M&P O'Sullivan Ltd 100 Years

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The unstable political nature within the country continued from the late 1800s into the 1900s. Indeed,
the quest for Home Rule became very strong especially among the Irish Parliamentary Party, which represented
the Irish public in Westminster and which was led by Charles Stewart Parnell up to 1890. There was
also a cultural re-awakening in attempting to preserve the Irish culture. The Gaelic Athletic Association
(G.A.A.) was established in Thurles in 1884 and its aspirations to preserve the old Irish sporting customs in
Ireland spread to the ‘four corners’ of Ireland. Indeed the second meeting of the G.A.A. was held in Cork
on 27 December 1884 at the Victoria Hotel. A national Gaelic League known as Conradh na Gaeilge was
established in 1893 to further preserve aspects of Irish culture and branches were established in County
Cork and Cork City.
A significant change within Cork Corporation was the changing of the title Mayor to Lord Mayor in 1900.
In the latter year, the elected mayor was Daniel J. Hegarty. On the 3rd April 1900, Queen Victoria sailed
into Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) on an Irish tour. The Mayor and Sheriff of Cork were invited to
the celebrations in Dublin. To mark the occasion, on the eve of her return to London, Queen Victoria
conferred the honour of baronetcy on the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Belfast. She also announced henceforth
the First Citizen of the City of Cork would hold the honourable title of Lord Mayor.
Perhaps the key cultural event of the first five years of the twentieth century in Cork was the Cork
International Exhibition, which took place over two seasons in 1902 and 1903. Large-scale exhibitions
were not new to the City. The first major Exhibition was held in 1852 and the second in 1883. These
large exhibitions were hallmark events in the development of the cultural life of the city and also put
the city on the global map. The ‘brain child’s’ of the social elites in nineteenth century Cork, the exhibitions
were marketing strategies where spectacle and culture merged. Aesthetics of architecture, colour,
decoration and lighting were all added to the sense of spectacle and in a tone of moral and educational
improvement. The exhibition concept enchanted and diverted the masses from more serious matters.
The exhibitions were not merchandise marts but promoted ideas about Cork’s relations between nations,
the spread of education, the advancement of science, the nature of domestic life and the place of art in
Cork society. Several scientific achievements of the day were on exhibition, including an electric light,
a wireless telegraph apparatus, a complete e-ray plant and a specimen of the newly discovered metal and
radium.