Display of ‘Aud’ anchor marks weekend of 1916 events in Cork

The unveiling and public display in Cobh on Friday of an anchor from the gun running ship, the Aud, signalled the start of a weekend of commemorative events by over 25 communities in Co Cork to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

The Aud was sent by Germany with 20,000 rifles and a million rounds of ammunition to assist the 1916 insurgents but was intercepted by the Royal Navy in Tralee Bay. Its captain, Karl Spindler, decided to scuttle the ship in Cork Harbour while it was being escorted to Cobh, then Queenstown.

Hendrik Verwey of Cobh Tourism said the anchor is on display at the Cobh Heritage Centre is a stockless anchor from the Aud which was recovered in a salvage operation supervised maritime archaeologists from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in 2012.

The Aud will also be remembered at a series of events this weekend at Fort Meagher in Camden near Crosshaven which began on Friday with Cork historian Barry Keane giving a lecture on the German ship and its significance to Easter week 1916.

On Saturday, descendants of Tomás Mac Curtain, who was head of the Irish Volunteers in Cork during their stand-off with British forces during Easter week, will gather in Mourneabbey in north Cork to lay a wreath at the place where he was born in the townland of Ballyknockin.

Also on Saturday, there will be a re-enactment of the march to Kilmurry in Mid-Cork by Irish Volunteers from Bandon with Tom Hales carrying the National Flag in memory of his father.

On Sunday in Carriganima near Macroom, the local community will recreate the dramatic oration given to local members of the Irish Volunteers by Patrick Pearse in August 1915 just three days after his famous oration at the graveside of O’Donovan Rossa in Glasnevin.

There will also be a re-enactment of events on Easter Sunday 1916 when Irish Volunteer companies from Carriganima, Ballinagree, Kilnamartyra, Clondrohid, Ballyvourney, Coolea, Macroom and Kilmurry gathered in Carriganima in preparation for marching to Kerry to collect arms from the Aud.

Meanwhile Clonakilty Heritage will host a conference on Clonakilty and Easter 1916 with lectures on the involvement of local men, Michael Collins, Con O’Donovan, who fought in the Four Courts, and Sean Hurley, who was fatally wounded during the fighting on Church Street on April 29th 1916.

In Kanturk on Sunday, there will be a talk by Dr Margaret Ward on local woman and leading suffragette and feminist, Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, whose husband, Francis Sheehy Skeffington, was killed by British army officer, Capt JC Bowen-Colthurst during Easter Week.

The part played by Capt Bowen-Colthurst in the events of Easter Week - when he was responsible for the deaths of five innocent civilians - will be recalled in a lecture entitled “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know” by Anthony Greene in Coachford to which the Bowen-Colthursts had ties.

In Kilbrittain, memorial plaques will be unveiled to local man and Irish Volunteer JJ Walsh, who fought in the GPO, and to local members of the Irish Volunteers who marched to Macroom as part of the mobilisation by Cork units on Easter Sunday 1916.

Further west, Bantry Historical Society will commemorate Easter 1916 with a lecture by local historian, Neill Clarke on local man, Col Joe O’Reilly who fought in the GPO and later went on to become Aide de Camp to Michael Collins from 1917 until his death in 1922.