Cork Corporation lambasted as anti-car - and pipe smoking causes cancer
CORK Corporation evidently has a deep-seated antipathy to motorists and motor trade development, the Echo stated 100 years ago today, on Saturday, June 9, 1923.
Witness some of the attitude displayed towards Fords.
Now there seems to be a move towards shutting off the streets from motor traffic altogether.
I do not lay claim to motor ownership - not even a push bike - my travelling is done in Adam’s fashion, but I protest against this attack.
A street speed limit is being proposed, yet such a system has been in existence among motorists themselves before the Corporation opened its anti-motor campaign.
I have likewise observed many accidents in which, were the vehicle concerned horse-drawn instead of petrol-driven, lives would most surely have been lost.
Motor traffic is vital to the progress of commerce and even to the preservation of life. Let us recognise this. It is the indifference to this viewpoint from some public representatives that will hinder economic development and encourage carelessness from pedestrians.
That pipe smoking is one of the main causes of cancer of the tongue and throat is a theory put forward by Dr FitzJames Molony in a letter to the British Medical Journal.
“I have never seen a case in men or women who smoke only cigarettes, while it is increasingly frequent in men who smoke pipes,” he wrote,
“For many years I have advised men over 40 years of age to give up the pipe and take to cigarettes. A pipe with a very wide bore is the only relatively safe one to smoke.”
Shortly after 11pm last night, James Horgan, of Glasheen Road, was proceeding homewards when he had an exciting experience.
Mr Horgan was about to enter Donovan’s Road from the Western Road when a man jumped out from the band-field side and shouted: “Halt! hands up” whilst displaying a skittle-like protuberance from his coat pocket.
Mr Horgan consented to the demand and was ordered to hand over his money. Realising he was about to be robbed, and acting on courageous tact, he suddenly butted his assailant and closed with him. In true pugilistic style, he let go with right and left and got him to the ground.
For some time, bicycle thieves have been more than usually busy in the city and the number of machines being stolen is considerable. The common practice is that a bicycle is left outside a shop by its owner and when he returns his property is gone.
The class of individuals who make a practice of lifting bicycles by this method is difficult to trace and the owners are often reluctant to report their loss to the Civic Guards, who, in the discharge of their duty, have shown conspicuous ability.
While the great murmuring of the multitude was devoted to horses, one small but noisy group discussed that humbler friend of man, the ass.
At the Cork Harbour Board meeting, the cost of exporting these animals was declaimed as too high and destroying the trade.
Asses, it was stated, left the country in larger numbers in pre-war days and the numbers departing now were very small indeed.
As the members of the august assembly were leaving, one was overheard to remark: “No wonder the country is going on the way it is.”
On the eve of the Open Championship beginning at Troon, Ayrshire, on Monday, the legality of iron golf clubs now being used by some of the American entrants is being questioned.
The Americans’ remarkable ability to put ‘stop’ on their balls is being marvelled at, and this they achieve by use of mashies and mashie niblicks on which holes have been punched. It is probable the Championship Committee will consider their legality before play begins.
