Richard Dowden was born 12 April 1794 in Bandon. The attached image was painted when he was Lord Mayor of Cork in 1845, the year the Bandon and Cork Railway company was formed and of course the start of our most recent famine. He initially studied medicine and looked after the poor, sick and blind when our country was at its worst.
He was the poor law guardian, governor of the asylum for the mentally ill and also on the board of the blind asylum, a serious politician, author and a mighty philanthropist.
He brought a public library to Bandon town 200 years ago during 1822. Its only fitting to acknowledge him in the year we opened the new state of the art library in our town.
He published what is more than likely on the boreens of Bandon called "Walks After Wild Flowers; or, the Botany of the Bohereens" which he via London in 1852.
All his papers are in Cork County Archives. Happy digging!
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