'He was a champion of Cork': Richard T Cooke helped bring history of city back to life for us all

It was the Friday of the Jazz Weekend, October 25 last, when Cork’s well known Richard T Cooke departed from this earthly world and went to his eternal rest.

The city was buzzing with music which would certainly have put a smile on his face.

It was also a most fitting weekend for Richard to bid his final farewell, as years previously the World Ghost Convention, which he founded in 2001, would often be held on the Friday night of that weekend.

Since he was a young boy, Richard had experienced on numerous occasions things he couldn’t explain and also during his years of research and study, which led him to many historical monuments such as castles, mansions, and graveyards, he further encountered unusual happenings.

These were mirrored in many of the interviews he conducted with people of all ages and from all walks of life who related to him their own profound supernatural experiences and the apparitions that they had witnessed. This led him to establish the World Ghost Convention, an annual event held in Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre, which ran for 15 years, the aim of which was to explore the spiritual and supernatural, raise public awareness and provide practical guidance.

It is in the area of heritage, however, that Richard was best known. He was one of the most distinguished, contemporary, historical writers in the field of local studies.

Born on the Mardyke in Erinville Hospital, he grew up in a very historic part of the city, the North Mall. As a child, the River Lee, Hayes’ Marsh and the Mardyke Walk were his favourite playgrounds. Growing up beside the River Lee offered endless opportunities for adventure. Just like Huckleberry Finn and his friends, Richard and his pals would happily spend their days fishing along the North Mall.

An award-winning best-selling author, his passion and love for his native smiling city of Cork with its rich, colourful heritage, tradition and culture was nurtured from a very young age by his parents, family, and extended family, as well as neighbours and friends and manifested itself in many forms over his long and varied career.

Educated at CBS Blarney Street, Richard furthered his studies on the history of Cork at the School of Commerce, now Cork College of FET and University College Cork. Highly researched primary source material, distilled to its essence and transformed into an easy flowing entertaining read, was the hallmark of his animated style.

Since the early 1980s his large body of work has appeared locally and nationally in newspapers, magazines and books (including Guide to the History of Cork which became a school text) and used in guided heritage tours as well as broadcast on radio and television.

As the author, scriptwriter and researcher of the ground-breaking, award-winning educational heritage documentary series: On the Banks and My Home by the Lee, produced by Cork Multichannel TV, Richard became a household name in Cork.

For the first time ever, the streets, lanes and alleyways of the ancient City of Cork came to life in a way that had never been seen before. This heritage television series was a blueprint for others to follow.

In 1999, the television series: My Home by the Lee was published in book form to celebrate the Cork millennium. Described as ‘the peoples’ history of Cork’, it was dedicated to his mentor and friend, the Historian, CJF MacCarthy.

In March of the same year, Richard was given CJF’s historical inheritance by his wife, Elizabeth and family (shortly before his own death, Richard presented these historical documents to the Cork City and County Archives).

In 2009 Richard’s work was recognised when he was honoured with the prestigious Lord Mayor of Cork Civic Award for his ‘lifetime in promoting Ireland and his beloved smiling City of Cork to the world through his writings and through his songs and music’.

His History and Culture Show on Cork City Community Radio proved very popular, with Richard always cheerfully introducing his show with the slogan: “We Corkonians are loud and proud of our heritage!” His love for his city was reflected in the many festivals, organisations and community events that he was involved with.

As co-founder and co-organiser of the annual Cork Coal Quay Family Festival which celebrated the heart and soul of the city, Richard’s original compositions: Up the Coal Quay and Cork City is my Home were the opening soundtrack to this unique event: His original songs and music, which one can hear on his YouTube channel under his own name, were inspired from interviews he conducted with Corkonians down through the years.

As chairperson of the popular annual Heritage Festival: Celebrating Cork Past Exhibition and the Lord Mayor’s Community Heritage Concert, he brought together heritage societies and organisations from Cork City and County. Held in City Hall, these unique events were the brainchild of his dear friend, the late Brian Bermingham, former lord mayor of Cork.

A member of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society for forty years,

Richard was president and chairperson of the Cork Adult Education Council and was committed to the development of adult education in Cork city.

He was also actively involved with the organising committees of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival and Summer School, and the UCC First World War Recital Commemoration, all of which promoted his beautiful multicultural University City of Cork.

Richard T Cooke – a historian who captured the imagination and made the history of Cork accessible

by Kieran McCarthy, former lord mayor of Cork

Dr Richard T Cooke was a champion of Cork. He was proud of Cork. He loved Cork.

You just had to spend one minute in Richard’s company to see his enthusiasm and to smile from ear to ear with that enthusiasm. But there was also a great depth to the gentleman. One just has to go into the City Library and explore his written works from the early 1980s onwards.

He was part of a generation inspired by other local historians or public history historians such as CJF McCarthy and Seán Pettit. CJF and Seán clearly had a deep impact on him. And any conversation I had with Richard about his volunteer local history work, CJF was always in the conversation. In the early 1980s, the likes of the great CJF and Seán brought local history alive to the public masses.

Richard built much of his early work on the idea that Cork history should be accessible to the public. That is clear in his introductions to his articles and books. In his early work Richard developed his own methodologies to break down the rich historical detail into accessible snippets or junks.

One just has to look at his work in the mid-1980s with Marian Scanlon on the archaeology discovered at Bishop Lucey Park and the history of the Christ Church space through the ages.

His publication of magazines on the local history of the Middle Parish are fun and creative. His publication in the early 1990s on the history of the Mardyke is impressively researched and well laid out to read. He was an early pioneer in bringing the story of the walled town of Cork and its “medievalness” to the public.

When I started out researching Cork as a teenager over 30 years ago, it was Richard’s words and works I first met as I struggled to make sense of how the city came into being, how our buildings came into being.

They captured my imagination and interest and made the history accessible.

His pictures led me to walk the streets. His old map selections led me to pore over the larger map sections in the City Library. All of my early school-based local history works drew on Richard’s written works. For me in the 1990s, his publications were the “go to” ones. And I as I write this and reflect, Richard’s output inspired my love for research of my city.

For me, Cork history has always been like learning a language – you get fluent in what is available and what is not available. Richard was a “language maker” of Cork history. He also was an avid photographer and recorder of Cork’s past. Indeed all of his works are still “go-to” works for those starting off researching Cork history in the City Library today.

I met Richard in the years following my early research. I met a gentleman who was humble and ever passionate about Cork history and its communities.

His interests in the provision of public local history led him to create even more ways of engaging the public through setting up historical societies, exhibitions and even composing songs. Indeed, the first time I heard his Cork ballads selections, I smiled with a grin and sentiment and denoting that the use of music is a very clever strategy to capture the public’s imaginations. And when he played “Up the Coal Quay” for the first time the tune stayed as an earworm in my ear. And when I least expected it I was humming it on my walks across the city over the last number of years.

Richard’s work with Breda Scanlon and the Coal Quay shawlies was inspiring and shone a light on stories that were certainly rapidly disappearing. I like to think it was their work, which has led to many of the stories being recorded and safe at this moment in time.

Richard will be remembered for many things. The city and its civic strands owe him much. He never sought thanks.

But when he did pass away, I personally felt that the light of an important recorder of Cork history, a champion of Cork history, but above all the light of person who loved Cork with all his heart and all his soul, had extinguished. Richard will be long remembered through his works and through all the friends he made along his life’s journey.

Rest in peace Richard, and sincere condolences to family and friends.