Faith and community – Brendan McNamara on 50 years of Cork’s Bahá’í assembly

As there are no clergy in the Bahá'í Faith, its community affairs are managed by elected administrative bodies and these assemblies are a central part of Baha'i community life. The Cork Local Assembly has continued in existence since its foundation in 1971, serving the needs of a growing community.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin wrote to the Bahá’ís of Cork on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its establishment. “The work you do”, the Taoiseach wrote, “in contributing to the common goal of serving humanity and endeavouring to live in accordance with the teachings of the founder your Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, has had a positive impact on the community of Cork.”

But how did this relatively new religion, established in the 19th century and which teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people, first reach the shores of the Rebel County?

The first connection between the Bahá'í Faith and Cork goes back much further than the 1970s. The American Consul to Cobh (then Queenstown) from 1906 to 1910, Henry Culver, became a Bahá'í just prior to taking up his post in Ireland. Henry and his wife Mary (along with their three youngest children) were domiciled in the Upper Park area of Cobh at a time when the small port town was a bustling hive of comings and goings.

Sláintecare and lessons from the pandemic

---

The National Maternity Hospital

---

Childcare – financial pressure on parents

---

The story of Britney Spears is a classic fairy tale

---

Henry, a career diplomat, had plenty to do as America’s man in Cobh, tending to the needs of emigrants, sailors and navy personnel. He was known as a fine public speaker and possessed of “remarkable social qualities and a splendid personal presence”. The Culvers are recorded as the first Bahá’ís to live in Ireland.

Thereafter, there were only a few Bahá'ís in Ireland, dotted around the country. The most renowned was the writer and former Church of Ireland Archdeacon of Clonfert and Canon of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, George Townshend, whose forebears hailed from the seaside village of Castletownshend in Co Cork. George's father was a well-known land agent in Dublin, and vice-president of the RDS from 1893 until his death in 1907.

George and his wife and children became the centre of the development of the first Bahá’í community in Dublin in the late 1940s. Later on, he became a figure of international repute in his new found religion.

His books and poems have been translated into many different languages and he is regarded as a figure of importance in the development of the community in both Britain and Ireland.

The Australian Bahá'í artist Maude Bennett made her home in Cork during the middle decades of the 20th century, setting up home on Hop Island in the Lee estuary. Maude was well known as a watercolourist and had a number of high profile exhibitions in Cork, including one in the City Hall. Maude's paintings hung in many of the "big houses" throughout the county and she was much sought after as a teacher. Among her students was a young David Goldberg, whose work is included in a number of significant collections at home and abroad.

In the late 1960s, the retired English theatrical couple John and Val Morley moved to Ireland and became mainstays of the famous Loft Shakespearean Theatre company in Cork and the Bahá'í community. Their contribution to theatre in Cork is still fondly remembered.

It was during these years that some local Corkonians enrolled as Bahá’ís, and a varied group with respect to age and background established the first Bahá’í Local Assembly of Cork in 1971.

In his message of congratulations for the 50th anniversary, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney commented that the Bahá'í community's "contribution to life and society in Ireland and around the globe has been one of positive service and active contribution". This pandemic, he wrote, "has brought our people closer together; as Baha'u'llah once wrote, 'The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens'". And in a video message recorded for the occasion, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Joe Kavanagh, warmly wished the Bahá'í community well for its next half-century and beyond.