The Friday View 06/01
And we're back in your inbox! Welcome to the first edition of the Friday View for 2023. Clothes swap is back, a fog horn will sound out across the city next week and the Lord Mayor gets a new car.
Welcome to the Friday View on Tripe + Drisheen and a happy New Year to all our readers. Thanks for subscribing to T+D, and do please spread the word.
The painting above popped up on Twitter this week, but frustratingly there was no information about the painter of the provenance of the painting. Michael Waldron, a curator at the Crawford Art Gallery helped fill the gaps and kindly gave Tripe + Drisheen permission to use the image in this week’s FV.
The watercolour (a copy after Robert Lowe Stopford) by Samuel McDonnell is of Cork Opera House, or the ‘Athenaeum’, which stood for exactly a century from 1855-1955. You can make out the Crawford standing proudly by the entrance to the Opera House on Emmet Place. As you can see it’s a strikingly different looking Cork Opera House. The view is from the north channel looking across from where the Christy Ring Bridge now spans the Lee. What’s also striking is how the quays are entirely open, especially when you consider what’s coming down the line for the river banks in the city centre (walls!). Back at the time of this painting you could quite literally jump out of one the ferry boats on the river and run up the steps right in the doors of the Opera House. In fact, there’s an anecdote that the famous stage actor Sarah Bernhardt did exactly that when she was late for a performance. The thespian got a taxi (row boat) up river from Cork Harbour to the Opera House, and danced up the steps and likely entered stage left, or right.
Painter Robert Lowe Stopford, a Dubliner living in Cork, specialised in marine and landscape painting and was the art correspondent for The Illustrated London News. One of his best known paintings of Cork is a depiction of Cobh with the harbour bustling with boats of all types. Stopford died in his home in the very arty sounding 2 De Vesci Terrace in Monkstown in 1898 more than fifty-five years before the Opera House burned down in 1955.
The second coming of the Opera House was completed in 1965 and designed by Scott Tallon Walker. Brutal would be one way of describing that building and style. A refurbishment at the turn of the century helped improve the face of the Opera House. For years, visitors to Cork would understandably confuse the Opera House for a Toyota dealership owing to the car manufacturer's decades-long sponsorship deal with the Opera House and the fact that the Toyota logo stood atop the building. A week before Christmas I was upstairs on a double decker bus (the best way to see Cork ) moving slowly along the south channel by George’s Quay and what should I spot? The letters T and Y above the Lee with plant life growing out of them. How two of the letters from Toyota and the Opera House ended up there is worthy of some journalism digging, but suffice to say for now the past, much like the River Lee, surrounds us. By the way if you want to see View of Cork Opera House in the flesh, it’s currently on display in the Penrose Rooms in the Crawford Art Gallery.
-JJ
News in brief
Remembering Bruna: A remembrance vigil will be held for Bruna Fonseca this coming Sunday, January 8 at 10 am at The Lough. Bruna, originally from Formiga in Brazil, came to Ireland less than six months ago and worked locally. She was murdered in an apartment on Liberty Street in the city centre in the early hours of January 1. Bruna’s former partner was detained and charged this week with her murder. A page to raise funds to repatriate the body of Bruna was opened this week by her family. The vigil for Bruna is being organised by the Brazilian community in Cork.
Funding of more than €50m was announced by the Arts Council this week for 107 organisations across Ireland. Included in that list were seven Cork arts and culture bodies. The Cork-based arts groups secured €2m in funding for the year ahead. The recipients are:
Cork International Film Festival €230,000
Cork Midsummer Festival €440,000
Cork Printmakers €83,950
Munster Literature Centre €206,000
National Sculpture Factory Cork €333,200
Glucksman Gallery €167,000 + €60,000 for touring
West Cork Music €445,000.00
The full list of Arts Council recipients can be found here.
Planning watch: A new bridge over the Lee
The Tyndall Institute and UCC submitted a planning application to Cork City Council in December outlining their intention to build a new bridge and boardwalk near the Tyndall and Lee Maltings campus. The planning application states that the boardwalk - to be shared by pedestrians and cyclists - would link Grenville Place and the existing Tyndall Campus at Lee Maltings on the south bank of the River Lee. The bridge, spanning 58 meters, would connect the Tyndall National Institute campus at Lee Maltings on the south to the distillery fields in the North Mall. It’s a ten year plan and would be built in phases, if approved. Deadline for submissions is January 25 with a decision expected by mid February.
Christmas tree drop off points
Cork City Council has set up drop off points for Christmas trees across the city. The sites will stay open until January 31 and there’s no charge to drop off your “real” Christmas tree. Those sites are:
Gus Healy Swimming Pool, Ballinlough (adjacent to the green)
Clashduv Park, Togher (adjacent to bring bank site)
Ballincollig Regional Park, Ballincollig (on green adjacent to bring bank site)
Murmont Road, Montenotte (adjacent to the green)
Sam Allen Sports Complex, Gurranabraher (adjacent to the green)
Tramore Valley Park, South Link Road
Cork City Council offices, Glanmire T45 YD83 (green in front)
New year, new car: Lord Mayor Deirdre Forde will today receive a 2023 electric Ford Mustang courtesy of Henry Ford & Son Ltd. “This is the second year that the Lord Mayor’s car is fully electric, something I believe is vital in highlighting the Council’s commitment to climate action and making the city a more environmentally sustainable city,” Lord Mayor Deirdre Forde said in a press release announcing the news. Last year, T+D wrote about the tradition of giving Cork’s Lord Mayors complinentary cars which you can read here.
Tweet of the week
Lord knows it’s been a while since the Cork hurlers have beaten Limerick. But they certainly did at the second time of asking on May 18, 1980 down the ‘Pairc’. Joe Healy was sideline with his home movie camera for the game in which John Fenton scored from the penalty spot. Sticking with the east Cork talisman, journalist Ronan Early has a great profile of Fenton on the 42.ie which was published last month. It’s well worth a read.
Out + About
🎺A fair amount of time has passed since we last heard the sound of a foghorn ringing out from a lighthouse along the Irish coast. Twelve years in fact. To commemorate what was a familiar sound up and down the Irish coast, sound artist Danny McCarthy has been commissioned to create the installation Found Sound (Lost at Sea) 11.1.11. As the numbers signify you’ll be able to hear this piece on Wednesday, January 11 at 11am when the soundscape performance takes place outside the Crawford Art Gallery at Emmet Place. The soundwork will be audible intermittently throughout the day and according to the press release serves as a reminder of what was once an imperative soundtrack to daily life.
Time, date, place: Wednesday January 11 from 11 am and throughout the day from Emmet Place
🖼OBSERVATORIO INTERIOR ( Inner Observatories) is a new exhibition by Spanish artist Alba Cortés and Cork artist Ciara Rodgers now showing at MTU’s gallery on Grand Parade. The exhibition was conceived by the pair when they shared a studio space while both artists had residences at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in the summer of 2019. It’s taken a few years to come together, and the exhibition, an “ongoing visual conversation” between the two artists, features paintings, drawings, photography and installation.
Time, date, place: Mon-Fri 11am - 4pm, 3-19 January, MTU Gallery at 46 Grand Parade
🏛Free guided tours at the Crawford Art Gallery return from this Sunday. The meeting point is the Sculpture Gallery inside the main door. It’s also the final week of Corban Walker: As Far As I Can See.
Time, date, place: 2pm, Sunday January 8, The Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place
👖Cork Clothes Swap returns this month with two swap dates, the first one taking place this weekend at The Black Market on Sunday January 8 from 12-3pm. You are asked to bring a maximum of five items and to only bring clothes that are in good condition. Clothing items that are not accepted are swimwear, underwear, shoes, nightwear or accessories. The event is free to attend. Happy swapping. More information here.
Time, date, place: 12-3pm,Sunday January 8, The Black Market, Cor
Previously on T+D
We had a bit of a siesta over Christmas and New Year and didn’t overload your weary inboxes. But, for those of you who were taking a well-earned break from your inbox and who might have missed what we published, here’s a recap:
T+D contributor Noel Sweeney had a lovely long read about the monk of Mitchelstown. Noel’s piece is about Ireland's only Thai Buddhist temple and Phra Maha, the orange-robed monk who founded it. Full story below.
Meanwhile, JJ and photographer Mark O’Shea were out at the recycling centre in Tramore Valley Park where we got a tour from Finbarr Sheehan, one of the city council staff responsible for the permanent exhibition of unwanted teddy bears and toys on display at the Park. Full story here with cracking shots from Mark.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View. We’re back tomorrow with our weekly Arts+Culture newsletter. Any tips, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, contact Ellie at emailellieobyrne@gmail.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.
Happy New Year!