John X Miller: Cork Vision Centre, Marriage, St Peter’s Church, Supernatural,
Title
John X Miller: Cork Vision Centre, Marriage, St Peter’s Church, Supernatural,
Subject
Cork's Built Heritage
Description
John talks about the history and present role of Cork’s Vision Centre.
The building was originally St Peter’s Church, completed in 1788, and sold into private hands in 1949, after which it fell into disrepair. It was restored by Cork Corporation and went on to house the Cork Vision Centre, which opened in 1998.
He explains that the Centre hosts art exhibitions and other cultural events, as well as acting as an unofficial tourist office. He comments on the restoration of its monument to Thomas Dean, Mayor of Cork. He recounts a supernatural story to do with the Centre.
Note: this interview was conducted for the DVD If the Walls Could Talk.
The building was originally St Peter’s Church, completed in 1788, and sold into private hands in 1949, after which it fell into disrepair. It was restored by Cork Corporation and went on to house the Cork Vision Centre, which opened in 1998.
He explains that the Centre hosts art exhibitions and other cultural events, as well as acting as an unofficial tourist office. He comments on the restoration of its monument to Thomas Dean, Mayor of Cork. He recounts a supernatural story to do with the Centre.
Note: this interview was conducted for the DVD If the Walls Could Talk.
Date
24 July 2013
Identifier
CFP_SR00507_miller_2013
Coverage
Cork City; Ireland; Built Heritage; 1770s-200Os;
Relation
If the Wall Could Talk: Stories Of Cork's Heritage Catalogue Numbers:
CFP_SR00492_herlihy_2013;
CFP_SR00493_walsh_2013;
CFP_SR00494_butler_2013;
CFP_SR00495_faris_2013;
CFP_SR00496_osullivan_2013;
CFP_SR00497_ryan_2013;
CFP_SR00498_holland_2013;
CFP_SR00499_hartnett&osullivan_2013;
CFP_SR00500_mccarthy_2013;
CFP_SR00505_healy_2013;
CFP_SR00506_gleeson_2013;
CFP_SR00492_herlihy_2013;
CFP_SR00493_walsh_2013;
CFP_SR00494_butler_2013;
CFP_SR00495_faris_2013;
CFP_SR00496_osullivan_2013;
CFP_SR00497_ryan_2013;
CFP_SR00498_holland_2013;
CFP_SR00499_hartnett&osullivan_2013;
CFP_SR00500_mccarthy_2013;
CFP_SR00505_healy_2013;
CFP_SR00506_gleeson_2013;
Published Material:
If the Wall Could Talk: Stories Of Cork's Heritage (2013) DVD
If the Stones Could Speak: More stories from Cork's heritage (2015) DVD
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Cork Folklore Project
Language
English
Type
Sound
Format
1 .wav File
Interviewee
Interviewer
Duration
22m 15s
Location
Vision Centre, St Peter's Church, North Main St, Cork City, Cork, Ireland.
Original Format
.wav
Bit Rate/Frequency
24bit / 48kHz
Transcription
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
MW That’s interesting, yeah, very good. Em alright one thing I ask everyone, this sounds a bit odd or strange, but is there any superstitions, myths, legends, anecdotes, anything associated specifically with this building?
JM Well there, there, there, there’s none that eh that we know of except of course we’ve heard the usual, that it’s haunted and so forth. But there is one thing that I can attest to and so can Lorraine eh who eh started basically I s -- I s-- I was the first personally I recruited the staff then and she was one of the first recruitees that we had and now she’s the administrator of the Centre. But when we were, when we were due to open to the public, we had a very strange eh, eh -- and I can absolutely attest to it myself, I’m a fairly sceptical individual in relation to paranormal and so forth but we came in, in one morning and there was a half-moon of eh Victorian pennies. Em the strange thing about this was that they were inside the locked door, so you have your door, and you have your glass doors and they’re both locked, and we have no idea how they got there and they were all dated you know eh they were all obviously Victorian but they don’t relate to any particular date in the history of the church and we’ve no idea how they got there, none of the-- no idea. So Lorraine would be, would be probably thinking that some ghost dropped them there or whatever but we just were, there was no break-in, no nothing, and they were just there in a in a in a semi-circle or half-moon.
MW That’s amazing, isn’t it?
JM So that’s it. That’s the only tale I can tell you--
MW That’s interesting, yeah, very good. Em alright one thing I ask everyone, this sounds a bit odd or strange, but is there any superstitions, myths, legends, anecdotes, anything associated specifically with this building?
JM Well there, there, there, there’s none that eh that we know of except of course we’ve heard the usual, that it’s haunted and so forth. But there is one thing that I can attest to and so can Lorraine eh who eh started basically I s -- I s-- I was the first personally I recruited the staff then and she was one of the first recruitees that we had and now she’s the administrator of the Centre. But when we were, when we were due to open to the public, we had a very strange eh, eh -- and I can absolutely attest to it myself, I’m a fairly sceptical individual in relation to paranormal and so forth but we came in, in one morning and there was a half-moon of eh Victorian pennies. Em the strange thing about this was that they were inside the locked door, so you have your door, and you have your glass doors and they’re both locked, and we have no idea how they got there and they were all dated you know eh they were all obviously Victorian but they don’t relate to any particular date in the history of the church and we’ve no idea how they got there, none of the-- no idea. So Lorraine would be, would be probably thinking that some ghost dropped them there or whatever but we just were, there was no break-in, no nothing, and they were just there in a in a in a semi-circle or half-moon.
MW That’s amazing, isn’t it?
JM So that’s it. That’s the only tale I can tell you--
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “John X Miller: Cork Vision Centre, Marriage, St Peter’s Church, Supernatural,,” accessed March 28, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/17.