The August photo is an image of the Big Fella receiving a bouquet of flowers from a child as they chat during a visit to Cork city.

1922 remembered in calendar form

A calendar recalling the everyday living conditions, events, pastimes, and entertainment of the people of Cork in 1922 has been released.

Cork City Libraries recently launched Ordinary Life in Cork City 1922, a commemorative 2022 calendar which includes images from the newspapers of the time, the Ford Collection and private collectors.

It evokes a lively, bustling city despite the ongoing political tumult and military unrest.

This calendar contributes to Cork City Libraries’ decade long programme ‘It Seems History is to Blame: Ireland 1913-23’ introduced in 2013 to help the people of the city understand what happened, and why, and to learn lessons for our own time.

City Librarian David O’Brien said: “In 1922 Cork city and the wider Cork area was truly a place in turmoil. The images in this calendar for 2022 are focused largely on the ordinary lives of the people of Cork in extraordinary times. “It is worth reflecting that the poor living conditions seen in some of the images in this calendar are from a short 100 years ago. Not for the first time in the round of the decade of centenaries, it is fitting to acknowledge and celebrate the resilience of its people.”

Those behind making the calendar said it is not possible to consider 1922 without reference to Michael Collins, a figure that looms large in the memory of the city, the county and the state.

The August entry of this calendar is a poignant image of the Big Fella receiving a bouquet of flowers from a child as they chat during a visit to Cork city in March of that year. A few short months later he was killed in Béal Na Bláth.

November’s images remember the arrival of the Civic Guard in the city in November of the year. It documents the arrival of a contingent of the newly formed Civic Guard. Civic Guards assigned to Cork arrived by steamship, on 9 November, having used this mode of transport because travel by road or railway was not safe and ambushes were a distinct possibility.

The calendar can be picked up at any Cork City Libraries branch for free, while stocks last.