V extracts from Kieran's book

‘A-Z of Cork, Places, People, History’ and published by Amberley Publishing (2025) is my latest publication on the rich history of Cork city. Below are extracts from the new book, which is available in any good bookshop in the city as well as online. Below are extracts from the letter V.

Vegetables:

For over 250 years market gardeners supplied the vegetable needs of Cork. Historic maps of Cork show market gardens for the growing of vegetables as far back as the mid-eighteenth century. In particular south of Douglas Street, in what is now the Deerpark area, is delineated on old maps for cultivation.

As the early nineteenth century progressed, maps from that time show areas in the Blackpool having market garden space. Historical records show continuous progression of wider suburban cultivation. The townlands of Ballyphehane and Kilreendowney are noted to have 75 per cent of the land in market cultivation. 55 per cent of the land in Ballinlough is recorded as under market gardens.

If economic viability was to be attained, cultivation had to be intensive. The management of market gardens was labour-intensive with the implements utilised being the basic hand type. The diversity of vegetable types cultivated meant that the work of planting and harvesting went on all year round. Potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, onions, carrots, broccoli, leeks, cauliflower, lettuce, white turnips and swede were the standard crops planted. Most gardeners also grew herbs such as parsley, thyme and chives.

Chickens were kept by many of the gardening households and surplus eggs were sold to shops, or to anyone who called to the door for them. A few of the gardeners also kept pigs, but on a very small scale. Whatever vegetables were grown had to be sold, and hence animals were necessary to transport produce to market spaces and within the larger gardens, provide traction power for ploughs, seeders and scufflers. Money could be earned by other activities. A donkey could be used to deliver turf or bags of coal door to door, or could be hired to move the occasional load of furniture for someone moving house. In general, produce was brought to the city’s open-air market on Cornmarket Street, the Coal Quay and to the English Market.

Vicklemen:

Many of the new Jewish arrivals to Cork in the late nineteenth century had few resources. During the Russian oppression which preceded the May Lass of 1881, several Jews of Vilna, Kovno and Ackmeyan, a Lithuanian village, came to live in Cork. A congregation was formed at the close of 1881. They settled in Hibernian Buildings on Albert Road in the 1880s. Many made a living by becoming peddlers, going from door to door selling household goods and Roman Catholic holy pictures. The national census of 1901 recorded that of the forty men of working age living in Albert Road, affectionately known as Jewtown, thirty-two were described as peddlers. Their rounds would usually take a week to complete. They became known as the Weekly Men, or ‘Vicklemen’ in Yiddish.

Volunteer:

Mary Elmes Bridge was opened on 27 September 2019. It was engineered off-site by Thompsons of Carlow. The bridge is dedicated to Mary Elmes who was born in Cork in 1908. She studied at Trinity College and at the London School of Economics, before volunteering as an aid worker in the Spanish Civil War and later in France during the Second World War, where she is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of Jewish children and adults. After the war, she was awarded the Legion of Honour but did not accept it. She was posthumously honoured as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by the State of Israel for her work. The Mary Elmes Bridge was funded by the EU and the National Transport Authority. ARUP consulting engineers and Wilkinson Eyre architects were chosen to design the bridge.

Vomit:

Pioneering psychiatrist Dr William Saunders Hallaran founded the Cork Lunatic Asylum in 1791, which was an important step in establishing dedicated services for the mentally ill in this region. William was Physician Superintendent at the County and City of Cork Lunatic Asylum for forty years. Generally, however, there was still a paucity of accommodation and treatment facilities for the mentally ill, especially the destitute mentally ill, which put substantial pressure on what was available, especially the Houses of Industry. In 1798, William also established the private Citadella Asylum off Blackrock Road. William also created a regime of active treatment for those suffering from mental illness. Among the cures researched and recommended by William were bleeding, emetics, purgatives, opium, camphor, blistering, mercury, baths and the circulating swing. The swing concept had been developed by Joseph Mason Cox and induced people to vomit. This was modified by William to become a swing capable of rotating a patient 100 times per minute.

Vulnerable:

It was in 1970 that students from Presentation Brothers College, Cork, first raised funds to try and make existing housing for Cork’s vulnerable elderly more comfortable. Soon after SHARE became a registered charity. One of the most well-known elements of the fundraising over the past fifty years is the SHARE Christmas campaign which comprises the annual twenty-four-hour fast and the blessing of the crib in the city.

It is an annual tradition to see senior-level secondary school students in the ten days leading up to Christmas asking people to donate to SHARE. The SHARE crib is also supervised by students right up until Christmas Eve to inspire people to donate to the commendable cause.

The fundraising efforts have been hugely successful, with funds going toward services towards medical and social support services for the elderly as well as a day care service. Perhaps the most well-known SHARE housing project is that on Grattan Street. President Dr

Patrick Hiliary formally opened the thirty-two units in December 1985 with its inner courtyard and a shelter within a shelter for the elderly in the community.

Today SHARE supports Independent living in 140 units across seven locations.