It’s watched time pass since the 1850s.

Now Mangan’s Clock near Merchants Quay is back in working order after Cork City Council commissioned Stokes Clock and Watches to refurbish the clock hands, repair and replace damaged parts, and clean and paint the supporting pillar.

Costing in the region of €7,500, the work to protect the well-known landmark started at the end of January.

Having opened up the famous timepiece, horologist Philip Stokes discovered a sliotar inside, which explains the damage to a panel on the clock face.

Mangan Jewellers was a family business of clock makers and jewellers in Cork City from 1817 to the late 1980s and were responsible for the installation of Mangan’s Clock as well as the iconic clock on St. Anne’s Church, Shandon.

The cast iron clock is visible in many a vintage image of Cork’s busiest thoroughfare. Watch carefully and you’ll spot it on the left in this incredible footage from 1902:

A 1902 “phantom ride” through Cork city centre on the tramway!

Apr-May 1902

Starting from King Street, now MacCurtain Street, when the camera turns onto Bridge Street, you get a lovely panorama of St Patrick’s Bridge and Cork’s bustling commercial heart@deoldify @freesounddev pic.twitter.com/eoCoBu7uQ5

— Old Ireland in Colour (@irelandincolour) June 27, 2020

On a more romantic note, it is said that many a happy marriage started with a couple meeting for their first date under the watchful eye of Mangan’s clock.

Hopefully, the tradition will continue now that it’s ticking away again.