Madden’s Buildings consists of a number of single-storey redbrick buildings arranged in terraces, with each terrace having a gable end facing Watercourse Road at one end and or Great William O’Brien street at the other end. The Bull and Drover sculpture is located on the gable end of one of one of the terraces.
The Bull and Drover is a bronze sculpture by Kevin Holland, located on the gable end of Madden’s Buildings in Blackpool, Cork, Ireland. The sculpture depicts a bull being led by a drover, and is a reminder of the cattle market that once operated on this site.
The sculpture was commissioned by the Cork Corporation in 1986, to commemorate the centenary of the construction of Madden’s Buildings. It was created by Kevin Holland, a sculptor who is based in Cork. Holland is known for his work in bronze, and his sculptures often depict animals.
The Bull and Drover is a realistic depiction of a bull and a drover. The bull is a large, powerful animal, with a muscular body and a fierce expression. The drover is a smaller, more human figure, but he is also strong and determined. The two figures are facing each other, and the bull is following the drover’s lead.
The sculpture is mounted on a bronze plaque, which is inscribed with the words “The Bull and Drover” and the dates “1886-1986”.
In addition to the Bull and Drover, Kevin Holland has created a number of other sculptures in Cork, including the Draftsman on the Grand Parade. His work can also be found in other cities in Ireland, as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom.
I tried to locate the Draftsman on the Grand Parade and having failed I tried to find a photograph only to discover that there are no known photographs of the Draftsman. The sculpture was created in 1986, and it was destroyed in a fire in 1996. According to one source the blank wall where the Draftsman on the Grand Parade once stood is located at 14-16 Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland. The address is also listed as 2 Patrick Street, Cork, Ireland. The wall is located on the corner of Grand Parade and Patrick Street, in the heart of Cork city. It is a blank wall, with no markings or signage. The only indication that the Draftsman on the Grand Parade once stood there is a small plaque that is embedded in the wall. The plaque reads: “This was the site of the Draftsman on the Grand Parade, a sculpture by Kevin Holland, which was destroyed in a fire in 1996.”
“Draftsman Sculpture Destroyed in Fire” (The Irish Examiner, February 17, 1996) “Cork City Mourns Loss of Draftsman Sculpture” (The Echo, February 18, 1996) “Artist Pays Tribute to Lost Draftsman” (The Irish Times, February 19, 1996)
While researching the artist I came across the following story: A sculpture by artist Kevin Holland and similar to the Bull and Drover sculpture on nearby Madden’s Buildings was installed on the northern wall between Watercourse Road and Blackpool bypass. It was commissioned by the developer and installed on the wall at their expense, with the agreement of the city council, to commemorate the heritage and history of the area. In July 2012 it was removed by workmen. The worrying aspect to the story is that a liquidator was appointed earlier to the company which developed the site and fears had been raised that the sculpture may have been removed as part of the liquidation process. It was estimated that the metal used in the piece could be worth €50,000.
Below I have included information that was provided by a single source which is not reliable: Dray Horses sculpture was removed in 2016 due to concerns about its structural integrity. The sculpture was made of bronze, and it was mounted on a steel frame. Over time, the steel frame had corroded, and the sculpture was in danger of falling. The sculpture was removed to a workshop, where it was restored. The steel frame was replaced, and the sculpture was repainted. The sculpture was then returned to its original location in 2017. The source does reference the following:
“Dray Horses Sculpture Removed for Restoration” (The Irish Examiner, February 2016) “Dray Horses Sculpture Returns to Blackpool” (The Irish Examiner, June 2017) “Cork City Council Spends €30,000 on Dray Horses Restoration” (The Echo, June 2017)
“Artist Pays Tribute to Lost Draftsman” (The Irish Times, February 19, 1996): Kevin Holland, the artist who created the Draftsman sculpture, has paid tribute to his lost work. Holland said that he was “devastated” by the fire, and that he “still can’t believe it”.He said that the Draftsman sculpture was “a very personal piece” for him, and that he was “very proud” of it. Holland said that he would like to see the sculpture rebuilt, but he said that he knows that it will be “very difficult”.
Christ The King Church is a Catholic church in the Turners Cross area of Cork City, Ireland. It was designed by the American architect Barry Byrne and built between 1929 and 1931. The church is a fine example of 20th-century ecclesiastical architecture, and is considered to be one of Byrne’s most important works.
The church is built in a simplified Hiberno-Romanesque style, with a long nave and a short transept. The exterior is made of limestone, and the interior is decorated with marble and mosaics. The most striking feature of the church is the large statue of Christ the King, which stands at the entrance. The statue was designed by the American sculptor John Storrs.
John Henry Bradley Storrs (June 25, 1885 – April 26, 1956), also known as John Bradley Storrs and John H. Storrs, was an American modernist sculptor best remembered for his art deco sculptures that examined the relationship between architecture and sculpture
Storrs was born in Chicago in 1885, son of architect D.W. Storrs. In 1905, he traveled to Berlin to study singing, but he soon decided to become a sculptor. He studied with Lorado Taft at the Art Institute of Chicago, with Bela Pratt at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and with Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By 1911, he was living in Paris, where he studied with Auguste Rodin and also attended the Académie Julian. He gradually moved from representational sculpture and wood engravings to the machine-like sculptures for which he is best known.
During his time in France, Storrs became friends with Jacques Lipchitz. In 1914, Storrs married the novelist and writer Marguerite Deville Chabrol and started dividing his time between France and the United States. In the 1930s, Storrs turned to abstract painting that often suggested the human figure. During World War II Storrs was twice arrested and imprisoned by the German occupation forces. After being released, he returned to his studio in Mer, France, and worked and lived there until his death in 1956.
Some of the images are distorted because I used a wide angle lens. This was, more or less, my first real opportunity to us my Sony A7RIV which I purchased in September 2019.
When I visited Cork in August 2021 my activities were very much constrained because of Covid-19. Also, the hotel where I stayed had been block booked by the Government in order to house nursing staff. I was one of the first commercial guests and full service had yet to be restored. The weather was not at all good and I could not depend on the bus service so I walked everywhere and ended up Turner’s Cross more by accident than by design. When I arrived at The Christ The King church I was exhausted and did not explore the building as much as I would have liked to. I decided to return to the hotel with the intention of returning to Turner’s Cross later in the week but bad weather prevented my return.
There are a small number of graves of clergy within the churchyard but many visitors believe that the two cemeteries, Douglas Cemetery and St Luke’s Church Of Ireland cemetery, nearby as associated with the church but they are not. I have photographed both cemeteries.
The current Saint Columba’s is a well-maintained example of a nineteenth-century Roman Catholic church. It retains its historic form along with much of its early fabric. Quality craftsmanship is evident externally in the lattice windows and render finishes, and internally with the stained glass, fine carving and decorated apse. The decorative interior contrasts with the more simple exterior of the building. Sited adjacent to the former national school, the two form a group which has played a significant role in the local social fabric. St Columba’s was extended and refurbished in 1907 by Rev. Thomas McCullagh, who spent £1,200 on the works. These included lengthening and re-roofing the building, adding a gallery and new lead glass windows. A non-Catholic, Captain Cooper (Ballinrea House) gave generously to the Catholic parish church. A stained glass window made by Watsons of Youghal was donated in memory of John Morrogh, owner of Douglas Woollen Mills and former Nationalist MP. The church was last modernised and refurbished in 1999. The present-day interior, with its Romanesque-style decoration, dates from this time.
The first known mention of Douglas is in an inquisition on the lands of Gerald de Prendergast in 1251, and in a 1291 taxation document which records the lands as being an appurtenance of the Church of Bauvier. It is alternately listed as “Duffelglasse” and “Duglasse” in 1302 and 1306, respectively, as part of the parish of Carrigaline. In the year 1603, it became one of the liberties of Cork City. In 1615, parochial records mention the chapel of Douglas being laid waste, reportedly due to theft of the foundation stones, and in a 1700 entry of the same records it is mentioned that the ruined chapel in question had been the church of Carrigaline parish for a century prior to the construction of a new church in Carrigaline itself.[By the mid-seventeenth century, it had a population of 308 people (of whom 33 were English) and consisted of a number of large farms.
Douglas was made a separate Roman Catholic parish sometime before 1768. St Columba’s (Roman Catholic) church was built in 1814 by the Rev. Thomas Barry, according to local legend using the stones of the ruined castle of Castletreasure. A Douglas “Chapel of Ease” to the Church of Ireland parish of Carrigaline was established on 17 September 1786, with the establishment of a full separate parish in February 1875. In 1855, the Protestant population of the parish was reported as having been 310, with 150 children attending the parish school. The 1785 church was rebuilt and reconsecrated on 27 August 1875 as St Luke’s church, however, following the death of the resident Canon in 1886, as well as the principal architect, the church remained without a spire until 1889, with the church bell and tower clock donated by Mary Reeves of Tramore House, with the stipulation that the clock face towards her front door. Notable parishioners interred at St Luke’s include the poet Richard Alfred Milliken and librarian Richard Caulfield; in addition, a plaque was erected in the memory of art collector Sir Hugh Lane, deceased in the sinking of the Lusitania. The nearby parish of St Finbar’s opened a chapel of ease in Frankfield in 1838, later known as the Holy Trinity, on ground donated by Samuel Lane. An additional graveyard, located on Carr’s Hill, was opened in 1848 on land donated by the Master of the Workhouse, George Carr, to deal with the increase in deaths from the Great Famine.
In the 2011 census, the percentage of Irish nationals living in Douglas was 88.8%. UK nationals accounted for 1.7%; Polish nationals 3.2%; Lithuanians 0.6%; other EU nationals 2.1%; other nationals 2.9%; and 0.7% did not state their nationality.[
In the 2016 census, 78.6% of residents of the Douglas electoral division identified as Catholic, 8% were members of other religions, 12% had no religion and less than 1% did not state a religion. In the same census, 86.2% of electoral division residents identified as white Irish, 8.3% were other whites, 1% were black, 1.7% Asian or Asian Irish, 1.4% were of other ethnicities, and 1% did not state an ethnicity.
I photographed this War Memorial in August 2021 but upon processing the images I discovered that the inscriptions were unreadable. I now have a different workflow and the text should be readable but that may depend on your device.
At the South Mall is a memorial to those Irishmen who died in the First World War. It was erected in 1925, and is one of the few example Irish examples of its type. Carved in relief on a modest limestone obelisk, sitting on a plinth, is the profile of a Munster Fusiliers soldier in full military uniform, head down, gun at rest. Each November wreaths are laid here to mark the anniversary of the armistice of 1918 at the end of the War.
LEAST WE FORGET
erected by public subscription under the auspices of the cork independent ex-servicemens club, in memory of their comrades who fell in the great war fighting for the freedom of small nations
1914 – 1918
“Greater Deed Hath No Man Done
“They Shall Grow Not Old, As We That Are Left Grow Old. Age Shall Not Weary Them, Nor The Years Condemn. At The Going Down Of The Sun, And In The Morning We Will Remember Them.”
1939 – 1945
“When you go home, Tell them of us and say For your tomorrow we gave our today
This memorial commemorates the residents of Cork who were killed or missing in World War I and World War II. Many such memorials were erected after the First World War. After the Second World War, the names of those who died in that war were also added to the memorial.
The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1922. It traced its origins to the East India Company’s Bengal European Regiment raised in 1652, which later became the 101st Regiment of Foot (Royal Bengal Fusiliers). The Royal Munster Fusiliers were formed in 1881 by the merger of the 101st Regiment of Foot and the 104th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Fusiliers). One of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, it had its home depot in Tralee and served as the county regiment for Cork, Clare, Limerick and Kerry. At its formation the regiment comprised two regular and two militia battalions.
The Royal Munster Fusiliers served in India before the regiment fought in the Second Boer War. Prior to the First World War, the regiment’s three militia battalions were converted into reserve battalions, and a further six battalions were added to the regiment’s establishment during the war. The regiment fought with distinction throughout the Great War and won three Victoria Crosses by the conflict’s conclusion in 1918. Following establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922, the five regiments that had their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new state were disbanded and the Royal Munster Fusiliers ceased to be as a regiment on 31 July 1922.
Back in 2007 it was suggested that this grotto at Pier Head on the Marina should be relocated to the new Blackrock park to allow improved vehicular access to the slipways. When I visited in September 2018 and August 2021 it was still at its original location … I wonder what happened.
Note: Pier Head may actually refer to a Pub or a restaurant rather than the actual location of the grotto.
A short distance from the village is Blackrock Castle. There has been a castle on the site since medieval times but the present castle was built in the mid-19th century in mock-baronial style. It now houses an observatory and planetarium.
The Marina, a tree-lined avenue (not strictly a marina) runs along the southern bank of the River Lee from Blackrock Village past Páirc Uí Chaoimh and is a used for a number of recreational activities such as rowing, walking and cycling. The Atlantic Pond, in the shadow of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, is also used by walkers and is populated by wildlife, mainly ducks and swans.
Dundanion Castle, overlooking the Marina but difficult to access, is a ruined 16th-century castle. It is from this spot that William Penn reputedly sailed on his first voyage to America in 1682 before founding the state of Pennsylvania.