Julius Reuter was the first to see the opportunity. With his fellow Prussian William Siemens he promoted the South-Western of Ireland Telegraph Company, a sixty mile line from Cork to Crookhaven, a desolate point on the Atlantic coast. This immediately led the British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company, the second largest in the country, and which dominated the Irish market, to commence its own line from Cork by way of Skibbereen to an even more desolate and exposed site on Cape Clear, on Clear Island.

The Magnetic company and Reuter raced to open the Cape Clear and Crookhaven lines; Cape Clear opened in November 1863, Crookhaven in the following month.

Eventually there were to be four coastal telegraph stations that picked up canisters for news or public messages from passing steamers: Crookhaven, worked by Reuter and the South-Western company; Cape Clear, worked by the Magnetic Telegraph Company with a cable from Clear Island to Baltimore on the mainland, and another at Roche’s Point, worked jointly by the London & South of Ireland Direct Telegraph Company and the Universal Private Telegraph Company, from Queenstown, the out-port of Cork—all these three connected by dedicated line with either the Magnetic’s or the London & South of Ireland’s offices in Cork city.

There was a short cable to Cape Clear island from the Irish mainland, Crookhaven was entirely an overhead circuit.

At Crookhaven there was a small steamer, the Marseilles, owned by Reuter, with a crew of three. They met the Cunard liners at sea. Without stopping, the liner tossed overside a large canister with messages and telegrams from America. The canisters were painted a vivid yellow topped with a flag, and Reuter’s men gathered them up with a “butterfly net”. It was dangerous work; the boat’s skipper, Michael Driscoll, fell overboard and drowned in March 1865 whilst trying to salve a container of telegrams.

The Magnetic company’s Cape Clear outpost quickly became a meteorological station and then closed in favour of Crookhaven about 1870.

Roche’s Point also maintained the lighthouse for Cork, the station for pilot boats and a meteorological post. Although the telegraph was taken over by the Post Office it seems to have faded away slowly and anyway was little used for news as Cape Clear and Crookhaven were farther out in the Atlantic.

Courtesy:

http://atlantic-cable.com/Article/NewsTelegraphs/index.htm

News exchange before the transatlantic cable

It was a dark night in early December 1863. At the farthest southwest point of Ireland, Mr Reuter’s small steam-tender sheltered in the lee of the Fastnet Rock. Out of the gloom, with a deafening clunking of paddle-wheels, a vast steamer appeared. As it neared the smaller boat, several canisters, each one lit by a phosphorous flare, were dropped overboard into the sea far below. The steamer continued on its way, and the sound of its engines receded back into the darkness. Meanwhile, on the smaller boat, men grabbed long poles with nets attached and began fishing around for the canisters which still bobbed on the waves. As it swung round to return to the nearby little port of Crookhaven, two clerks below deck unscrewed the tops of the canisters and began sorting the messages inside.

At this date, Julius Reuter’s chain for conveying news between the US and Britain was state of the art:

https://blogs.thomsonreuters.com/answerson/lincoln-gettysburg-address-transatlantic-news/

 

Áiteanna Iar-Ghualta (Backward places) or Centres of the Information age? Valentia Island Telegraph Station and Crookhaven Marconi Radio Station 1902.

 

1863, The Fibre Optic Broadband of the 1860s, Opening of Telegraph Office Skibbereen, Wires Extended to Baltimore and Submerged Cable to Sherkin. The American Intelligence will be Received Six Hours Sooner, Cork Market News to Be Received in Morning.

 

 

Use of Shell Lime Mortar in Crookhaven Church Barony of West Carbery built probably before 1500.

 

https://earth.google.com/web/@51.72685544,-9.07497013,64.7842302a,4564.99358926d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CksaSRJDCiQweDQ4NDUwMWFmZDE5NWFlZmQ6MHhhMDBjN2E5OTczMWZmYjAZIJOZbHLcSUAhETuxEzs5IsAqCUR1bm1hbndheRgCIAE

 

Will be updated shortly.

 

Many of the names in the 1725 settlement rental appear in the 1702 Patrickson/Cox deed.  Patrickson acquired from the Hollow Blade Company.  They wee not active estate mangers, this may have been confiscated McCarthy Lands.  It is possible that the tenants were McCarthy tenants moving westward from the Bandon Plantation post 1650.

1725 Rent Roll of Tenants of his Honour Sir Richard Cox, Dunmanway, West Cork

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1702, Deed from Rev. John Patrickson, Chantor of Cloyne (Dunmanway Sister Elinor Patrickson ancestors of Durrus Blairs) to Sir Richard Cox (1650-1733), Bandon, Chief Justice of Ireland, of Lands at Dunmanway and Kilbarry, Coolsnagh, Coomshiplogh, Inchiragh, Derrynacahreagh, Cloontiuirk, Dereens, Tonetove, Derrylahan, Mills and Tolls, Park, Castle, Malthouse, bounded by Derrenasabagh, Gortnavan. Founding Deed of Dunmanway Names John Clay, John Turk, Thomas White, Mathew Rhems, William Short, John Farr, George Lantry, John Lumsie, George Stuke, Richard Nott, William Sisk, Thomas Roche, James Grace, William Smith George Moore Bounded by the Lanes of Mahonoh and Cox Magistrates.

 

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https://earth.google.com/web/@51.77230015,-9.27044148,287.7524584a,22564.82813369d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=Ck4aTBJGCiUweDQ4NDUwNWM4ZDZkZmUyYTE6MHg1Y2Y5M2QzOWViZGM1NTljGZmKalz64ElAIfr__38EhyLAKgtDb3VzYW5lIEdhcBgCIAE

 

1822, Herbert Gillman, Woodbrook, Dunmanway, County Cork, seeking financial aid for a new line of road leading from Crookstown, in the parish of Moviddy, over the Barna or Pass of Cousane to Kealkil in the parish of Bantry, incorporating Ballilickey, Coosane and other parishes.  The Newly Road if Built would Make the Distance from Bantry to Cork 35 Miles.  Map by Jeremiah O’Brien shows old Road Bantry/Kealkil, Old Pathway to Bantry over Barna of Cousane, Estimate £256 a mile.

http://www.csorp.nationalarchives.ie/search/index.php?simpleSearchSbm=true&category=27&searchDescTxt=dunmanway&simpleSearchSbm=Search#searchfocus

Until the late 1920s a variety of miles was used in Ireland, this was presumable a longer mile than that adopted.

 

 

 

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Match 4 from ‘CSO/RP’

NAI REFERENCE:	CSO/RP/1822/421
TITLE:	Letter from Herbert Gillman, Woodbrook, Dunmanway, County Cork, seeking financial aid for a new line of road leading from Crookstown, in the parish of Moviddy, to Kealkil in the parish of Bantry, incorporating Ballilickey, Coosane and other parishes
SCOPE & CONTENT:	Letter from Herbert Gillman, Woodbrook, Dunmanway, County Cork, to Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle, enclosing memorial of residents of County Cork, to Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquis Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant, Dublin Castle, requesting that an engineer be directed to inspect a new line of road leading from Crookstown, in the parish of Moviddy, to Kealkil in the parish of Bantry, incorporating Ballilickey, Coosane and other parishes, and that financial assistance might be forthcoming to complete the proposed scheme: claims that such an initiative would offer employment to those without and would provide access to law and order in the region; signed by Lord Bantry and 31 supporters; also encloses detailed hand coloured map and estimate of proposed works, by Jeremiah O’Brien.
EXTENT:	3 items; 7pp
DATE(S):	12 Aug 1822-21 Aug 1822
DATE EARLY:	1822
DATE LATE:	1822
ORIGINAL REFERENCE:	CSORP1822/934
DOCUMENT IMAGE:

 

 

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Road as built:

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1709. Some West Cork Bridges from the Overseers of Co. Cork Bridges.

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1709 Bridge Overseers, Co. Cork, including at Fermoy Ancestors of James Joyce. (1)

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1707 Grand Jury Records of West Cork Bridges.

The Grand Jury carried out many of the functions of the present County Council. Most of Cork’s Grand Jury’s records were lost in a fire at the Courthouse in Cork in the 1880s. This is a rare survival and shows bridge maintenance and erection at a number of West Cork locations

1709 Bridge Overseers, Co. Cork

An account of bridges, presented at several assizes, since the 3rd day of April 1708 to the 26th day of August 1712 inclusive, the sums and the overseers names:

3rd April 1708:———————+

Balyneene (Ballineen) Bridge: Mr. Andrew Syms £2 10 shillings
Ballyprevane (Connorville, Ballineen) Bridge: Mr. John Wood, £28 1 shilling 8 pence
Macrompe (Macroom): Richard Hedges Esq., £80

28th July 1708

Ballyprevane (Connorville, Ballineen) Bridge: John Wood, Richard Crook?, William Wade?, to be…, £30

28th March 1709

Inishonane (Innishannon) Bridge: John Moore, Clerk (Minister Church of Ireland), £30
Bandon Bridge: William Lapp, Thomas Hosford?, Daniel Connor, James Martine, £200
Carriggeoroghed (Carrigdrohid, Macroom) Bridge, Joseph Osborne, £5
Ballynneen (Ballineen) Bridge, Andrew Syms Clerk, £1. 1 shilling
Abbyshowry (Skibbereen), Michael Becher Esq., £100

23rd March 1709

Irishtown? Bridge of Bandon, Richard Goodman Clerke, Jas. Martine, £30
Ballyhallwick (Dunmanway) Bridge, William Wade Esq., £40

28th July 1710

Ballyhallwick (Dunmanway) Bridge, Richard Cox Esq., Undertaker, further £40 to be added, £260
Inchygeelength (Inchigeela) Bridge, Edward Webber, Edward Brown and William Maylors? £80

27th March 1711

Cussoos(n?)a Bridge (Kinsale area), John Walton, Richard Busteed, overseers, afterwards Michael Daunt, £10
Murragh Bridge, Arthur Bernard, Esq., £30
Ballyfereene Bridge, Thomas Crook, Richard Hedges Esq,. John Herrick, Thomas Crook, £30
Bandon Bridge: John Nash, William Lapp, Daniel Connor, £100
New Mill Bridge, John Clerk ? and Thomas Sealy, £4
Ballynneen (Ballineen) Bridge, Andrew Syms Clerk, £1. 5 shilling

31st October 1711

Done. Awndalow Bridge, Dan Sullivan, Charles Webb, Walter Webb, £15
Claghnaloohy Bridge, George Bullen and Ja Karny (Kearney?), £10
Lawny Bridge, Richard Hedges and Arthur Bernard Esqs. £100
Ballyntose Bridge, Michael Becher, William Wade, Esqs., £20
Kilfaghtny Bridge, John Hungerford Clerk and Samuel Jervois Junior, £4

18th March 1711 (Sequence as in ledger)

Kilmeedy Bridge, Richard Hedges Esq., and Richard Thornhill, £45
Ballynclare Bridge, Michael Becher Esq., £20
Murragh Bridge, Arthur Bernard, Esq., £30
Done. Awndalow/Awndaloo Bridge, money advanced Christopher Webb, £38 3 shillings 4 pence
Done. Awndalow/Awndaloo Bridge, Christopher Webb, for complete finishing and same? £5
Ballyglasheen Bridge, Richard Hedges Esq. advanced to prevent being undermined £2 10 shillings

25th August 1712

Added to another time, Kilmeely Bridge, Captain Hedges and Mr. Thornhill, expended over legal proceedings, £9 6 shillings.
Kilmeely Bridge, Captain Hedges and Mr. Thornhill, Overseers, for complete furnishing the saem, £30
Murragh Bridge, over Bandon River, Arthur Bernard, Esq., £100
Ballybane Bridge (Ballydehob), Hugh Hutchinson Esq., Robert Atking, £20
Added to another time. Ballynneen (Ballineen) Bridge, William Wade Esq., £30
Ballyfereene Bridge, Thomas Crook, among disputes over legal problems? £13 13 shilling
Ballyfereene Bridge, Thomas Crook (Same overseer), for the complete finishing, £40
Added to another …Ballynneen (Ballineen) Bridge, William Wade Esq., £30
Rowry (Rosscarbery) and Drumaleague (Drimoleague) Bridges, Henry Jones?, Samuel Jervois, £12

Grand Jury Room 15th July 1713.

The undernames overseers are to quote before the Grand Jury for the bridges when they were appointed overseers of respectively?

28th March 1709.
Piercy Smith, overseer of Ballynoskarty Bridge, £80

23rd March 1799.

Ballyhallwick Bridge, William Wade Esq., £40

28th July 1710
Ballyhallwick (Dunmanway) Bridge, Richard Cox Esq., Undertaker, £260
Bride Bridge, George Bernard?, Thomas Moore, William Philpot, £260
Inchygeelength (Inchegeela) Bridge, George Bernard?, Edward Browns? And Mahony £8

27th March 1711
Murragh Bridge, Arthur Bernard Esq., £30
Ballyfeeerson Bridge, Richard Hedges Esq., Jur? Herrick, and Thomas Crook, £30

3rd October 1711

Ballynovaa Bridge, Ralph Frekes Esq., £6?
Lawny Bridge, Richard Hedges, Arthur Bernard Esqs., £100
Ballintoro Bridge, Michael Becher, and William Wade, Esqs, £20
Kilfaghtny Bridge, Jus. Hungerford and .. Samuel? Jervois Junior, £4

18th March 1711

Awahaloo Bridge, William Haa? Esq., £250
Kilmeeedy Bridge, Richard Hedges Esq., and Mr. Richard Thornhill, £45
Ballinclaw Bridge, Michael Becher Esq., £20

26th August 1712

Killeneedy Bridge, Captain Hedges and Richard Thornhill, £9 6 shillings
Killeneedy Bridge, Captain Hedges and Richard Thornhill, for complete finishing by law £20
Murragh Bridge, Arthur Bernard, £100
Ballybane Bridge, Hugh Hutchinson and Robert Atkins, £20

Irish Town Bridge Bandon:

First built by the O’Mahonys in the 14th century. Built in 1864 to replace a bridge built by a Mr John Lodden in 1636. Immediately west of this bridge was the East Gate of Bandonbridge. Adjoining this site was the site house in which George Bennett, Historian of Bandonbridge and Bandon Oregon was born.

1650. Richard Cox, who built Dunmanway town and brought in a linen industry, was born in Bandon. The town is indebted for its origin to Sir Richard Cox, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign of Wm. III., who obtained from that monarch the grant of a market and fairs, and erected a stately mansion for his own residence. Sir Richard also built the long bridge over the river Bandon, consisting of six arches, exclusively of four under the causeway, and introduced the linen manufacture, for which, under his auspices, this place became one of the principal marts, and the town, in which a colony from England had settled, one of the most flourishing in the south of Ireland

Innishannon Bridge:

Formerly a ford nearby. The first known mention of Innishannon Bridge comes from a record of a resolution by Kinsale Corporation, in 1665, “to oppose the payment of money towards Innishannon Bridge”. This bridge was completely destroyed in the tsunami of 1755, following an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal. This earthquake, known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, is thought to have had a magnitude of 8.5-9, and shockwaves were felt across Europe. It created tidal waves which hit coastlines as far away as North Africa, and the boats in Kinsale harbour are said to have spun around on their moorings. The wave travelled up the estuary of the Bandon River from Kinsale as far as Innishannon, devastating the bridge here.

General Charles Vallancey Survey Report Developments from 1760 to 1778

He was sent to Ireland to assist in a military survey, remained and became an authority on Irish antiquities. He fathered 44 children by three wives. He learnt Irish and became fluent in it. Some of his theories are now regarded with a degree of scepticism. He wrote a report on the West Cork area which should also hold true for Durrus at the period: ‘There was only one road between Cork and Bantry; you may now proceed by eight carriage roads beside several horse tracks branching off from these great roads, from Bantry the country is mountainous and from the high road has the appearance of being barren and very thinly populated; yet the valleys abound with, corn and potatoes and the mountains are covered with black cattle. In 1760, twenty years ago it was so thinly inhabited, an army of 10,000 men could not possibly have found subsistence between Bantry and Bandon. The face of the country now wears a different aspect: the sides of the hill are under the plough, the verges of the bogs are reclaimed and the southern coast from Skibbereen to Bandon, is one continued garden of grain and potatoes except the barren pinnacles of some hills and the boggy hollows between which are preserved for fuel’ This would suggest that the major population expansion may have dated from c 1775. Wakefield in 1809 estimated the number of houses on the Muintervara peninsula occupied by Catholics and Protestants at 600. In the 1831 Census the population of Durrus East is 1,620. In 1838 the population was 8,340 of whom around 800 were Protestant.

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St. Fachtna’s Cathedral, Rosscarbery, Records from 1690

 

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/find-a-church/parish/16570/ross-st-fachtna-rosscarbery_St. Fachtna’s Cathedral, Rosscarbery, Records from 1690, Revised 28th January 2018

 

 

 

1817, January, Mr. Murphy’s new School attached to New Inn Skibbereen for Young Gentlemen.  Teachers, Baronies of Carbery East and West, Bantry and Berehaven from 1828 and some from Report on Popery 1731

 

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Cork Mercantile Courier, January 1817.

 

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Teachers, Baronies of Carbery East and West, Bantry and Berehaven from 1828 and some from Report on Popery 1731.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Eg1XT1Z9dnB0wf0B7dGZX_r85d8EwjnpBLxqCv0M9ck/edit#gid=0

 

1819. Society for the Promotion of Education of the Poor 1819, Schools, West Cork. Early West Cork Teachers.

 

A List of Sunday Schools, Co. Cork To Which Gratuitous Grants of Money and Books Have been Made from November 1809 to 1st January 1829.  Further Detailed Listings of Schools with Enrolments.

O’Daly Bardic School 13th to 17th century, Dromnea, Kilcrohane West Cork, pupils including two sons of the King of Spain, descendants founding Daly’s Distillery, Cork.

 

1830. FEINAGLIAN BOARDING AND DAY SCHOOL, FOR CLASSICAL & GENERAL EDUCATION, Clonakilty, opposite the Emmet Hotel in Shannon Square (now Emmet Square), principal Edward B. Trenor, ex-Sizar and Exhibition Scholar, TCD, Principal. Boarders £30 per year, Day Pupils £6. Within a few minutes walk from the School, the pupils have the advantage of sea-bathing, MR. TRENOR always accompanying them.

 

 

Co. Cork Tree Register 1790-1866.

 

Courtesy Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.

 

The listing throws up names of those many of who are unknown but obvious substantial people at the one.

Just one example:

Jeremiah O’Connell Esq., Bantry

1840 Secretary Bantry O’Connell Annuity. 1841 vote based on £50 freehold at Upper Lissane.   1842 Secretary of delegation to Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daniel O’Connell with John O’Hea, JP, Clonakilty to address Tory opposition.  1843 letting of Deendonegah House then occupied by Arthur Hutchinson JP contact Jeremiah O’Connell Esq. 1843 dinner for Alderman Lyons, Cork with other leading Liberal figures.  Married 1845 Mary Frances daughter of Daniel Murphy, Bellville, Cork by her uncle Dr. Murphy. 1845 Provisional Committee Bantry to Bandon Railway.  Signed Testimonial to Resident Magistrate, John Gore Jones, Bantry, 1844.  Banquet for Liberator in Cork 1845 Address from West Carbery and Bantry by Father Thomas Barry, with Father Freeman, Jeremiah O’Connell, John O’Connell, Bantry, McCarthy Downing, Solicitor, Skibbereen, Daniel Welply Skibbereen.   Distributing  in Bantry New England Famine Relief 1847. 1850 Ivy Cottage, Bantry. Not sure if same, Jeremiah O’Connell, Esq., J.P., of Beach House, Bantry, co. Cork.  Died 1878, at St. Mary’s, Frankfort-avenue, Rathgar, County Dublin.   1845 entered planting of 2,250 trees on Tree Register.

 

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Register of Trees, Co. Cork, 1800

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