The rooms that tell the story of Cork city

For Kieran McCarthy, being lord mayor of Cork from 2023 to 2024 was a childhood dream come true.

On a tour of the Lord Mayor’s office, the Independent councillor looks out the window beside the desk, in what is known as John F Kennedy corner, out across Anglesea St below.

“When I was a kid, I’d be below looking up,” he says, “and I’d say, ‘Some day…’”

Mr McCarthy has written dozens of books on Cork’s history, and he is one of the main contributors to a booklet published by Cork City Council, entitled The Office of the Lord Mayor and the Council Chamber.

“Being lord mayor, I spent 52 weeks in the office, and I got to explore some of the cabinets and some of the objects, and, with my local historian’s hat on, to have access to some of the city’s civic memorabilia,” Mr McCarthy said. “It was a huge opportunity to look at them up close, whether that be the chain, or the key to City Hall, or the silver maces.”

“It encouraged me to do some research during my mayoralty year and to write up some of that research, and I’ve been doing tours of City Hall during Heritage Week as well.”

During Mr McCarthy’s year as lord mayor he worked with Jordan McCarthy, of corporate affairs in City Hall, to gather the knowledge he had amassed and put it in booklet form, but that year there was a local election, “and time kind of got away from us”.

Their work continued into councillor Dan Boyle’s mayoralty, with Mr McCarthy’s successor supporting their endeavours, and The Office of the Lord Mayor and the Council Chamber was published by Cork City Council earlier this year.

In his introduction to the booklet, Mr Boyle notes that “to be welcomed into the Lord Mayor’s chambers at Cork City Hall is considered a deep honour by the people of Cork and the many visitors that seek a meeting with the city’s first citizen”.

“It is the traditional first engagement for visiting dignitaries when they arrive in Cork city.

“Lords mayor have hosted several presidents of Ireland; the US president John F Kennedy; Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, and King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of The Netherlands.”

Mr McCarthy describes City Hall as “the central hub of civic heritage in the city”, and he notes the three busts downstairs in the foyer. Two of them commemorate Cork’s martyred lords mayor: Tomás MacCurtain, who was murdered by the Royal Irish Constabulary in March 1920, and Terence MacSwiney, who died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison in October 1920. The busts are the work of renowned Cork sculptor Seamus Murphy.

The third bust is of former taoiseach and Cork sporting icon Jack Lynch, and was cast by Cork artist Tom Little from an original sculpture by Murphy.

The Lord Mayor’s office exudes a quiet dignity and warmth.

It is a formal but welcoming place, and it is filled with objects of considerable historical significance.

In his own introductory notes to the booklet, Mr McCarthy writes: “During your visit to Cork’s City Hall, you can explore the council chamber, built by Cork master craftsmen in the early Irish Free State, a Lord Mayor’s room with 18th century silver craftmanship, admiral hats linked to the Throwing of the Dart, the formal gold key to open the front door, to the stories of the martyred Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain and Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney, to the full century suite of portraits of Lords Mayor to pictures of social inclusion projects and festivals.

“Each architectural piece, object, document, or photograph has its own unique story, and one could easily present a booklet on the origins and context of each.”

The chain

The most significant symbol of the mayoralty is the chain, which dates back to 1787.

Mr McCarthy describes the chain as a gold collar and “a very fine specimen of civic insignia, the links of the SS joined alternately by links of looped gold and enamelled cinquefoils, 51 links in all, terminating in a gold portcullis.

“Attached to the chain is a medallion, bearing on the obverse the City Arms, and on the reverse the following inscription: ‘Cork, 9th June, 1787, The Right Worshipful Samuel Rowland, Esq, Mayor, was publicly invested by the Common Speaker, on behalf of the Commons, in open Court of D’Oyer Hundred with the Gold Chain, and immediately after the Mayor conferred the like Honor on the High Sheriffs, and lastly the Ceremony of investing the Mayor with this Pendant and Collar of S.S. was performed by a Deputation from the Council’.”

Other items prominently displayed in the Lord Mayor’s office include the 1936 gold key used in the official opening of the new City Hall by the president of the executive council, in effect the taoiseach of the day.

“On the opening of Cork City Hall in 1936, Éamon de Valera proceeded to the main door of the building and opened the main door of the building with a gold key (made from Messrs. Egan and Sons),” Mr McCarthy writes.

“There were 20,000 people watching the event. A fanfare of trumpets was given by trumpeters of the band, and the tricolour was run up on the City Hall. A second later, the air resounded to the booming of artillery as a salute of 17 big guns was given from the opposite quay by a detachment of artillery from Collins Barracks.”

Cork City Council possesses four silver maces, which will be familiar to many people in Cork for their use in processions, and Mr McCarthy says that while they are alike in form and workmanship, they are of varying size.

“The sides of each head are unusually straight, and engraved, perpendicular lines divide the heads in to four spaces and between these lines are inscribed the words: ‘John Baldwin, Esqr, Mayor Horatio Towsend, Christopher Carlton Esqrs, Shers 1738’.”

John F Kennedy corner, mentioned earlier, commemorates the morning of Friday, June 28, 1963, when the US president received the Freedom of the City, something he could add to similar honours bestowed in Dublin, Galway, Limerick, and Wexford.

The Freedom of Cork casket was decorated with Celtic designs and on the lid the arms of Cork were engraved. On its front was the American eagle crest and on the back the crest of the Kennedy family.

Kennedy’s Irish visit came at the end of his 10-day European tour, during which, two days before his Cork visit, he had made an historic speech in front of the Berlin Wall.

On a personal note, Mr McCarthy believes he first visited the Lord Mayor’s office in 1992, when Micheál Martin wore the chain.

The Taoiseach, who says City Hall is his favourite building, recently told The Echo that his year as lord mayor was, for him and for his wife, Mary, “the best year of our life”.

Across from the Lord Mayor’s office is the Lord Mayor’s meeting room. One of the most striking features in it is a suite of black-and-white portraits of the lords mayor of the 20th century, dating from Daniel Hegarty, the city’s first lord mayor — the office dates back eight centuries, but Queen Victoria only added the word ‘lord’ to the title in 1900.

Overlooking the room is a portrait of Jane Dowdall, Cork city’s first female lord mayor.

In 1951, Jane Dowdall succeeded her late husband by being elected to Seanad Éireann.

As members of Fianna Fáil, she and her husband had been close friends of Éamon de Valera, who was godfather to their son, Finbarr.

In 1959, Ms Dowdall was elected the first female lord mayor of Cork. The portrait of Ms Dowdall, erected by the council in 2010 to mark 100 years of women’s right to vote, is by Belfast-born artist Soirle MacCana, who was principal of the Cork School of Art from 1937 to 1967.

It shows Ms Dowdall in her mayoral robes, and was donated by her granddaughter, also Jane Dowdall, in the hope that it might provide some inspiration to young women interested in politics.

Ms Dowdall was the first of only six women to have been lord mayor of Cork. Her successors were Chrissie Aherne, Deirdre Clune, Catherine Clancy, Mary Shields, and Deirdre Forde.

It is understood that, all going to plan, a seventh woman will have joined that group by the end of the current council’s term, with Fianna Fáil’s Mary Rose Desmond expected to serve as lord mayor from 2027 to 2028.

On Friday, September 19, as part of Culture Night, City Hall will offer free tours of the Lord Mayor’s chambers and the council chamber. See corkcity.ie for further information.

The Office of the Lord Mayor and the Council Chamber is available free of charge from the Lord Mayor’s office in City Hall.