Kieran’s new South Parish Tour a nod to Ronnie’s work

September has coincided with the hosting of two new historical walking tours – one I have given earlier this month on the Lee Fields and one on the South Parish coming up on Sunday 28 September at 2pm. Both unlock the rich heritage and local history that exist in our city.

In preparing for both, there have been long hours of very interesting research. The Lee Fields has no publication on it despite the amenity’s location in the midst of tales of old castles, churches, big houses, old hospitals and swimming pools. In truth much of the Lee Field’s history is scattered to the four winds.

The story of the South Parish has been blessed with publications, especially with those of the late Ronnie Herlihy, local historian. The new tour is a nod to Ronnie’s work and also attempts in particular to capture and reflect upon the local history around the western side of the parish from Summerhill South to Douglas Street to Mary Street to the South Terrace to Anglesea Street.

It is an area of the city which boasts some great stories stretching back to medieval times and all the way down to the 21st century – from Red Abbey to old graveyards to historic lanes to old schools to the marvellous Cork City Hall.

In the past two years, I have spoken at events honouring the late Ronnie Herlihy. Ronnie was a true guardian of Cork’s memory, heritage and history. The people of this City by the Lee miss him and still talk about him and the tours he gave in the South Parish and in St Joseph’s Cemetery. Whilst pursuing my own line of research work, I cannot say that I met Ronnie every week, but every few weeks we would bump into each other.

He always met me with a smile, a pep in his step, a rucksack, a jacket and a hat and a quest of something he was chasing or “fishing for”, to use such a term. And when he left you, you felt that he was off down a tunnel under the city with a flash lamp and a happy heart.

His journeys into Cork’s past – its local history and its essence – is one that gave Ronnie a noble quest – driven by a sense of pride and love of Cork, Ronnie was sucked into Cork’s quirky stories and its characters and a quest to pass on his knowledge to others through his books and walking tours.

In the past few weeks, as a preparation for the new South Parish walking tour, I have spent time re-visiting the legacy of Ronnie’s published works; in particular in Ronnie’s introductions to his books, they reveal much; you get the sense of the person Ronnie was and this journey Cork’s past took him on.

In publishing his first edition of the 'South Parish’ book in 2003, Ronnie writes that he was aiming to do two things. Firstly, the book was simply meant to be a place one could go if they were interested in the rich heritage of the South Parish. Ronnie describes his work as “a sort of one-stop-shop if you like, compiling between the covers of one book a list and some basic information about many of the historic places within the present parish, rather than having to search out the numerous different publications that contain articles or reports on those places”.

Secondly, he was hoping to awaken in people, no matter where they live, an awareness of their own surroundings, and “to get them thinking of the fantastic history all around them that has led to the making of this great city of Cork”. He describes that all 1,000 copies of the initial book were sold and in the process €7,300 was donated to the Children's Leukaemia Unit in the Mercy Hospital, all proceeds from the sale of the book.

Ronnie undertook a second edition because of the number of times people asked him if the book was still available to buy. So, he published a revised second edition. He describes that he self-published the first book under Red Abbey Publications and because of the budgetary constraints involved, meant that it was, out of necessity, a small publication.

In doing a revised edition, it afforded Ronnie the opportunity to expand on many of the items in the original book that he only gave a brief outline to at that time. Ronnie noted: “I've also added to my own knowledge in the intervening years, so I hope that this will make for a more interesting and accurate account of the many places covered in this new edition…Having spent over 44 years either living or working in the heart of the South Parish, the area is in my blood. I'm still fascinated by the history of this part of Cork city, and as a proud member of the Cork South Parish Historical Society, we know that learning about the history of our own place is a never-ending process…Take a walk with me now in my own place, the open air museum that is the South Parish, where you'll find something of historical interest around almost every corner.”

The awaken in people and the connection methodologies served Ronnie well in his next publication journey where he took on Victorian Cork. As he researched the South Parish, he spotted other nuggets of stories from Cork’s Victorian past, which took him off on another adventure.

Ronnie’s interest in people and their stories also brought him on his journey with his third book – this time taking on the stories of person buried in St Joseph’s Cemetery.

The idea for writing this book followed on from research he carried out when he undertook a project on St Joseph's Cemetery for the Annual Exhibition of the South Parish Historical Society. That initial research, which looked at around two dozen burials in the cemetery, led to him as he quotes in his introduction “spending many hours there in the summer of 2008, walking among the headstones of our ancestors, and realising for the first time what an important historic gem we have here in the city”.

For many years Ronnie was a core part of the South Parish Historical Society annual exhibition – he was a core driver – and there was many a year he would spend hours and hours and hours involved in its organisation and its evolution. Indeed, one can clearly state he had a deep history in promoting a local history, which people could relate to and connect to.

Upcoming September Historical Walking Tours with Kieran:

All free, 2 hours, no booking required

Saturday 20 September: The Historic Peninsula of Mahon; explore social histories & the stories of some of the former big house estates in the area. Meet at Blackrock Garda Station entrance, Ringmahon Road, opposite Dunlocha Cottages at 2pm.

Sunday 21 September: Blackpool: Its History and Heritage. Meet at the square on St Mary’s Road, opposite North Cathedral at 2pm.

Sunday 28 September: New tour The South Bank – The South Parish and its Histories. Meet at the Ronnie Herlihy Pocket Park, Langford Row, adjacent intersection of High Street, Summerhill South and Douglas Street at 2pm.