Sony FX30

DRINAN STREET

May 19, 2023 by infomatique

CONNECTING SULLIVAN’S QUAY AND COVE STREET

This is part of a complex collection of streets and lanes and there is a large construction site (where the tax office building was located) in the immediate area. It would appear that there are a number of English Language Colleges on the street.

Among the main industries in the parish during the 18th and 19th centuries were the brewing, malting and glass making industries. No fewer than six breweries and two malthouses were operating in a concentrated area between today’s Sharman Crawford Street and Drinan Street, with two other malthouses situated on Rutland Street and Morrison’s Island.

THE MARDYKE BRIDGE IN CORK

May 18, 2023 by infomatique

THE LEE WALK IN MAY 2023

I have explored the Lee Walk in Cork a number of times but I did not know that this was known as the Mardyke Bridge.

The North Mall to Mardyke section of the Lee Walk was dedicated by the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Deirdre Clune, on 1st February 2006. The bridge is a single span construction made of steel, stretching some 57 metres in length and having a 3 metre-wide footpath cantilevered from the bottom chord of the arch. Integral to the design is a circular viewing platform built into cantilever retaining walls, adjoining the north bank seat.

The bank seats are of reinforced concrete and have architecturally shaped parapets resting on precast concrete piles, driven 10-15 metres into the ground. The bridge is stiffened by the steel deck top plate which helps control its deflections and dampen its dynamics. The plate prevents the arch member from deflecting too much out of plane. Mardyke bridge was manufactured off site with the finishing touches and assembly done on site, upon which it was lifted into position in a single operation.

EXAMPLES OF THE CELTIC CROSS

May 17, 2023 by infomatique

ST. FINBARR’S CEMETERY IN CORK CITY

The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses erected across the islands, especially in regions evangelised by Irish missionaries, from the ninth through the 12th centuries.

A staple of Insular art, the Celtic cross is essentially a Latin cross with a nimbus surrounding the intersection of the arms and stem. Scholars have debated its exact origins, but it is related to earlier crosses featuring rings. The form gained new popularity during the Celtic Revival of the 19th century; the name “Celtic cross” is a convention dating from that time. The shape, usually decorated with interlace and other motifs from Insular art, became popular for funerary monuments and other uses, and has remained so, spreading well beyond Ireland.

The Celtic Revival of the mid-19th century led to an increased use and creation of Celtic crosses in Ireland. In 1853, casts of several historical high crosses were exhibited at the Dublin Industrial Exhibition. In 1857, Henry O’Neill published Illustrations of the Most Interesting of the Sculptured Crosses of Ancient Ireland. These two events stimulated interest in the Celtic cross as a symbol for a renewed sense of heritage within Ireland.

New versions of the high cross were designed for fashionable cemetery monuments in Victorian Dublin in the 1860s. From Dublin, the revival spread to the rest of the country and beyond. Since the Celtic Revival, the ringed cross became an emblem of Celtic identity, in addition to its more traditional religious symbolism.

Modern interest in the symbol increased because of Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie. The two worked on the island of Iona in Scotland from 1899 to 1940 and popularised use of the Celtic cross in jewelry. Using the Celtic cross in fashion is still popular today.

Since its revival in the 1850s, the Celtic cross has been used extensively as grave markers. Straying from medieval usage, when the symbol was typically used for a public monument. The Celtic cross now appears in various retail items. Both the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Northern Ireland national football team have used versions of the Celtic cross in their logos and advertising. The Church in Wales since 1954 have used a flag with a Celtic cross in the centre.

PALMENTO PIZZA

May 16, 2023 by infomatique

ON CHURCH STREET IN DOUGLAS CORK

Palmento Pizza in Douglas was started by one of the Tavolieri family who’ve been operating pizzerias in Cork for over thirty years and I read in a local newspaper that they have confirmed that they will be opening a brand new Cork city centre restaurant in a unit on the Boardwalk at Lapps Quay which has been closed since 2019.

Lapp’s Island was once an island in the River Lee. It is now joined with the island which forms the centre of Cork City, Ireland and refers to the eastern tip of that island.

It was apparently named after an owner in the 17th century. The island had probably been reclaimed from swamp at that time. In the 18th century it was separated from the main island by a canal which roughly followed what is now Parnell Place. It was fully joined to the main island by 1832.

The Custom’s House, at the eastern extremity of the island, sits on what was called the tongue of Lapps’s Island, and the modern Lapp’s Quay sits on the southern shore of Lapp’s island.

CHURCHYARD LANE IN DOUGLAS CORK

May 12, 2023 by infomatique

MAY 2023

This year, because of the cost of accommodation coupled with the lack of suitable accommodations, my plan to visit and photograph the cities and larger towns in Ireland had to be limited. Because I had booked two years in advance I have managed to spend four days in Cork city and I might visit again in August as I have already booked a room for a week in August.

I am going to provide much information about Douglas over the next few weeks so I will start with demographics.

In the 2011 census, the percentage of Irish nationals living in Douglas was 88.8%. UK nationals accounted for 1.7%; Polish nationals 3.2%; Lithuanians 0.6%; other EU nationals 2.1%; other nationals 2.9%; and 0.7% did not state their nationality.

In the 2016 census, 78.6% of residents of the Douglas electoral division identified as Catholic, 8% were members of other religions, 12% had no religion and less than 1% did not state a religion. In the same census, 86.2% of electoral division residents identified as white Irish, 8.3% were other whites, 1% were black, 1.7% Asian or Asian Irish, 1.4% were of other ethnicities, and 1% did not state an ethnicity.