The Friday View 05/07
Little acorns, mighty oaks; a city centre symposium; a new chapter for a storied dog's bowl, a pair of post boxes and Corcaigh abú. Welcome to the Friday View.
Cork City Council convened a symposium this week in City Hall in an effort to pump some much-needed life back into the city centre, which in many parts looks like a building site.
Some of these building works are significant, such as the remaking of Bishop Lucey Park and the streets around it, while others are more cosmetic, such as the resurfacing of a handful of parts of St. Patrick St.
Beyond the construction work, it’s clear that the city is struggling and has been for a while. Cork City is not unique in this respect. Cities across Ireland are experiencing many of the same problems
The City Council press release to announce the think-in was rosy in the extreme and contained survey data from IPSOS Behaviour and Attitudes.
The survey found that over two thirds of people are opting to use public transport when visiting Cork city centre. Up to 63% travel to the city centre by bus while 5% take a train. Up to 20% use a car while 32% walk. Most of the people living in the city centre and visiting to shop, work and socialise are young and single – with one in four born outside Ireland. The sample size of that survey or when it was conducted was not included.
Elsewhere, the press release talked up the new Crawford Art Gallery (which will happen) and UCC’s new downtown business school (will it ever happen?).
But this line stood out: While the city center has seen some closures over recent years, the private sector continues to invest in retail, hospitality, and housing.
Was that meant as reassurance? Because it’s not, really. The private sector is investing in the suburbs and places like the Marina Market (which was built on shaky grounds to begin with). The private sector doesn’t have to build amenities such as public toilets, which the city center is still severely lacking.
Is there, or will there ever be, a plan for them?
35: That’s the number of drivers Bus Éireann are short in Cork city according to information obtained by Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran.
According to the Green Party, sixteen drivers are currently in training with the company for Cork, but the bus company does not know the additional staffing numbers needed to provide expanded services in the city next year, which will include 150 new buses located at a new depot at Tivoli.
Anyone who takes buses in the city will know that there is a problem with missing buses. Missing drivers is the answer and it is, as Moran said, a disaster.
The solution: more drivers. But, recruitment, and not just for bus drivers, is a huge problem given the accommodation crisis, especially for those recruited from overseas.
Ryanair is in a position to be able to buy accommodation just for staff, it’s doubtful Bus Éireann is. Cllr Moran said he will table a motion at City Hall to discuss the disaster, but what impact will that have? It might sharpen minds as to how the city is unlikely in the extreme to hit its transport and climate targets if the main bus company can’t get buses out on the road to pick up passengers.
“A huge question is about their potential to meet the demands of BusConnects. If they're short 35 drivers now, they have no plan for how they will hire drivers for next year, when 60% more services are planned to begin operations. This is a genuinely terrifying prospect. The government have committed €600m to bus services in Cork, the NTA are proceeding as planned, and Bus Éireann have no idea how many drivers they need or where they will hire them,” Moran told T+D.
Mighty oaks:
Maria Young, Coordinator of Green Spaces for Health, Cork Healthy Cities, never one to rest, has been busy planting seeds and saplings with school children across the city as part of a grand plan to cover the city with more native trees.
Inspired by the Dunemann system, developed by a German forester who noticed trees growing naturally on the forest floor were extremely healthy due to the conditions provided by nature, the Douglas/Grange Men’s Shed built 10 boxes which school children subsequently filled with seeds and foliage to recreate the forest floor, as well as mesh to keep out hungry predators.
Leaf compost is made by the school children, and they are involved in the replanting and much else. So far, Maria has collected 300 oak saplings, which will be delivered to Hometree, a tree charity established to conserve permanent native woodland in Ireland. The plan is for the trees to be planted around the city and county this autumn
“Team McGrath”: Michael McGrath, Ireland’s next European commissioner was given an acre of space in a feature the (Irish) paper of record this week. It was less about politics and more about being a politician and a dad, especially being a father and parent to seven children.
Politics and parenting is not an easy mix, and, as he says in the piece, he is always in the public eye for better and for worse (even when visiting Santa at Christmas). McGrath is married to Sarah, an accountant and EY Ireland Assurance Partner. He won’t accept rancour amongst his children, is ambivalent about them wanting to get in to politics and says he has told them their inheritance will be limited (perhaps a conversation he had before he departed for his €300k plus expenses new EU gig).
According to McGrath, there was never “a grand plan” to have a big family. “We have been incredibly lucky, and cherish all of our children, but it would be wrong to say that there was a grand plan and that it was executed to perfection.”
McGrath said his kids challenge him (which is a lot more than the IT journalist did). “They might say, ‘what’s the story in Gaza?’ ‘What’s the government doing to help those people?’ ‘Can you not do more to solve homelessness?’ They raise questions and challenge me, and that’s what I would encourage.”
Indeed, a lot of people across Ireland have the same questions, not that there was any answers in this piece.
Life in the old dog’s bowl yet: As reported earlier this year, Cameron Bakery has opened at the top of St. Patrick’s Street where the Milk Bar and Old Bridge Restaurant once stood. Just to the left of the entrance is one of sculptor Séamus Murphy’s most overlooked but utilitarian pieces of art: a dog’s drinking bowl with the word for dogs in Irish, "madraí," inscribed on it. Here’s hoping that the bowl is filled regularly and it marks a new chapter for the bowl which for a brief while went missing in action. Read more about the backstory to Murphy’s dog bowl here.
A pair of post boxes: Here’s one for the postal workers and historians on T+D. Why does MacCurtain Street have two post boxes side by side on the northside of the street across from the Everyman? Answers on a postcard or to tripeanddrisheen@substack.com
Coming up
Noel Lenihan, an amicable man who knows a thing or ten thousand about birds, and who has been quietly going about installing bird boxes across the city and county will be accompanying Cork City Conic biodiversity officers on a tour to St Finbarr’s hospital on the evening of July 15. T+D went along last summer for a “private” tour with Noel and it was a little but of summer magic. Free to attend, but more info from rosemarie_mcdonald@corkcity.ie
If you’re in need of a sports read ahead of the big showdown between Cork and Limerick this weekend in Croke Park, Pádraig O' Connor has a lovely missive about sport which he penned this week.
Out+About
If you’re in the city next week and in search of some culture and history during your lunch hour, the Crawford Art Gallery is offering a lunchtime tour of “From Source to Sea”, an exhibition which very much focuses on the Lee and its place in the Cork’s art history. The exhibition features work by Seán Keating, Diarmuid Ó Ceallacháin, and George Petrie with curator Michael Waldron guiding patrons on the day. Free but booking required.
Time, date, place: 1 pm, Wednesday, July 10, Crawford Art Gallery, Emmett Place, Cork city
The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation. It’s likely not many besides film buffs will recognise the last one of these movie titles, but it’s linked to the others through its creator, the director Francis Ford Coppola. The noir thriller, which according to Film 4 has “a strong case to be made for The Conversation being Coppola's greatest film,” is in the Triskel in a new digital version 50 years on from its original release date. Starring Gene Hackman, it tells the story of surveillance, suspicion and subterfuge. Booking and times here.
Time, date, place: July 7-10, various times, The Triskel, Tobin St.
Clare-based musician Laura Mulcahy will play the Community Hub at Maureen’s next Friday, July 12 as a part of Safe Gigs Ireland. An activist and musician, Mulcaht has released three alums to date and is accompanied by Fiachna Ó Braonáin. You can listen to Janet which features Ó Braonáin here. More information about the gig here.
Time, date, place: Friday July 12, Muareen’s, 5 Camden Place
Ceilí Cois Locha takes place every Wednesday night at the Lough in the company of swans, ducks, swallows and many other birds. The outdoor ceilí is free to attend and features local musicians. The 214 will drop you off at the city landmark.
Time, date, place: Every Wednesday through July and August from 7:30 -9pm
That’s it for this week’s Friday View.
Any tips, comments, 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 weekend.
From the archive: