Lord Mayor of Cork welcomes donationof historic charter

The presentation to Cork City Council of a historic charter granted by Queen Victoria to Cork Corporation in 1900, has been welcomed by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Donal Counihan, as an important addition to the city's archives.

Mr Counihan formally accepted the handing over of the original charter conferring the title of Lord Mayor on the head of Cork Corporation from Dublin-based Prof Timothy Counihan and his son, Michael Counihan SC, at a recent ceremony at Cork City Hall.

Lord Mayor Counihan said that until 1900, Cork city was, like most other cities in Ireland outside of Dublin and Belfast, represented by a mayor but Queen Victoria decided to confer the title Lord Mayor on the head of Cork Corporation following a visit to the city.

"The first city mayor to receive the honour was Sir Daniel Hegarty - he was the son of a merchant from Summerhill in Cork and he had helped greet Queen Victoria on her visit to Ireland in 1900."

The manuscript parchment charter, which is about 70cm square and has a large wax royal seal attached by cords, was inherited by Prof Counihan's late wife, Mary Rose Powell whose aunt was married to Sir Daniel Hegarty's son, Michael.

Mr Counihan paid tribute to Prof Counihan, a native of Killarney in Co Kerry who graduated from UCC in 1947 and later lectured in UCD and worked as a consultant at the Mater hospital, for his generosity in donating the charter to Cork City Council.

"It's a very historic document with an interesting story - one condition of the granting of the title Lord Mayor was that it be officially enrolled in the High Court in Dublin within six months with the cost of this to be met by Cork Corporation," said Mr Counihan.

"But this caused controversy amongst the council members, most of whom were nationalists and the motion to pay for enrolling was defeated so Sir Daniel Hegarty ended up having to pay the costs out of his own pocket," Mr Counihan added.