A PROUD RECORD

The final part of Pat Poland’s history of Cork Fire Brigade is a fascinating read, writes DFB historian Las Fallon

Any new piece of writing from the pen of the renowned and widely respected Cork re service historian, Pat Poland, is to be welcomed. When that new piece is the nal part of his trilogy on the history of Cork Fire Brigade, it is a special event indeed.

Pat Poland - along with Dublin`s own Tom Geraghty and Belfast’s Harry Welsh - is one of the leading historians of the Irish re service. His previous books on Cork: ‘For Whom the Bells Tolled – A History of Cork Fire Service from 1622 to 1900’ and ‘ e Old Brigade – the Rebel City’s Fire ghting Story 1900 to 1950’ have now been joined by ‘Cork City Fire ghters: A Proud Record – A Visual History from 1950. is new volume, when added to its predecessors, provides a fascinating and complete history of the Cork Fire Brigade from its earliest days, and is a major contribution to Irish re service historiography.

INSIGHT

Pat Poland writes with the eye of an accomplished historian, but also with the insight of a re ghter writing about a subject dear to his heart. Pat is the son of a Cork re ghter and senior o cer of that brigade. He grew up in a re station and followed the re ghter’s trade himself, serving for more than 30 years. e book is quite simply superlative in my view. It combines a nuanced written history with a fantastic selection of photos of Cork City appliances, personnel and stations down the years since the middle of the 20th Century, and a comprehensive list of well-written appendices dealing with all aspects of Cork Fire Brigade from eet lists to cap badges.

As a result, in this volume he delivers a personal account of some of the major res that took place in Cork during his lifetime and time in Cork Fire Brigade, including the Opera House in 1955, which he witnessed as a schoolboy, and the res at Sutton’s Coal Company o ces in 1963 and Scott’s Hardware and Building Supplies in 1965, both of which he attended as a re ghter.

It has something for the historian, something for the re bu , something for the collector, and combined with the previous books sets a standard that challenges any of us who delve into re service history.

Service

Pat Poland, in writing this book, and in nishing his trilogy on Cork Fire Brigade’s history, has done a great service to his native city and to the history of the Irish re service generally. e book is a tribute not only to the men and women of the Cork City Fire Brigade, but to all who follow the re ghter’s trade, and is a treasure chest of history for anyone interested in the development of the re service in Ireland. is is a volume that would be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in either Irish social history and/or the development of the Irish re service, and I could not recommend it enough.

It is a book in which it is possible to detect not just a master historian at work, but also a man with a deep love of his subject.

I’d also recommend buying the rst two volumes, not only to get a comprehensive view of the history of Cork Fire Brigade, but to enjoy and truly appreciate the amount of work that has gone into documenting the service’s role over the last few centuries.

Cork City Fire ghters: A Proud Record – A Visual History from 1950, is available online at buythebook.ie and on eBay, priced €20 (plus €6 postage), and at Bookstór in Newman’s Mall, Kinsale, and Waterstones, St Patrick’s Street, Cork.