Cork City Libraries are pleased to announce the launch of “Ordinary Life in Cork City 1922”, a commemorative 2022 Calendar recalling the everyday living conditions, events, pastimes, and entertainment of the people of Cork in 1922. Images from the newspapers of the time, the Ford Collection and private collectors evoke a lively, bustling city despite the ongoing political tumult and military unrest.
This calendar contributes to Cork City Libraries’ decade long programme ‘IT SEEMS HISTORY IS TO BLAME: Ireland 1913-23’ introduced in 2013 to help the people of the city understand what happened, and why, and to learn lessons for our own time.
It is not possible to consider 1922 without reference to Michael Collins, a figure that looms large in the memory of the City, the County and the State. The August entry of this calendar is a poignant image of the Big Fella receiving a bouquet of flowers from a child as they chat during a visit to Cork City in March of that year. A few short months later he was killed in an action in Béal Na Bláth.
November’s images remember the arrival of the Civic Guard in the City in November of the year. The image for November documents the arrival of a contingent the newly formed Civic Guard. Civic Guards assigned to Cork arrived by steamship, on November 9th, having used this mode of transport because travel by road or railway not safe and ambushes a distinct possibility. The Cork Examiner declared “the arrival of the Civic Guard is greatly welcomed by the citizens”. They were billeted in the School of Music as the station on Union Quay was in a ruinous state. In December, Saorstat Éireann would come into being on December 6th.
City Librarian David O’Brien said, “in 1922 Cork City and the wider Cork area was truly a place in turmoil. The images in this calendar for 2022 are focused largely on the ordinary lives of the people of Cork in extraordinary times. It is worth reflecting that the poor living conditions seen in some of the images in this calendar are from a short 100 years ago. Not for the first time in the round of the decade of centenaries it is fitting to acknowledge and celebrate the resilience of its people.”
The calendar can be picked up at any Cork City Libraries branch for free, while stocks last.
Source: Cork City Council
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