Tom MacSweeney column: Cork city should have a permanent maritime museum

“Cork is a city born of the sea and of the ocean highways that lead from her to the rest of the world.”

Those words were written by the late Dr Daphne Pochin Mould about ‘Maritime Cork’ in March 1985, in the souvenir catalogue for the Cork 800 Maritime Exhibition at Crawford Municipal Art Gallery.

In the same catalogue the late author and historian, John de Courcy Ireland, the strongest voice for Ireland’s maritime sector for very many years wrote: “I hope that this fine initiative will lead, as those who have taken it hope, to the establishment in Cork of a permanent maritime museum.

“Few cities anywhere in the wide world are more deserving of having their maritime history recorded in a museum to celebrate a remarkable past.”

Many historical maritime facts were recorded in the catalogue, including about shipbuilding at two county locations.

In 1613 two vessels of 500 tons each were built on the River Bandon at Innishannon for the East India Company, which for two centuries was a world leader amongst shipping companies;

The first steam ship ever built in Ireland, the ‘City of Cork’, was constructed at Passage West and launched there on September 10, 1815.

There were 37 models on display at the exhibition of vessels that had historical connections with Cork Port. One of them had been brought from the islands of Scotland to operate as a transport in Cork Harbour — MV Corpach. This was an ex-Clyde ‘puffer’.

Peculiar

That description came from the “peculiar puffing aspirations of their original steam engines”, as it was mechanically described.

‘Puffers’ were the small cargo ships of the Scottish West Highlands and Islands, “capable, failing any suitable pier being available, to be run ashore, off-loaded at low tide and able to sail away when the tide rose again”. It was operated in Cork Harbour from 1956-75 by Marine Transport Services.

I bring the exhibition to mind 41 years after it was held, because there were then “high hopes” as Mr de Courcy recorded, amongst “the admirable group of maritime-minded Cork citizens who have organised this splendid exhibition as a contribution to Cork’s ‘800 celebrations”, that the city would get a dedicated maritime museum.

It never did.

A voluntary effort has established a maritime museum in Passage West but the proud, historic maritime city of Cork still does not have one and there are few easily recognisable public memorials, monuments or artefacts around Leeside to pay tribute to Cork’s maritime history.

Amongst those who do remember our maritime history is the Cork Dockers Group administered on Facebook by Liam Corcoran: “This is a place and space I created to post and look at pictures of the Docks of Cork city,” he writes. It posts wonderful photographs and information about the great community that was the dockers of Cork. Theirs was a tough, hard life, for men who did a vital job for the city. The photograph above shows what it was like, as two dockers lift a load from a ship’s deck.

Cork should be highlighting its place as a maritime city.

Longest coastline 

County Cork has the longest coastline of any county in Ireland, measuring around 1,100km to 1,200km (roughly 680–745miles) in total. This extensive coastline is about 19% of the entire Irish coastline, with numerous bays, peninsulas, and islands stretching from Youghal in the east to the Beara Peninsula in the west.

Cork County Council, to the best of my knowledge, does not even have a maritime committee amongst its structure of council activities. Every month it emails publicly its ‘Heritage Update’ but it is rare to find any maritime mention.

The city and county councils should see the potential in recognising and developing appreciation of the maritime history of Cork to a higher level than they do at present.

Seeing the potential of seaweed

Michael O’Neill has seen the potential of seaweed and is developing it: pioneering West Cork-based marine biotechnology to launch Ireland’s first health supplement range made from native red seaweed.

He founded and is the CEO of Pure Ocean Algae based on the Beara Peninsula which has gone to market in Ireland and the UK, with plans to expand into EU and Asian markets later.

Red seaweed or Palmaria palmata, commonly known as dulse or dillisk, has historically been wild-harvested but Pure Ocean Algae has built Ireland’s first end-to-end production platform for the seaweed, managing the full lifecycle from hatchery to growing sites to processing.

“The red seaweed we cultivate is vastly different from wild-harvested dulse, because we control every stage of its development,” said Mr O’Neill.

“Ireland’s seaweed farming sector is still in its infancy, but with international demand for marine-derived ingredients across food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and dietary supplements, there is huge potential.”

• Seascapes podcast at: tommacsweeneymaritimepodcast.ie and on podcast platforms;
• Email: tommacsweeneymarine@gmail.com.