History - Masters by Research Theses
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Item Macroom: pastimes (non-sport) and community, after 1900; a history of seven pastimes in a small country Cork town(University College Cork, 2025) Kelleher, Cornelius Christopher; Mccarthy, Andrew; Roszman, JayThis local history study is about my home place Macroom, a small County Cork town, roughly halfway between Cork and Killarney. Because of its central Munster location it has always been strategically important. Macroom Castle dates from the eleventh century and its ownership has marked political control of the area. East of Macroom, on its Cork-city side, the land is generally good and fertile; to the west it is rockier and poorer. Proximity to Cork and land-quality were reasons for English influence being stronger east rather than west where the Gaelic tradition survived better, signified by surviving Gaeltachtaí within fifteen miles. Macroom stands on this synapse and experienced the contest of British and Irish political and cultural control of Ireland; its location and experience underlies the history of most activities, pastimes included, that transpired in Macroom. It incorporated land-, property-ownership and wealth, and language, religion, culture and education. It is in this atmosphere that Macroom pastimes, symbols of its culture, existed, developed or died. Economic and especially technological advances ensured that Macroom did not stay isolated and outside influences were mediated through cinema, radio and television (the internet’s effect was small before 1990s); all played important roles in the evolution of Macroom pastimes. These effects are not unique to Macroom - this study records Macroom’s story/history in this regard. The pastimes chosen are card-playing, dance, pubs, cinema, radio and television, ICA-attendance and pantomime. They were selected because of their importance, support, impact, availability of reliable sources and balance. In the interest of gender-equality the history of he ICA was chosen; unexpectedly its history is both revealing and important in Macroom’s history. Because of space, other areas such as children’s and church-centred pastimes were not included. Chapters examine the provenance of each pastime, its ‘journey’ to Macroom, its progress thereafter; relevant factors are examined and assessed, and an interpretation offered of its contribution, impact and importance. Conclusions derived confirmed are that people need entertainments; that pastimes are important because paradoxically they are not important; that authorities, state and clerical, perhaps inadvertently acknowledged and reinforced their status by numerous laws, rules and regulations; that pastimes often gave ‘colour’ and deeper meaning to life. They also informed, educated and changed attitudes and society. Macroom experienced all these effects and transitions. The background factors are common to many towns but Macroom’s response is unique. This work records an important part of Macroom’s history.Item Cork Harbour Commissioners in the nineteenth century: governance, infrastructure and revenue(University College Cork, 2020-10-08) McCarthy, Tom; Bielenberg, AndrewCork, the port and harbour will be examined in terms of its economic history in the 19th century, with emphasis on matters of governance, infrastructure, and finances. This thesis presents an analysis and evaluation of Cork Harbour Commissioners (CHC) from its early beginnings in the 19th century up to 1900. Like many organisations, it seems that CHC responded quite slowly to the immediate challenges it faced after it was established. It took some years to develop the harbour into a safe, cost-effective, and coherent operation adequately handling the import and export demands of the port. Improvements took place over decades rather than years, but once the necessary infrastructure was put in place the benefits were immediate. Given that the region failed to industrialise, and the population of the city stagnated in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the population of its hinterland declined, the port performed reasonably well relative to its competition in the Munster region, Limerick and Waterford, and it was better served by rail and road links and its more central location to Munster’s wealthier agricultural districts. Dublin and Belfast in contrast both had demographic advantages and greater industrial development and were in a better position to handle the expansion of Anglo-Irish trade in the nineteenth century. With a combination of borrowing and increased income from imports, the state of the harbour improved significantly for shipping coming up into the city. The period between the 1860s and the end of the nineteenth century, therefore, stands out as the critical period in the development of the city quays and the channel up from Passage, in addition to the development of Queenstown for American mails and migrant traffic. In this window, the Cork Harbour Commissioners were able to mobilise sufficient capital resources to shape much of the infrastructure of the port and harbour which we can still see today. The increase in income generated by imports allowed the authority to invest in infrastructure. It is evident that CHC was able to exploit rising import revenue from a range of bulk commodities, and this helped to place the ports financial position on a far more solid footing.