An Irishman's Diary on the Cork International Exhibition 1902/03

The Cork International Exhibition was a massive undertaking and turned out to be a great success. Opened on 1 May 1902, it attracted nearly 2 million visitors. I have just written an Irishman's Diary about the Exhibition in the Irish Times newspaper. Read it here.

 

Exhibition catalogue, on display in the Cork Public Museum.

Over 500 exhibitors showed off their wares at the Exhibition when it opened in 1902. As I say in the article, it was deemed to have been such a success that it was decided to re-open it in May of the following year as the Greater Cork International Exhibition. 

Most of the buildings and structures erected for the Exhibition were taken down immediately following the end of the 1903 Exhibition or in the decades following. Two buildings that have remained are the Shrubberies House (now Cork Public Museum), which was used as an administration center during the Exhibition and the small President and Lord Mayor's Pavilion (now used as an art gallery).

 

The Shrubberies (Cork Public Museum)

 

 

The President and Lord Mayor's Pavilion (now art gallery).

 

The previous exhibitions to take place in Cork were on a much smaller scale. The First Irish Industrial Exhibition Cork 1852 took place in a building where the Cork City Hall now stands. Here you can view a map of Cork from the time to get an idea of what the city looked like back then.

If you are interested in the 1883 Irish Industrial and Fine Art Exhibition that took place in Cork, you can view and download the catalogue here from the Cork Public Museum.