cannon

Marina. Greenwich gun. Radio school. Too. Much. Cork. Don't. Know. Where. To. Start :)

guliolopez Good Morning...

Thanks National Library of Ireland on The Commons. Mary had told me to set my alarm. And hasn't disappointed :) To the extent that I barely know where to start. Other than to say that, had I slept in til 10 o'clock, I'd have gotten a rude awakening for this one! In terms of location, it's unequivocal. This is "the Marina". Close to the club house of Shandon Boat Club. On the south side of the Lee. Looking north. Just about here on the OSI map. The StreetView driver wasn't brave enough to follow suit. He/she missed out :) In terms of subjects, the most striking must be the "Greenwich gun" or "10 o'clock gun". To my understanding, the firing of this gun was the responsibility of the port authorities. The Cork Harbour Commissioners. Rather than the military. Not directly anyway. However, thinking about it logically, presumably the Harbour Commissioners needed to employ an artillery expert. Given the risks and logistics. So that probably is a military uniform. Perhaps of the Cork City Artillery (which included a non-professional "militia"). I'll do some research on that. The gun itself was fired at 10am every day. Like other similar guns around the (then dying) empire. Unless the image is staged (and I suppose it quite probably is) that would give us the time of day. Though not the year. Which I'll also have have to think about. Otherwise another key subject here, to my eye at least, is Carrig House. The house on the far right. Later known as the "Marine Radio School", it was used for a time for training ships' radio operators. This doesn't help with date however. And probably just as well. As I really shouldn't be allowed to talk about this house. As it will just get my blood up. Given that, along with too many other historic homes in the city in recent years, has been left to ruin, fire and yet more ruin. By the worst sort of absentee landlord: a state-sponsored one!

In reminding myself about the gun, I found this blog post from Kieran McCarthy. Who confirms that the 18lb gun was the responsibility of the Harbour Commissioners. And fired (with a 3lb charge) since the 1870s. However his final conclusion (about the gun "disappearing physically and from memory" after 1930) confuses me more than a little. While I don't doubt him, if the gun was removed, it (or a replacement) must've been put back at a later date. As there's been a gun there as long as I can remember. As evidenced by these recent shots from the Cork Camera Club. Also, Flickr is sometimes thingamabob: www.flickr.com/photos/carrignafoy/403354327/

The catalogue gives a general 1900-1920 date, and I think the girl on the bench's outfit suggests the early part of that range. The buildings opposite are all 1830ish and no help, railway infrastructure 1855ish likewise.

The "strange fencing" is presumably rifle racks.

The wooden halls look like prototypes for the new suburban churches of the post-war Dublin suburbs. They could be the inspiration for Donnycarney or Finglas or Whitehall or any of a dozen other optimistically sized eyesores. I'd imagine they're actually mess halls.

Post-1915: There's a bloke in a tin hat.

D

O

"The Kapp Putsch, also known as the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, was an attempted coup on 13 March 1920 which aimed to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919, overthrow the Weimar Republic and establish a right-wing autocratic government in its place. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr (military) and other conservative, nationalist and monarchist factions. The coup took place in the capital, Berlin, and the legitimate German government was forced to flee the city. The coup failed after a few days, when large sections of the German population followed a call by the government to join a general strike. " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch

see also

Von Lüttwitz: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/37070651442/

Thank you, Art and B-59, for providing more information about the event pictured here!