When we were on the way back from Mr Cummins house in Montenotte after seeing the fire insurance mark, we spotted two unusual things at St. Luke’s Cross. We asked to get out of the car to explore. The first thing that we saw was a strange building. It was very small with a door and three windows.
We also saw a large flower box with strange design on the side.
As we were going back to the car, we saw the name of St Luke’s in Irish on the Post Office. It was not Naomh Lucas. This chapter is in three sections. Section A is about the flower containers. Section B is about the little house. Section C is about the name in Irish.
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Section A – Water Troughs
When we saw the flower bed in St Luke’s Cross, it looked like it was made for flowers.
We learned from Mr Tom Spalding’s book that it was originally a water trough. It used to be filled with water so that animals entering the city could have a drink.
They might have been pulling a cart or the animals might have been going to the market or the ships.
They are made of concrete. They are in two pieces – the base and the walls. The pointy-arch means that it is called gothic style. Mr Spalding says that there was pipework near the trough in Parnell Place and so the troughs were used and were not just ornaments.
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He says that there were on three main roads entering the city and one more at Parnell Place. He says that they may have been made in the late 19th-century but are more likely to be made after 1900. We have seen five troughs around Cork. They all look the same. They are at:
St. Luke’s Cross (the first one we saw)
Watercourse Road (outside where Seamus Murphy had his studio
Parnell Place (near the bus station)
Lower Glanmire Road (outside MacLoughlin’s where Izzy’s dog gets his food)
Douglas Street (the end nearer Ballinlough)
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We met Mr Finbarr Twomey and he remembers using the troughs. Mr Twomey lives near the church on Ballinlough Road. He was born in 1950 and remembers his grandfather being a market gardener. He grew vegetables and plants that he would deliver to shops in the city including Suttons on South Mall, Healy & MacLysaght on Pembroke Street and Mr Bertie Bagnall in the English Market.
Mr Twomey’s grandfather had two ponies. They were called Moll and Dobbin. He remembers that a messenger-boy on a bike would come out to the house and say what was wanted in the shop. His granddad would then pick the vegetables, hitch the cart to one of the ponies and head into the shops. They used to park up the horses at water troughs. The two that he remembers are at the top of the South Mall (in front of this building that we saw in a photograph in Long Valley when we went looking for a Seamus Murphy sculpture).
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He thinks that they were connected to the mains as they were always full of water, no matter how many horses or ponies were there.
He said that there were no fridges in houses then and so every day milk, meat and vegetables were bought fresh. He said that there were a lot more shops then – at least seven shops between the Bernadette Way and Ballinlough Credit Union.
Mr Ross was on corner of Ballinough Road and Bernadette Way. Mrs Keogh was a lovely woman across way. She was from Northern Ireland and had an accent from there.
Mrs Crowley’s shop was next to school at top of Wallace’s Avenue. Mr Dunlea was opposite the church. Jerry O’Driscoll’s original shop was where the chipper is now. Moynihan’s shop was at the top of Dunmore Lawn. Mrs Murphy’s shop was where the hairdresser is now.
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Mr Twomey and his brother both went to our school, Our Lady of Lourdes. In the 1950’s, boys were able to go to junior and senior infants there. They used to be called Babies and Senior Infants. It is now only girls who go to the school. During his first day, Mr. Twomey ran out of the yard and home. There were very little cars then. He remembers his dad’s boss driving home for lunch and knowing that his dad would soon be back on his bicycle – it was the only car on the road at lunchtime.
He said that the best thing about going with his granddad into town with the vegetables was when they came home. After taking off the cart, Mr Twomey would be put on back of the pony and holding on to his mane, used to ride him down to the end of the garden.
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The horse troughs were not just in Cork.
Izzy’s dad saw this one above when he was driving gthrough Portlaoise. Like Cork, it is now used for flowers.
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When her dad’s friend herad that we were writing about horse troughs, he sent us on a photograph of the one below. It is in Smithfield in Dublin and has the same name as the one in Portlaoise. – the Metropoloitan Drinking Fountain & Cattle Trough Association.
Even when this project is finished, we will be looking out for more troughs.
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SECTION B- TOLLS
We have seen the toll stations on the road to Dublin. All cars and lorries must pay money to pass through.
When Izzy visits her Nana’s house in Ennis, they go through the tunnel under the Shannon and have to pay €1.90 at the toll booth.
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We learned that tolls are not new. They have been around for very many years. In Mr Antóin O’Callaghan’s book called ‘Where Bridges Stand’, he said the first St. Patrick’s Bridge was opened in 1789. Like Drawbridge Street, it had a lifty-up section on the Patrick’s Hill side.
His book lists the tolls for passing across the bridge in 1786. A coach was 1 schilling and 1 penny.
A person on their own was a half-penny. The tolls were not popular and stopped in 1842.
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Izzy’s grandad said that when he used to live near St. Luke’s Cross in the 1970’s, the toll booth used to be in the middle of Wellington Road with traffic on both sides. On Sunday morning’s Mr. Denis Hennessy, the local newsagent, used to store his newspapers in the toll-booth and sell them to people driving home after mass.
The toll booth was moved in 2005 when the trough was also moved. Mr Tom Spalding’s book ‘Cork City’ says that there were at least 14 toll booths in Cork but not all were separate buildings. All sheep, goats, pigs and cattle entering the city had to pay a toll.
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When Emma was telling her dad’s friend, Mr. Mark Rowan, about our project and the different things we were writing about, he said that there used to be a toll booth on the Douglas Road, near the junction with Ballinlough Road.
He says he remembers it being close to the Lion’s Den.
Emma passes this spot walking to and from school every day and never knew of the old Toll Booth.
She also had not spotted the Murphy’s Stout sign. If we had known about it, it would have gone into our half-chapter quiz. This showed to us again that there are so many things and possible stories that we walk past every day and do not even see.
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SECTION C – LEPERS
When we stopped at St Luke’s Cross and were crossing the road after looking at the Toll Booth and Horse Trough, we saw the name in Irish as ‘Crossaire na mBocht’. We knew that ‘bocht’ meant sick. We later learned that it also meant ‘poor’.
We had to go find out why St Luke’s Cross is called the Cross of the Sick. We learned a lot
In the book, Mayfield – A Sense of Place, the name of the townland of Mayfield is Ballinamought, or in Irish Baile na mBocht. Leprosy is a disease where the skin becomes marked and coloured. Prior to mid-13th century, there was a leper colony in Baile na mBocht.
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We looked around Mayfield and saw two translations into Irish – Gort Alainn and Baile na mBocht. It appears that the Community School does not like the Town of the Sick and prefers Lovely Field.
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There was no cure for leprosy. The lepers were kept together.
They used to wash in the river down by Silversprings Hotel but had to walk the old roads to get there. They walked down to what is now Dillons Cross and down to St Luke’s Cross where there turned left. This is why it is Crossaire na mBocht – Cross of the Sick.
They then walked up past where the Montenotte Hotel is now and down Lover’s Walk. Lover’s Walk in Irish is Siúl na Lobhar which really means Lepers Walk.
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We went looking at Logainm.ie. This website shows the translation and meaning of cities, villages and townlands. When we entered ‘lobhar’ and ‘bocht’, there were a lot of places that are named after the sick or lepers.
Leopardstown is in County Dublin. It is where they hold horse races. Its name is ‘Baile na Lobhar’.
Abhann na Lobhar/ Leper River is near Mullingar in Co. Westmeath.
Leperstown is a townland near Tramore in Co. Waterford. It has been that name since before 1575. Ballybough is in Dublin, near Croke Park. There are other places with the same name near Cashel in Co. Tipperary, Edenderry in Co Offaly and also near Mallow.
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We would love to read what you thought of this chapter and our project.