☘️Friday View 15/03
Welcome to the pre-lunch edition! Cillian bags an Oscar, footpaths fail us, running tracks too, and City Council execs too. But at least it's a long weekend.
Slight delay this morning, but let’s get to it!
Cillian Murphy wins an Oscar: It’s old news by now, but it’s not every week a Corkman wins an Oscar, as Ballintemple boy Cillian Murphy did when he won the biggest prize in cinema, the Academy Award for best actor, thus completing his clean sweep of the awards season.
And with it, more than likely, ends his media run of interviews and documentaries, usually done to soften up the critics before the Oscars. Read this New Yorker piece to see how much effort and publicity goes into the campaign to get the gongs.
Murphy is everywhere since Oppenheimer was released in July last year and since then old clips of Murphy went viral across social media, most notably of him talking about jazz with a strong Cork accent, and of him drinking a pint of Murphy’s while DJing in the Opera House.
At Monday night’s City Council meeting no sooner had the prayers and role call finished than councillors wanted to know what the city is going to do to celebrate its most famous son. The Lord Mayor said he had been in contact with Cillian’s publicity and the man of the hour. Short answer: we shall see.
Two Cork actors nominated at the British Screen Awards: Local talent doesn’t end with Cillian Murphy. Two young Cork actors, Máiréad Tyers and Éanna Hardwicke, have been nominated for the Royal Television Society RTS Programme Awards in the UK. Tyers, from Ballinhassig, stars in the Disney+ comedy series Extraordinary, with fellow Cork woman Siobhán McSweeney, as is nominated for Comedy Performance - Female category.
Glanmire man Éanna Hardwicke is nominated for the Supporting Actor - Male category, for his performance in The Sixth Commandment, a true crime series by the BBC about a man who romantically abused elderly people.
Third most-famous Corkman Graham Norton’s The Graham Norton Show is nominated in the Comedy Entertainment category.
News in Brief
New Northside Park: A new North West City Park has gone to design phase. Similar in scale to the Tramore Valley Park and the Ballincollig Regional park, it will be situated between Apple, Nash’s Boreen, Upper Fairhill and the Kiln River, in the open space between the city and Blarney. The council said the planned park aims to “address deficiency in park provision to the north and north west of the city”, and are currently beginning to develop the masterplan for the park, by engaging a ‘Multi-disciplinary Consultancy Team’, and hope to appoint a Design Team over the coming weeks.
Dali Returns: For two years, Dali was a nightclub in the Pav, focused on alternative techno and club nights. Unfortunately it closed in the pandemic, although it continued to exist as a weekly club night in tabletop. Now, Dali has a new home upstairs in Nudes. Open at 9pm Friday, the space hosts Danilo Milk and Penny Drop on Friday, Ladrin on Saturday and Machina and Hopedieshere with James O’Carroll Paddy’s Day.
Cork Musicians Amongst Irish SXSW Boycott: SXSW (South by Southwest) is a long-established music and arts festival held in Austin, Texas, and attracts considerable artistic and media attention. Emerging indie band Cardinals and established folk singer Mick Flannery were due to play the ‘Music From Ireland’ showcase, but pulled out due to concerns about the festival’s sponsorship by the US Army as well as defence companies.
In a joint statement with Enola Gay, Newdad, Gurriers and Sprints, Cardinals said that they “stand in complete solidarity with Palestine and others who have spoken out against, and boycotted, SXSW,” and that “sponsorship of the festival from the US Army as well as defence contractors/those sending weapons to destroy innocent lives is an act we find disgusting and reprehensible.” Mick Flannery simply said he does “not wish to be associated with weapons manufacturers.”
Their withdrawal is awkward for Minister for Arts Catherine Martin, who is attending SXSW (and who is no stranger to awkward situations). However, the Minister met with the artists met with the bands and “expressed her respect for their artistic freedom of expression.”
Running out of track: Earlier this week, the Mardyke Arena announced that it was shutting off access to the popular Sonia O’Sullivan athletics track due to “health and safety concerns”. Anyone who had been on the track would have noticed that it was laced with “bubbles” and tears in places. A statement from UCC on March 11 said, “Following an urgent inspection this am with our Building and Estates team and outside experts and professional advisers and track repair companies I have had to take the decision to close the UCC Athletics track for health and safety and reasons, with immediate effect.”
The result is now that Cork city and county has no top tier athletic track as MTU’s has been out of operation since 2022. It could be years before the Mardyke is back in action as there needs to be a considerable spell of dry weather to lay a new track. Spare a thought of the thousands of athletes without a running track. It once again shows the lack of sports infrastructure in the city and county. Could we we not have running tracks at some of our GAA grounds and municipal parks?
On footpaths: For well over 30 minutes last Monday night, councilors spoke at length about the state of the city’s footpaths with many calling for increased funding, a city-wide audit, immediate repairs and the active travel scheme to be expanded to cover footpaths. One or two tried to make it a cycle lanes vs footpaths, which shows how out of touch they are. Their frustration is shared by everyone on the city. The Council Executive however explained they’re doing what they can with a limited budget (€200k)
If you watch enough Council meetings you notice a trend: ruminations on the state of footpaths (and parking, and dereliction and dog fouling and affordable accommodation) have been around before, and they will be back again. Perhaps what’s more frustrating than the councillors frustration is how can the City Council not get something as basic and important as footpaths right. Cllr Deirdre Forde was right when she said it should be framed as a “health crisis”. Will that help fix footpaths for the elderly, people with disabilities and those recovering from operations who struggle to navigate our broken footpaths?
City Council Apathetic About Faulty Bollards: This week Sam, a vocal campaigner for better active travel infrastructure shared correspondence with the City Council’s Director of Services, David Joyce. His initial query related to the maintenance of electrical bollard lights on Oliver Plunkett Street, which have been out of action for some years, and, well basically, what’s going on there. It took Sam a few messages before he got a sort of response, which went like this:
“I can confirm that the public lighting on Oliver Plunkett Street is provided by high level street lights”, Joyce wrote, with an image of a street lamp attached. “This public lighting provides all of the required lighting on the street,” it continued. The response did not mention the bollards from the initial query.
When asked about the bollards, Joyce responded that he had nothing to add to his previous email, and when asked again to give a “response relating directly to my reasonable query”, responded: “I am at a complete loss to understand your continued emails on this matter,” and that he had made it “very clear in previous emails that there is more than adequate public lighting on Oliver Plunkett Street,” and that “there is not a requirement to replace the decorative street level lighting.”
“No one wants to have arguments with these people in Council but it is just so frustrating to see such a basic thing like maintenance being either non existent or sloppy,” Sam told T+D this week, saying he has logged multiple issues through the servicecentre@corkcity.ie email.
Sam continued: “Some form of system that allows submitted requests to be (1) actioned and (2) replied to. Not just evaporating into thin air as soon as the email is sent.
“The city is crumbling in front of us. How Council don't see this is beyond me.”
Tripe + Drisheen contacted Joyce about the condition of the bollards but did not receive a reply.
On loan? Cork Public Museum this week held a photocall to mark the return to Cork of a small shaving kit used by Commandant Leo Murphy who died at the hands of Crown Forces during the War of Independence. Desecndents of the dead soldier were in attendance at the private ceremony.
From that release: “Commandant Murphy, a Ballincollig native, was shot and killed by soldiers from the Manchester Regiment during a surprise raid on a secret IRA meeting at O’Donovan’s Pub (now O’Shea’s) in Waterfall, on the outskirts of the city, on June 27, 1921. As Murphy lay dead at the side of the road, his pockets were searched, and the contents kept as ‘souvenirs of war’.”
The shaving kit ended up in display in the Manchester Regiment Museum, but moved to the care of the Portland Basin Museum, when the former closed.
Last year, Cork Public Museum Curator Dan Breen contacted the Portland Basin Museum, to enquire about the possibility of arranging the loan of the shaving kit for display in Cork. And they agreed.
Here’s the thing though: could the personal items that were stolen from Commandant Leo Murphy not be given back for eternity to Cork Public Museum? It would make sense.
Out and About
St Patrick’s Day parade in Cork city: Festivities for Paddy’s weekend kick off today and run throughout the weekend and the City Council has pulled together much of what is happening on this website detailing everything from gigs to public performances and of course the parade, which starts on South Mall at 1pm on March 17. It will also be streamed online.
Dali returns to the city’s nightlife scene with a permanent new space, upstairs in Nudes. They’re set for a whopper on Paddy’s Day, with Machina, an LGBTQ+ club night, taking over the space with Reverse Cowgirls. The night will feature DJs James O’Carroll and Hopedieshere, and some drag artists. Alternatively, you can check out the new space from 9pm on Friday and Saturday.
Time, date, place: 10pm, Sunday March 17, Dali, Lavitts Quay, Cork.
The Céilí All Stars are a four piece trad band from Sliabh Luachra, who have gained a reputation through playing the many traditional music trails and venues around the city through the years. They are in The Nest at Coughlan’s on Sunday for a Paddy’s Day Hootenanny in what will be one of the most in demand gigs in town. On top of that, entry is free!
Time, date, place: 6pm, Sunday March 17, The Nest at Coughlan’s, Douglas Street, Cork.
The Sunday Times is a monthly day party featuring DJ sets, which has been running for the past fifteen years. Their session this weekend is a big one for Paddy’s Day, and they welcome a special guest. Donal Dineen has been a regular fixture on the Irish DJ scene for the past 25 years, since fronting the RTE music tv show 'No Disco' in the 90s. Donal now has a DJ residency, ‘Backstory’, in Dublin, and takes to the Sunday Times decks at 4pm. Entry is €10 on the door.
Time, date, place: 4pm, Sunday March 17, Aye, Anglesea Street, Cork.
Over St Patrick’s weekend, the Glucksman Gallery presents an exhibition of children’s artwork that explores ideas of archaeology, climate, history and heritage. Beneath Our Feet takes place in the main gallery and features young artists from schools across the county. Over 800 young students visited the Glucksman to take part in creative workshops responding to the exhibition Radical Archaeologies, and worked with art facilitators to explore those ideas. More information here.
Time, date, place: Thursday March 14-Sunday March 17, The Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Western Road, Cork.
Fuzzy Pockets present a nice, relaxed gig of their emerging musicians on Monday, to gradually bring you back to Earth after Paddy’s Weekend. Young talents Arin, a singer-songwriter, and keyboardist and singer Eimear Keys play in Maureen’s, one of the most intimate spaces in the city. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Monday March 18, Maureen’s, John Redmond Street, Cork.
Trad in the Crawford: If you’re in town for the parade, there will be a trio of trad musicians performing in the Crawford Art Gallery as part of their festivities for the weekend. They have a full programme of events you can check out here. All free.
Time, date, place: 2.30pm – 4pm, Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place
This week on T+D: On Monday, we wrote about a student and staff walk out in UCC demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. You can read that here.
And on Wednesday, we profiled Paul Murphy - so many Murphys in Cork! - a carpenter perfecting his craft in Benchspace. You can read that here.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View.
Any tips, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact us via at tripeanddrisheen@substack.com. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity. Get in touch. Have a lovely St. Patrick’s weekend.
I wonder what Cork City Council want to do to honour Cillian? It's very hard to see him enjoying riding an open top double decker through a parade - it would be fabulous if they could consider an open arts' night in his honour. Throw open all the doors and stage free plays, movies, concerts, celebrate local authors, sponsor small artists to come out and do shows...
I have been saying for decades that Cork absolutely has the culture and support for something like White Night, the Midsummer festival is great but there's space for more and for something that would connect more widely with people who feel it's not for them. The arts are for everyone.