Now that Cork's docklands are to be redeveloped in one of the most significant urban projects undertaken in the State, it is timely that a history of the Cork Harbour Commissioners who governed the port from 1814 to 1997 should have been commissioned.
Over the next 20 years, the docks area as it now stands, will be transformed in a public/ private partnership that will rejuvenate a dilapidated part of Cork through a mix of commercial, residential and leisure zones, and bring it right into the mainstream of city life.
The aim is that the docks will no longer be on the periphery of the city but an integral part of it. There will be a new urban quarter and a central place for a restored River Lee as a major amenity in the proposed scheme.
Journalist and author Mary Leland has traced the history of the commissioners, using extensive archive material, and in That Endless Adventure, has produced a superbly written account, tracing the history of the port from the plantation of Munster under Elizabeth I, through the various intrigues at the English court which had a direct bearing on its development, and the emergence of the Cork Harbour Commissioners during the close of the reign of George III.
From its heyday as the supplier of butter to the empire, through the years of sail, steam and liner traffic, the port was the driving force in the development of Cork, and the commissioners were the overseers of that development.
Their story is one of a zeal, almost patriotic, to ensure the port maintained its dominant position in local and national economic life.
Although the commissioners might have been regarded as merchant princes down the years, they succeeded, in the words of former chairman, Mr Frank J Boland, in putting the port first and always above their personal interests.
But, as the author says, their day is over, and the new Port of Cork Company, a limited, semi-State company, which may yet sever all links with the State, is now in control. It will oversee the new port plan and the major investment being planned for it up to the year 2020.