A GOURMET menu presented to Éamon de Valera before he officially opened Cork’s City Hall 75 years ago yesterday, forms part of an exhibit marking the milestone.
The then taoiseach chose from a menu featuring hors d’oeuvre, turtle, grouse, turbot and braised ham, washed down with sherry, Moet and a selection of whiskeys before officially opening the building on September 8th, 1936.
Lord Mayor of Cork Terry Shannon became the first mayor to ring the clock tower bells at City Hall yesterday, to commemorate de Valera’s turning of the key at 3.30pm 75 years ago.
The bells were originally intended for a maharaj in India, but were considered more suitable for the Cork project.
Housed on the site of an old corn exchange, the original City Hall was destroyed in the burning of Cork in December 1920. Three years later, Cork corporation held a competition to select designs for a replacement, which was won by architects Jones and Kelly.
However, plans to rebuild the hall were dropped as the corporation was dissolved in 1924, but the project was resurrected in 1929 under the country’s first city manager, Phillip Monaghan.
The plans from the winning design 10 years previously were dusted off as then president of the executive council, de Valera, arrived in Cork in July 1932 to lay the foundation stone for the project.
Building firm Sisk, which carried out the construction, presented de Valera with a gold-plated key to open the door to City Hall, engraved with the date and the occasion in Irish.
The key was donated to the city council by de Valera’s family and forms part of an exhibition of pictures, news clippings and historical paraphernalia opened yesterday at Cork City Hall.