Kieran’s National Heritage Week Tours

My 2026 National Heritage Week historical walking tours continue. I am half way through my programme of tours. All are free, 2 hours and there is no booking required.

Thursday 20 August: The Marina; Discover the history of the city’s promenade, from forgotten artefacts to ruinous follies. Meet at western end adjacent Shandon Boat Club, The Marina at 6.30pm.

Cork’s Marina was originally called the Navigation Wall or in essence it was a guidance or tracking wall to bring ships into Cork city’s South Docks area. It was completed in 1761.

Following the constitution of the Cork Harbour Commissioners in 1814 and their introduction of steam dredging, a programme of river and berth deepening, quay and wharf building commenced. The dredger of the Cork Harbour Commissioners deposited the silt from the river into wooden barges, which were then towed ashore. The silt was re-deposited behind the Navigation Wall.

During the Great Famine, the deepening of the river created jobs for 1,000 men who worked on widening the physical dock of the Navigation Wall. In essence a fine road (present day walkway) was constructed, which linked into Cork’s South Docks. To give an aesthetic to the new road, a fine row of elm trees was planted around 1856 by Professor Edmund Murphy of Queen’s College Cork (now UCC). The elm trees were part of a crop and tree growing experiment.

Fast forward to late 2023, construction of the new Marina Promenade started and finished in late 2024, delivering a 5.5 metre wide pedestrian and cycle corridor complemented by adjoining plazas, connections to Marina Park and other features.

Friday 21 August: Douglas and its History, in association with Douglas Tidy Towns. Discover the history of industry and the development of this historic village, meet in the carpark of Douglas Community Centre at 6.30pm (circuit of village, finishes nearby).

The story of Douglas and its environs is in essence a story of experimentation, of industry and of people and social improvement. The story of one of Ireland largest sailcloth factories is a worthwhile topic to explore in terms of its aspiration in its day in the eighteenth century. On 1 June 1726, the Douglas Sailcloth Factory is said to have been founded by a colony of weavers from Fermanagh.

The eighteenth century was a golden age for wooden sailing ships, before the advent of the 1800s coincided with steam and iron prerequisites for modern navies and trading fleets. The era was also a golden age too for maritime exploration, Douglas in its own way added in part to this world of exploration.

Douglas village is lucky that it has been written about in depth by local historians in the 1980s and 1990s – scholars such as Con Foley and Walter McGrath – both of whom shone a huge spotlight on the depth and range of material available. Con Foley’s book on the history of Douglas shows his love of place and his participation in sitting down for years, penning notes, walking the ground, using ordnance survey maps and pondering on and mapping interconnections between the different memories of families active in the village and environs through time.

Saturday 22 August: The Northern Ridge - St Patrick’s Hill to MacCurtain Street. Historical walking tour of the area around St Patrick’s Hill – Old Youghal Road to McCurtain Street. Meet on the Green at Audley Place, top of St Patrick’s Hill at 2pm.

This is a tour that brings the participant from the top of St Patrick’s Hill to the eastern end of McCurtain Street through Wellington Road. The tour will speak about the development of the Collins Barracks ridge and its hidden and interesting architectural heritage.

With the MacCurtain Street area, one is dealing with immense scenic perspectives and beautiful architecture– book ended by the epic St Patrick’s Hill view to the west, Summerhill North and Kent Station to the east, and the river and port frontage to the south. There is something to be said about how MacCurtain Street and its buildings are carefully balanced and placed on a steep carved out sandstone ridge to the north of the River Lee– an important story of strategic engineering, which appears in earnest behind the waterfall feature behind Greene’s Restaurant.

Sunday 23 August: Blackpool: Its History and Heritage, Meet at the square on St Mary’s Road, opp. North Cathedral at 2pm.

Blackpool was the heart of industry in Cork in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Blackpool also has messages about public relief projects in the form of the former Poor House site at Murphy’s Brewery to Madden’s Buildings to highlighting the work of Ireland’s social reformers through street names such as William O’Brien, Gerald Griffin, Daniel O’Connell and Tomás McCurtain. All these messages inject the place with memories of difficult times but also times of determination to survive against the odds.

Gerald Griffin Street was formerly called Mallow Lane. In 1832, Mallow Lane was renamed Clarence Street, Duke of Clarence, George, who was an outspoken advocate of Catholic Emancipation.

Born in Limerick, Gerald Griffin (1803-1840) was a poet, playright and Irish Novelist. In 1823, he emigrated to London and got a job as a reporter for one of the daily papers. He later turned to writing fiction. One of his most famous works is ‘The Irish Collegians’, which was written about the murder of the Colleen Bawn in 1820.

In 1838 Gerald joined the Christian Brothers at the North Mon and burned all of his unpublished manuscripts. At the age of 36, he died from typhus fever. In November 1898, the motion of Cllr John O’Neil of Cork Corporation was accepted by to change the name of Clarence St to Gerald Griffin Street.