The Friday View 09/07
Our weekly round-up of news and events from Cork city and county.
Book corner: A concise history of Kinsale
One thing there hasn’t been a lot of over the past 18 months is international tourists, and that’s hit a lot of industries hard in Cork and across Ireland. Tour guide Barry Moloney, one half of Don & Barry’s Historic Stroll Kinsale, used the successive lockdowns to write a book about a town he knows well: Kinsale.
Kinsale is a brisk and lively journey through the coastal town’s storied history taking in some of the famous battles as well as some of the noteworthy characters such as the Kinsale Giant and the Kinsale Ghost.
Edited by Alannah Hopkin and clocking in at 150 pages (in paperback) it’s illustrated with black and white photographs, including some great drone photography by Hostynsky, and printed in Bandon. More details about the book on Barry’s website.
Crafty plans: Cork Craft Month
Try your hand at basket-weaving or bronze-casting, working with clay, wood turning or making jewellery: a county-wide craft month has been announced for August by Cork Craft & Design.
Expect events, workshops and exhibitions showcasing the work of Cork Craft and Design’s 110-strong membership of skilled artisans, taking places everywhere from Douglas and the Grand Parade in the city to Chapel Hill School of Art in Macroom, Kilcoe Studios in West Cork and Greywood Arts in Killeagh.
There’s a full programme for the month here.
Tweet of the week:
Editor’s note: Tripe+Drisheen loves all Cork hurling clubs equally.
Tramore Valley Park access update:
The builders are in on the South Douglas Road as work continues on the new pedestrian and cyclist access road to Tramore Valley Park via Half Moon Lane (leading into Christ King Girls' Secondary School). Traffic management will be in place for the next 8-12 weeks with completion expected around the start of December.
Cork, the Paris of France
Our first piece on Tripe+Drisheen, back in the depths of February during the third lockdown, featured Cornmarket Street (the Coal Quay) and some of the long-standing derelict buildings there. One welcome change: no 44 has been partially livened up and now is home to outdoor seating outside The Bodega (pictured). No 44 has been on the city council’s derelict sites register since 2003 and a few planters lived there for a while, but it had been some time since they were shown some love. Here’s our profile of Benny McCabe who owns The Bodega. Since that piece was published he’s gone on to buy The Pav as well.
Get creative
For the next three weekends The Glucksman and Cork County Libraries will be delivering online bookmaking workshops. The first one is on this Saturday, June 10 at 11 a.m. Participants will use a few different mediums such as collage, illustration and mixed media to create a short story about life as an artist. All events are free but you need to register here.
Bus Connects
Cork Commuter Coalition are keeping a close eye on the developments around Bus Connects and what’s happening at the ongoing consultation stage. They’re well worth following on Twitter for updates.
Public consultation is currently open (until July 21) and there was an online consultation webinar this week. CCC have a thread here of the proceedings here.
The NTA published the Choices Report last week, which outlines plans for Cork’s bus network over the coming decades. CCC had a look over the report and shared a few thoughts with T+D:
As a consultation concept, the Choices Report is really interesting. Whereas most consultations are a very black or white ‘should X go on Main Street’, this instead questions the philosophy that people want for their bus system - whether they want to minimize waiting or minimize walking, whether they want easy transfers if it means a quicker trip.
A lot of the findings are both data-driven and cognizant of urban planning best practices - down to the example of the 220 as a model for service, whose passenger numbers increased 70% upon the delivery of 24/7, all-day frequent service - and acknowledge that planning and other urban policies must change if the bus service is to be its most effective. For full effectiveness, BusConnects will need to be tied to a variety of these other plans, such as walkability and permeability schemes and increased bike-friendly policies.
The Choices Report asks a lot of the right questions, that boil down to ‘in a system with limited resources, how can these be allocated in a way that will get the most system usage?’
Photo of the week: Cork city from a height, and some.
The week on Tripe+Drisheen: Ellie’s long read on glyphosate went out last night. It’s a story she’s been working on for a good many months and she went all over the county with it.
Earlier in the week we had a news story on new cars, new Lord Mayors and the possibility that one day we might see a sitting Lord Mayor go about their business on a bike.
Tripe tips: If you want to tell us about a story or pass us some information, please email jj.odonoghue@gmail.com or 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.