Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

COR
CORK, a sea-port, city,
and a county of itself, and
the head of a diocese, locally
in the county of CORK, of.
which it is the capital,
and in the province of
MUNSTER 51 miles (S.W.
by W.) from Waterford,
and 126 (S.W. by S.) from
Dublin; containing 107,007
inhabitants, of which num-
ber, 84,000 are in the city
and suburbs.
This place, which in extent and importance is the
second city in Ireland, and is distinguished for its fine
harbour, “derived its ancient names Corcach and Corcach-
Bascoin, signifying in the Irish language “a marshy
place,” from its ‘situation on the navigable river Lee.
The earliest authentic account of its origin occurs in
Colgan’s life of St. Nessan, to whose preceptor, St. Barr
or Finbarr, is attributed the foundation of a cathedral
church, to which, as the abode of that saint, such num-
bers of disciples resorted from all parts, that the desert
in which it stood soon became the site of a considerable
city. St. Nessan, according to the annals of the four
masters, died in 551: if this be correct, he could not be
a disciple of St. Finbarr, unless the latter flourished at
a period much earlier than that stated by Sir James
Ware, namely, about the year 630. The original city
was built on a limestone rock, on the margin of the
south branch of the river, and appears to have grown
up around the cathedral and westward as far as the
monastery called Gill Abbey; but what from a very early
period has been more especially regarded as the city
was erected on the island, formed by the Lee, and its
origin is ascribed to the Danes, who, after repeatedly
plundering the old city and its religious establishments
for more than 300 years, settled here in 1020, but did
not long retain possession, being eighteen years after-
wards defeated with great slaughter, and the whole of
their property destroyed by fire. In 1080 the city is
said to have been destroyed by lightning; and eight
years afterwards the Danes of Dublin, Waterford, and
Wicklow united their forces to recover possession of it,
but were defeated by a large body of the natives of
Oneachach, now forming the district of West Carbery.
According to other accounts, Dermot, the son of Foird-
healbhach O’Brien, in the same year, laid waste and
plundered the town, and carried away the relics of
St. Finbarr.
At the time of the English invasion, the city and the
adjacent country were in the undisturbed possession of
the Danes, who held them under Dermot Mac Carthy
or Mac Carty, prince of Desmond, of which extensive
territory this place was the capital. On the landing of
Hen. II., in 1172, that chieftain was the first to acknow-
ledge his sovereignty: attending his court on the day
after his arrival, he resigned to the English monarch his
city of Cork, and did him homage, and paid tribute for
the rest of his possessions. The king immediately
appointed an English governor, with a garrison, which
being soon after obliged, from the small number of his
forces, to withdraw, Mac Carty resumed possession;
and the inhabitants, in 1174, fitted out 30 barques, and,
proceeding to Dungarvan, fell with all their force upon
408
COR
Strongbow’s army under Raymond le Gros, who had
been plundering the neighbouring country, and had just
shipped his booty for Wexford; they were, however,
repulsed, and Gilbert their commander was slain. In
1177, Henry granted the surrounding territory to Milo
de Cogan and Robert Fitz-Stephen, with the exception
of the city and adjacent cantreds occupied by the Ost-
men, which he kept in his own possession. In 1185 the
city was besieged by the Irish forces under Mac Carty;
Fitz-Stephen, being closely shut up within the walls,
sent for assistance to Raymond le Gros, then at Wex-
ford, and that nobleman coming promptly by sea with
a reinforcement of 20 knights and 100 archers, the gar-
rison made a sally and rotated the Irish at the first onset.
In the folio-wing year Dermot Mac Carty, while holding
a conference with some other Irish chiefs near the city,
was slain by a party of English under Theobald Fitz-
Walter, the founder of the noble house of Ormonde;
but, shortly after, the success which crowned the military
efforts of the native Irish left this the only considerable
place of strength in Munster in the possession of the
English. The city was now surrounded by the troops
of Desmond, and a force detached to its relief was
totally defeated; but from the secret jealousies that
prevailed in the Irish camp, Daniel Mac Carty, one of
the principal chieftains, abandoned the siege, and the
garrison was saved from destruction; The English,
however, being without succour or provisions, cut off
from all intercourse with their countrymen, and perpe-
tually harassed by their enemies, were in a short time
obliged to capitulate to the Prince of Desmond; but in
a few years they recovered possession of the city, and
strengthened it by the erection of an additional fort,
which kept the men of Desmond in subjection. Shan-
don Castle is said to have been built by Philip de Barry,
nephew of Fitz-Stephen; and in 1199, John Despenser,
the first civic magistrate upon record, was made provost
of Cork. From this period a great chasm occurs in the
history of the place, which does not appear to have
experienced any important changes, or to have been
distinguished by any remarkable event, till the death
here, in 1381, of the lord-deputy, Edmund Mortimer,
Earl of March and Ulster, when John Colton, Dean of
St. Patrick’s, Dublin, was immediately appointed to that
office. In 1492, Perkin Warbeck, in his assumed cha-
racter of Richard duke of York, arrived here from Lis-
bon, and was kindly received by the citizens; after a
short stay, he embarked for France, whence he returned
to this city in 1495, and soon after departed for Scot-
land; he once more visited this place, and having enlist-
ed a small force, set sail for Cornwall. After the disas-
trous termination of Warbeck’s expedition, the mayor
of Cork was hanged for countenancing that impostor;
and in 1498, on account of the disloyalty of the citizens,
the Earl of Kildare placed a strong garrison here, and
compelled the principal inhabitants to swear allegiance
to Hen. VII, and give bonds and pledges for their future
obedience. In 1541, the mayor was one of four com-
missioners, appointed in lieu of the Irish brehons or
judges, to hear and determine all controversies among
the natives of this province. In 1568, the lady of Sir
Warham St. Leger, lord-president of Munster, was,
during the absence of her husband, besieged by the
insurgents in the city, but was relieved by the lord-
deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, with 400 men from England;