NORTH SIDE FARES BETTER

Records from the Fermoy Urban District in 1909 reveal some of the dire conditions at the time that those, described as ‘working class’ families, were living in.

A report entitled ‘Cottages Scheme No. 111’ dated March 23, 1909, reveals that not only were some of the homes damp and ‘unfit for habitation’, but many were living in severely overcrowded conditions, with multiple families under the one roof.

Compiled by a Dr Michael A. O’Brien, Medical Officer of Health at the time, the report features a ‘careful and exhaustive’ inspection of houses occupied by the working classes within the entire Urban area.

Beginning south of the River Blackwater, Dr O’Brien addresses the Springfield Cottages first, where three different families were living - 10, 7 and 8 persons in houses of 1,134 cubic feet, where 'ground damp' was reportedly showing a foot-and-a-half up the walls.

The row facing east was also reportedly damp and were ‘built on a moist foundation' and were even more crowded.

“In 3 of these houses, Nos. 2, 4 & 6, the houses are greatly overcrowded, only capable of an average of 156 cubic feet of air for each individual, which is far below the minimum standard,” Dr O’Brien noted.

‘UNFIT FOR HUMAN

HABITATION’

Pound Lane - which is now Devlin Street - did not fare much better, as the 13 houses on the street at the time presented ‘grave defects’ according to the doctor.

Again, the houses were overcrowded and offered no ventilation bar that obtained from doorways, holes in decayed thatch and fissures in crumbling walls.

Dr O’Brien reported that the Pound Lane houses were ‘devoid’ of proper light and that there was no attempt at ‘sanitary accommodation’.

“3 of the foregoing are absolutely unfit for human habitation and I would recommend the Council in those cases to use their powers with a view to preventing those houses being used as habitations,” the report read.

Moving on to Cross Street - now Clancy Street four homes were described as ‘dilapidated’ and two as ‘unfit for habitation’. Within the report, Dr O’Brien claims that the 17 homes on the street were unfit for habitation due to overcrowding, bad ventilation, a lack of light or air, old decaying walls and roofs of thatch, and damp earthen floors.

Bog Lane - now Redmond Street - held six houses which presented the same issues as Cross Street, resulting in the determination that these homes were also not fit for habitation.

The row of houses facing north on William Street, now Emmet Street, saw only one house overcrowded, possibly that which saw Briens, Crowleys, Cotters and Connells with '15 in all families' living together.

Facing south, however, four houses were classed as being ‘greatly overcrowded’: “In one house as many as nine persons occupying one room, where there is only sufficient accommodation for one person,” Dr O’Brien said.

‘DEVOID’ OF SANITARY

APPARATUS

Duntaheen Row and Chapel Square each had two houses overcrowded with no sanitary accommodation, while one house on Duntaheen Row had ‘old decayed walls and roofs’.

Working class accommodation on New Market Range, which is the east end of Connolly Street now, had three houses which were ‘highly defective’ at the time. The report claimed that the houses were ‘devoid of any form of sanitary apparatus, no yard or place to erect same’.

“These houses are in a position which renders it impossible to put them into suitable Sanitary Houses, and I could again direct the Council’s attention to them with a view to preventing them being used as habitations,” Dr O’Brien directed.

Princes Street North (now Connolly St) did not fare much better with nine ‘greatly overcrowded’ houses, again with no sanitary accommodation, being badly ventilated and badly lit.

At the time, Dr O’Brien alleged that the houses on Princes Street constituted a ‘serious danger to public health’ as it was next to impossible for inhabitants to dispose of waste in a sanitary manner.

Bridewell Hill West (Kevin Barry Hill) saw two houses ‘dangerously’ overcrowded, with 16 persons in one and ten in another.

“Houses themselves are badly constructed, no light, air, ventilation, no yard, no sanitary accommodation of any kind. I regard those houses as unfit for human habitation for the foregoing reasons,” Dr O’Brien said.

OPEN SURFACE DRAINS

Discussing the situation on Store Lane, Dr O’Brien stated that two houses here were ‘absolutely unfit for human habitation.

“No light, air or sanitary accommodation. They are placed between the abutting yards of houses on parallel streets. I recommend the Council to consider seriously the advisability of entirely closing those houses.”

Bowling Green Street, a lane off Richmond Hill, painted a picture of what resulted when houses had no sanitary accommodation installed.

“Five houses overcrowded, no sanitary accommodation, no yards. In front of those houses is an open surface drain that carries off the liquid offal from the houses and also human excrement.

“I consider this condition highly unsanitary and recommend the Council to either (a) insist that those houses be made sanitary, or (b) discontinue them as dwellings,” Dr O’Brien added.

According to Dr O’Brien, the north side of the river in Fermoy saw much better living conditions as he noted a marked absence of the great congestion and overcrowding together with unsanitary conditions, compared with the town's south side. Despite this, the report outlines several concerns, the first being a house on Barrack Hill East in which nine persons were living in one small room.

Eight overcrowded houses were reported on Mess House Lane with no light, air or proper sanitary accommodation, with Dr O’Brien claiming they ‘cannot possibly be made proper dwellings’ and recommended they be entirely discontinued as such.

In relation to Castlehyde Road, Dr O’Brien noted: “Four houses absolutely unfit for human habitation and no attempt can be made to put them in a proper condition and I recommend that these houses be entirely discontinued as dwellings”.

Finally, Rathealy Road saw two small houses or lodges ‘absolutely unfit for habitation’ as they were overcrowded with no air or light.

“The foregoing gives only a faint picture of the appalling results of such a defect as overcrowding, constituting as it does one of our most serious evils amongst the Labouring Classes. From the foregoing, the Council will readily understand the great demand that exists for proper and ample accommodation for the Working Classes,” Dr O’Brien concluded.