Story of Cork told through treasure trove of donations, including historical artefacts and memorabilia

Cork City and County Archives recently took possession of a treasure trove of donations, from old Mallow cinema posters to legal records, memorabilia, and historical artifacts showcasing the county’s long and storied heritage.

The archives receive about 20 to 50 new collections each year. This includes records transferred from the city and county councils, and records privately deposited. In 2022, it received 37 new collections. So far this year, it has had 14 new accessions.

Archival collections can often be very large, containing hundreds or thousands of items, said Brian McGee, senior archivist with the Cork City and County Archives (CCCA) Service, which is housed in the Seamus Murphy Building at 32 Great William O’Brien Street.

Local historian Kevin Myers has kindly donated a wonderful collection of cinema posters of the Central Cinema, Central Hall, in Mallow, said Brian. These large advertising posters date mainly from the 1940s to the 1960s.

“It appears to be a very important collection of cinema posters, from the heyday of Hollywood,” said Brian. The dashing Douglas Fairbanks, the Son of Zorro, is there, in a silent movie poster from the 1920s. Mr Myers rescued the posters from almost certain destruction.

The CCCA recently received the donation from Simon Ronan and family, formerly of Cuskinny House, Cobh, of solicitors’ records and legal documents. The last elderly member of the family died, and the collection was assembled as the house was being cleared out. “It was very kind of them to think of us,” said Brian.

The records, which mostly date from the 1700s to the early 1900s, relate to the Ronan Solicitors practice, South Mall, Cork, and the French family and estate, and other estates, such as McNamara, Sugrue, and Gould. The records have survived in mainly good condition in large metal deed boxes.

“They were prominent in Cork in the 1800s and 1900s,” said Brian. “It’s quite an important practice. Some of them were solicitors for the Corporation and the County Council. The records are from the practice, but related to particular families. The Frenches were the ones who built Cuskinny estate. They were major landowner and land agents.” The fragile documents were stored in about a dozen metal deed boxes, protecting them for hundreds of years. They will need cleaning and conservation, but the CCCA is well equipped with archival property boxes.

“They are by and large in very good condition,” said Brian. “It will be a lot of work to process them now and list them all. 

"There would be dozens or hundreds of items in each box. It’s a lot of material. 

"Collections like this are very important to local history.”

Students from University College Cork and colleges across Ireland access the records, researching land ownership or genealogy.

“We have records here from 20 other solicitors’ practices as well. We have 400 or 500 other landed estate archive collections. It’s an enormous collection.”

The destruction of the public record office in Dublin during the Civil War in 1922 makes this material even more important.

“An awful lot of the records on land were lost, so collections like this are doubly important because of that, because they document aspects of our local history that otherwise might not be documented at all,” said Brian. “The legal community in Cork have been very supportive over the years, depositing their old collections.”

The latest donation could take six months to a year to process.

Cork Archives has a purpose-built, state-of-the-art repository in Blackpool, which opened in 2006, containing fire-proof, air-conditioned strong rooms, the “securest possible environment for this kind of material”. The material is transferred to archival boxes and folders, before being numbered, and a descriptive list of the contents is compiled. That list is published on the CCCA website, and on an online catalogue, so historians can conduct their research before visiting in person.

“The council invests considerable resources in preserving all this material,” said Brian. “It’s the raw material of our history.”

Other new accessions include those donated from Johnson and Perrott Ltd, called the William Perrott collection, gifted in March. “They have a 200-year history in Cork. They used to build coaches for horses, but then they went into motors. That’s a wonderful and interesting collection of business records.”

The personal diaries of William Perrott from the revolutionary era have survived, with a lovely set of photographs. “We were really delighted to get that, it’s a very important addition,” said Brian.

The Gollock family archive was donated in April, from a landowning family near Macroom, containing lovely old maps and parchments, while the Sloane family collection contains a strong maritime theme as that family have a history with the Royal Navy and Irish Navy stretching back many years.

Donated by Teresa Sloane of Ballycotton, this material details the service of generations of seafarers, through the World Wars.

The archives contain a poem written by the bardic poetic figure of Daibhi de Barra from east Cork.

“That manuscript was written in 1825. It’s a poem to a head school teacher in Midleton. It came to light in America.” The poem was in the possession of a descendant of the subject of the poem, and he donated it to the Carrigtwohill Historical Society.

“It’s a really important item. Very little has survived from the hedge schools,” said Brian.

There is a rare invitation card for a special meeting of Cork City Council to confer the Freedom of the City on President John F Kennedy during his visit to Cork on June 28, 1963.

This item is paired with an acknowledgment of sympathy card from Jacqueline Kennedy, his widow, in correspondence following the President’s assassination just five months later.

“It was actually donated by my own family,” said Brian. “They had it in the family for years. The McGee family of Patrick’s Hill had a distant relation through marriage to John F Kennedy.” Brian’s grandmother, Josephine, and her husband, James, were invited to the occasion in Cork City Hall, and shook hands with JFK just months before tragedy struck.

“It was one of the biggest events that ever happened in Cork. My grandmother wrote to Jacqueline Kennedy expressing her condolences on his death. Jacqueline Kennedy sent a form card in an envelope acknowledging the sympathy card.” The card will gain added significance on the 60th anniversary of JFK’s death this November.

The personal records, ephemera, and memorabilia of Donal and Rita Murphy form a fascinating social history spanning religious and other groups from across the city.

From Cork City centre, and later Frankfield, Donal died in recent years. “They were heavily involved in religious organisations. There must be ten or 20 boxes of leaflets and programmes of events all from the 1940s, 50s, right up to the 90s and early 2000s. It’s a very unusual one. Bernise Murphy, Donal and Rita’s daughter, very kindly donated that collection to us,” said Brian.

John O’Connell is an avid collector and local historian whose donation encompasses the Fermoy area, containing leaflets, posters, photographs and documents. “He collected it all and wanted to see it in public hands. Giving it to us means it becomes a public record, and a permanent resource for the people of Cork,” added Brian.

The Cork City and County Archives are open on weekdays from 10am to 5pm.