred to me that they might wear them on a regular basis! The wigs were
made of horsehair to make them look powdered, in my opinion they just look
downright uncomfortable! If the itching isn’t enough to drive one away, the
price just might—horsehair wigs cost in the thousands! There is one firm in
London that still makes them.
The
Courthouse is built like a Grecian Temple, with columns, a grand set of steps
leading to the main front doors, and William IV carved outside. Prisoners and
members of the public alike had to be brought up and down those steps. The
building was tragically gutted by fire on Good Friday, the 27th of
March, 1891. There is an 1890s oil painting hung upstairs in the main hall depicting
this event. Because of the fire, all the fixtures and fittings inside are
Victorian in style. There is enough marble there to make any Roman emperor
jealous, in fact, it is quite reminiscent of buildings in Washington D.C.
As we stood just outside an active
courtroom a man walked out and asked if we wished to go inside. Apparently our attempts at keeping our noise level below
stampeding hoard of college students were failing. We were invited
inside and shuffled our way to seats reserved for the public. It surprised me
how the public could walk into any active courtroom and watch. The thought of
it seemed almost disrespectful—treating someone’s private matters as a form of
reality entertainment—I honestly felt like we were intruding, but once we were
settled into the seats and were no longer making a disturbance the feeling
dissipated. The inside of the courtroom was quite opulent, with dark wood
paneling, plush red cushions, and a canopy over the judge’s chair at the head
of the room. It was a bit disorienting inside as the Victorian atmosphere
clashed with the contemporary drugs case. Once we awkwardly made our way back
out to the lobby we noticed the beautiful mosaic on the floor next to the
aforementioned oil painting in the original entrance. The red marble was
locally sourced from Cork and the green marble from Connemara. After a short
break in the lobby we made our way outside again to a brighter sky,
the rain had dissipated
We walked around the courthouse, 
turning left down Cross
Street towards the Franciscan Friary, St. Francis Church.
Sitting on Liberty Street is a brick building which was built in the 1950s.
When facing the front porch, to one’s left-hand side is where the friars live.
To the left side of the friary can be found some red-brick houses with steep
roofs (on Fenn’s Quay), these are Ireland’s oldest example of a terrace. Fenn
was a Quaker—the original Quaker meeting house was behind the Franciscan
Friary—it had a separate entrance for the sexes despite both men and women
meeting in the same room, separate sides or no. It was in use until 1939 and
then relocated to the burial ground (where nobody is buried), and then granted
a place for archival and historical purposes. We walked in a large circle to
the Cork Vision Center, the last stop on
this trip, and the point of starting for our last.
turning left down Cross
Street towards the Franciscan Friary, St. Francis Church.
Sitting on Liberty Street is a brick building which was built in the 1950s.
When facing the front porch, to one’s left-hand side is where the friars live.
To the left side of the friary can be found some red-brick houses with steep
roofs (on Fenn’s Quay), these are Ireland’s oldest example of a terrace. Fenn
was a Quaker—the original Quaker meeting house was behind the Franciscan
Friary—it had a separate entrance for the sexes despite both men and women
meeting in the same room, separate sides or no. It was in use until 1939 and
then relocated to the burial ground (where nobody is buried), and then granted
a place for archival and historical purposes. We walked in a large circle to
the Cork Vision Center, the last stop on
this trip, and the point of starting for our last.
Tucked between shops is a humdrum grey building only set apart from its height and slight distance from the street. The Cork Vision Center, once a Roman Catholic Church—St. Peter’s—was reopened to the public in 1998 after being deconsecrated and left dilapidated in 1949
The Cork Vision Center is located off of North Main Street, halfway between Washington Street and the River. I often surprises me how churches, burial grounds and other holy sites will seemingly appear out of nowhere; the Huguenot burial ground on Cary’s Street, a holy well on a beach in Dingle, Cork Vision Center on North Main Street
Above: St. Finbarr's Cathedral
Below: darkened section = original area of the medieval walled city
One can still see little pieces of the building’s past; there is a 1664 baptismal font standing guard at the front door with the initials of the church wardens carved on its face, a tall window still sporting it’s now faded gold leaf décor for what probably lit the high alter when still a functioning church, and there are two memorial plaques on the wall inside as well as a larger memorial in a side-room, both quite impressive. We all gazed over the to-scale layout of Cork city stretched across the main floor and then made our way to our next appointments until next week.
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