€130,000 in fresh funding for St Anne's Shandon clock tower

Cork’s historic St Anne’s Shandon clock tower is to receive €130,000 in funding under the Government’s Community Monuments Fund (CMF), a northside TD has announced.

The funding, which is part of an over-all national allocation of €7.5m to protect archaeological monuments, comes after an investment last month of €250,000 under the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage’s Historic Structures Fund (HSF).

The CMF allocation is earmarked for capital conservation works, and follows an estimate by Cork City Council, which is responsible for the maintenance of the clock, that the cost of repairs to the damaged clock would likely start at €400,000, with final costs to be determined before any works would commence.

According to locals, the four-faced liar, as the iconic clock has been known for generations in Cork, has been telling the wrong time since last May, and its eastern face has been stopped on six o’clock for as long.

For many years the clock mechanism, which was installed in 1847 by the then Cork Corporation, was maintained by Philip Stokes of Stokes Clocks and Watches on MacCurtain St.

However, at the start of this year, Mr Stokes said he had “stepped away from” the maintenance of the clock mechanism, due to safety concerns relating to structural issues in the clock tower.

Announcing the fresh funding allocation, Pádraig O’Sullivan, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central, said it had been delivered by his party colleagues, housing minister James Browne and Cork South West TD Christopher O’Sullivan, minister of state at the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage.

“It’s fantastic news for Shandon, and it’s great to see coming on top of the earlier €250,000 allocation,” Pádraig O’Sullivan said.

“This allocation coincides with World Heritage Day, which is on Friday, and it will mean that the city council should now be able to carry out the majority of works needed to restore St Anne’s Shandon to its former glory.” 

Shandon St butcher James Nolan, a third-generation trader and a member of Shandon Area Renewal Association, said news of the latest grant was most welcome.

“It’ll be fabulous to get the clock back up and running, it’s such an iconic part of the city, it’s one of the picture postcard images of Cork city,” Mr Nolan said.

“Hopefully, everything else will fall into place as well.

“We have an application in for funding for the Butter Market and the Weighmaster’s House as well, so hopefully it will snowball rejuvenation for the Shandon area.” 

Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins said he was delighted at news of the latest funding allocation, having raised the issue of funding for Shandon several times at council level.