Patrick Walsh: Cork Waterworks, Cork Prison and Cinemas
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He talks about Cork waterworks and being awed as a child by its workings, and about Cork Prison, which he and his parents visited but nearly got locked into by accident. He and the interviewer discuss Cork’s cinemas and the interviewer shares a funny story about the official opening of a cinema. Pat talks about City Hall and seeing Rory Gallagher at the concert hall.
He says that the Crawford Gallery occupies the site of what was once the Abbot brewery.
Note: this interview was recorded for the DVD If The Stones Could Speak.
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The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com
The womens prison which is in Sundays Well and to the west of the Good Sheppard Convent, em, again very, very clear childhood memories of walking there from Ballyphehane, walking as far as Jail Cross and ironically passing the old county jail which is the building at the western side of UCC campus now or the Jail Cross side of it, em, always fascinated by the fact that it was closed and while one could go up the steps to the two storey building eh in the centre of the wall at the front and been able to look in and see so far into the yard and yet been aware of so much space behind it and the building itself never really getting I don’t remember getting a clear view of the building. But my mother had great devotion to a little girl who died very young known as little Nellie of Holy God and she would part of our visits over into that direction, our walks over would be to pray at her grave, em, I was always drawn by the high walls of the prison and wondering what was in there or how would I get in. Years later a chance came in my teens when myself and a friend happened to be walking up that way during the summer holidays from school. Now to the left of the steps up to the main building at the centre of the front wall eh there was an archway and two metal gates, now I had known for instance that 2RN which was the Cork Broadcasting Radio Eireann back in I think started in the late 1920s called RTE or 2RN as it was called broadcast locally from there for a couple of years and the PNT were using the front section of the yard as a depo as well, but the gates were open and this was my first time been able to see in and there was a truck entering so curiosity getting the better of us, the truck drove in, we hesitated a few seconds and then ran in to have a quick look around but thinking we had a bit of time to spare we went in around the yard and went in a good distance from the gate when the next thing we heard one of the gates closing, turning around and between the urge to get out and not be seen we froze for a moment, totally undecided on what to do but thankfully the men that were after parking the truck had to go back into an office and we legged it out of there like sprinters. Em the building as far as I know, the design of the building is similar to I think what would have been built in the famous Dartmoor prison in England at the time, and its interesting because I was on holidays in Devon last year and there’s a big debate because I think its going to close as a prison and there is a big debate in Devon as to what, could even be a national debate really, as to what to do with the building but to the best of my knowledge there was a kind of a standard blueprint for prisons built I think, I think that was opened in 1820 around the same time as the old county jail over at Jail Cross at UCC. Em and I’m not sure about that one because it is demolished now but I think the building in, in the Cork Prison, or the old women’s prison would be a similar design to the one at Dartmoor.