Quaker Meeting House

Quaker Meeting House

Photograph of the Quaker meeting house on Grattan Street, Cork

Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

Quaker Meeting House
Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

Quaker Meeting House

Photograph of the Quaker meeting house on Grattan Street, Cork

Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

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The Quakers, also known as the Society of Friends, had an unbroken presence in Cork since the 1650's. The Meeting House (shown in the photograph) was built in 1833, replacing two former buildings on the same site, and was used for worship until 1939. After 1939 the building was used as a medical dispensary by the Southern Health Board. It is now a health centre administered by the Southern Health Board.

A new Quaker meeting house was opened at Summerhill South in 1939. George Fox, who founded the Quakers, visited Cork in 1669. It was in Cork also that William Penn became a Quaker. Penn's family had extensive properties in Cork. Many Cork Quakers were merchants and businessmen and were widely respected for their honesty and industry. During the nineteenth century the Beales, the Pikes, the Newsoms, and other Quakers were among the most successful merchants and industrialists in Cork. During the Famine, the Cork Quakers won the affection of the people for their untiring efforts to alleviate the suffering caused by the Famine. A fine history of the Quakers in Cork is Richard Harrison's Cork City Quakers 1655-1939, privately published by the author in 1991.