Penny Dinners going strong after 137 years

There are older charities in Cork than Penny Dinners – for instance, the Sick Poor Society was founded in 1820 by Bartholomew Murphy of Blarney Street – and there were already groups offering assistance to those in need in the city long before the first meeting was convened to import to Leeside the notion of a decent meal for a nominal sum.

The second Skiddy’s Almshouse opened on Shandon 1718, replacing the first building, which had been established near the North Gate Bridge using a bequest from wine merchant Stephen Skiddy – or possibly Scudamore - in his will of 1584.

St Stephen’s Hospital, also known as the Blue Coat School, off Tower Street, was founded by William Worth in 1699. In 1716, two schools – one for boys and one for girls – were built beside St Anne’s Shandon, becoming known as the Green Coat Hospital.

There were many other charitable endeavours operating in the city over the years, among them the North Infirmary (founded 1719), the South Infirmary (incorporated 1722), and several concerns tightly bound with the city’s Protestant ascendancy: Thomas Deane’s charity (1720), Moses Deane’s charity (1722), Masters’s charity (1727), and Lapp’s charity (1856).

While Cork Penny Dinners was formally established in the city in 1888, some believe it has origins dating back to soup kitchens run during the Famine by the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers.

At the height of demand, in February 1847, a soup kitchen on Adelaide Street was reported to have used steam piped in from Ebenezer Pike’s adjacent shipyards to heat 1,400 quarts of soup per day.

The establishment of Cork Penny Dinners was recorded in the local newspaper, the Cork Examiner – the Evening Echo was still four years in the future.

The front page of the Cork Examiner of Thursday morning, 15 March 1888, was covered in ments, as it always was then.

‘The Queen’s Old Castle Perambulators – Enormous Stock, Great Variety, Latest Improvements, Very Low Prices.’ ‘Goulding’s Manures, 108 Patrick Street.’ ‘McDonnell Bros Seed Merchants, Camden Quay & Mulgrave Street.’ ‘Cakes, Confectionary and Bonbons. FH Thompson & Son, Bridge Street.’ ‘Wines and Spirits, Specially for Invalids, Woodford, Bourne & Co.’ The adverts ran over onto page two, where the news began.

‘Ceylon Teas, Punch & Co, Patrick Street’ vied with an ment for Cash’s, which promised a ‘Great Fire at Leeds Salvage Sale’, while the Christian Brothers Schools gave notice that ‘The Annual Sermon in aid of Peacock Lane, Sullivan’s Quay and Blarney-street Schools’ would take place the following Sunday at the North Cathedral.

The first news item was a three-column digest of stories featured in the paper’s later pages, but it is initially almost unreadable to modern eyes, with lengthy, run-on sentences jumping to the next topic, and the next, and the next. That was then followed by short synopses of the same stories, broken into paragraphs, and they cover everything from court cases, shipping news, murders, and that salvage sale in Cash’s, to the death of a “mad dog” in Dungarvan – “apparently from exhaustion”.

The first story formatted in a way recognisable to a modern reader has the prominent headline “Introduction of the Penny Dinner movement into Cork”.

The report begins: “The idea of supplying dinners to the poor for a penny was started in London some years ago, and most successfully carried out there.

“The movement has lately spread to Dublin, where it has been attended with a similar success. The example of London and Dublin has now stimulated the zeal of some charitable ladies amongst ourselves. Accordingly a meeting for the purpose of starting the penny dinner movement in Cork was held in the Imperial Hotel on Monday last.” The article then lists the almost 60 women in attendance at the meeting, some of them extremely influential (see ), beginning with Mrs Allman and ending with the Misses Whitelegg.

The report continues: “This new project was warmly, even enthusiastically, taken up. A committee was formed, and we are glad to see that the committee is composed of ladies, the name of every one of whom is a guarantee that the charitable work, there so happily inaugurated, will be carried out energetically and perserveringly. It has been amply demonstrated that one penny will procure the materials of a substantial meal, varied each day.

“The public are asked to provide funds to procure the necessary appliances, cooking-range, utensils, &c, estimated to cost about £50, as well as the wages of two attendants, and a small sum for rent and coals. A room has been taken at No 5 Drawbridge Street. It will be opened on Saturday next, St Patrick’s Day, and then, and every day after, dinner will be supplied from 1 to 4 o’clock.

“In hope that the promoters of this latest charitable effort here will adapt the system so successfully carried out in London and Dublin, of circulating books of tickets, each ticket costing a penny, so that employers and others may have an opportunity of relieving, in a very safe and very effective way, the great distress that exists amongst us at present. We wish the movement every success. A list of subscriptions and donations will be found in our advertising columns.” All these years later, the work of Cork Penny Dinners continues “energetically and perserveringly”, and next Wednesday volunteers will be hard at work, delivering meals and food hampers and making sure that Christmas Day is not just another day.

“The name of every one of whom is aguarantee of charitable work”

“A meeting for the purpose of starting the penny dinner movement in Cork was held in the Imperial Hotel on Monday [March 12, 1888],” reported the Cork Examiner three days later.

This was a high-powered grouping, counting among its number some of the most influential women in Cork, including Mrs JF Maguire, Margaret Bailey, the widow of John Francis Maguire MP, founder of the Cork Examiner, Mrs George Barry, the widow of the former MP for Cork, and Mrs Denny Lane, wife of the Young Irelander who wrote “Carrigdhoun” and is commemorated with a plaque at 72 South Mall.

The report continues: “Amongst those present were: Mrs Allman, Mrs Atkins, Mrs RA Atkins, Mrs George Barry, Mrs Barry, Mrs R Barry, Mrs Beale, Mrs Budd, Mrs Blake, Mrs Cromen, Mrs Conron, Mrs WJ Cummins, Mrs Cotter, Mrs Ashley Cummins, Mrs Clanchy, Mrs Corby, Mrs D Cronin, Mrs TJ Daly, Mrs Fawcett, Mrs Foley, Mrs Fitzgerald, Mrs Forde, Mrs Gregg, Mrs Green, Mrs Grey, Mrs Gibson, Mrs Harding, Mrs Harty, Mrs Harris, Miss D Harrington, Mrs Julian, Mrs Kerr, Lynch, Mrs JL Lyons, Mrs F Lyons, Miss Lyons, Mrs Lordan, Mrs Denny Lane, Mrs Ledlio, Miss Leddle, Miss K Lyons, Mrs J Lambkin, Mrs Mahony, Mrs MacNamara, Murrogh, Miss K Murphy, Mrs JF Maguire, Mrs Noblett, Mrs O’Sullivan, Mrs Perrott, Mrs Reilly, Mrs A Reilly, Miss Scott, Mrs J Waters, Mrs Walker, the Misses Whitelegg.”