The Friday View 10/01
The big thaw begins, a New Year kicks off. There's an early contender for trad album of the year and our round-up of what's on for the week ahead.
Happy New-ish Year to all our readers, especially the raft of new subscribers to T+D. Let’s get to it.
Dirty old town?: Cork city centre was down three places in the annual report from Irish Business against Litter which dropped (pardon the pub) earlier this week. This time last year, the city centre came in 28th overall and was classified as moderately littered. The results this year kept the city centre in the same classification, but it was down three places to 31. Two places below it in the league table was Mahon.
Cork City Council issued a statement expressing its disappointment with the classification, saying it “does not reflect the hard work and dedication of the City Council’s street sweeping crews, who are out 7 days a week from early morning to late in the evening, nor the commitment of the majority of businesses and property owners in the city.”
To which you might counter that it both does and doesn’t. This statement from the Council is more on point: “The Council is conscious that addressing the issues of littering and illegal dumping will require a change in both mindset and behaviour, as well as a level of personal responsibility being brought to bear by all sectors of our communities.” Emphasis ours.
Cleaning up: On that note, Donal O’Keefe from The Echo was out with the Council’s street cleaning crew before Christmas. They sweep up everything from needles and vapes. You can read that piece here.
Ungrateful: It’s a staple of the end-of-year media diet, where notable figures are invited to reflect, ponder, and bask in a bit of glory, free publicity, and help pad out a page or two in print or online. The list typically includes people of merit, such as captains of industry, university presidents and council bosses. More often than not, what they produce are lists of accomplishments dressed up in dull corporate language.
Not so for Valerie O’Sullivan who wasn’t treating this exercise as a whatever you say, say nothing (much) in her Echo missive. Take her opening salvo:
Since I arrived back to Cork City Council as Chief Executive, I have been struck by the breadth and depth of the work of our staff, which is often taken for granted in the city.
The headline, which contained a quote, set the tone: ‘Cork is looked on with envy by others,’ says Cork City Council chief executive.
While we never learned who those others were, the Council boss praised the work of City Council staff, and rightly so, while bemoaning the fact that we don’t all see it her way.
The penultimate paragraph is a clanger:
I have noticed in the past two months that the people most critical of Cork are Cork people. In reality, while I’m more than aware of the problems, Cork is looked on with envy by others - for its performance and potential.
That kind of makes sense, and doesn’t. In fairness, Cork people tend to be far more critical of Cork than, say, New Yorkers would be, simply because we live here, and they don’t. Or does she mean that it’s Cork-born-and-bred people who are the critical ones, as opposed to those who have made Cork their home and are delightfully uncritical?
In The Examiner, The Echo’s big sister or brother, Michael Moynihan, took aim at the CE in his weekly column by outlining that generations have Cork people have poured their blood, sweat and tears into the city and their criticisms are both worthy and valid, especially when it comes to mismanagement of expensive key projects.
He also, thankfully, managed not to mention the word parish. It will be interesting to see what tone O’Sullivan adopts at the end of 2025 if she takes up The Echo on their opportunity. Will she take aim at the ungrateful locals, adopt the strategy of her counterpart on the County Council and produce something as utterly unmemorable as a Christmas card message, or, as a third option, decline the invitation altogether?
One thing the new City Council boss didn’t do is post her Echo op-ed to X!
Moving on: The second person ever T+D interviewed when we started out was Fearghal Reidy, the former director of climate, energy, and city designations (what a title!) at Cork City Council. Whether it was him being newish to the Council at the time, or just a bit more savvy, he was forthcoming and approachable. Hopefully, he’ll bring those attributes to Kerry, where he’ll be commuting to his new post as Chief Executive of Kerry County Council. In fact, he’ll probably be passing Moira Murrell, the former Kerry Council boss who since last June has been the boss at Cork County Council.
Upgrades:If you feel like trawling through some Council documents, one place to start is the proposals for the Cork Docklands to City Centre Road Network Improvement Scheme. As the name suggests, the improvements focus on the road network around “Jew Town,” the National Sculpture Factory, Albert Road, and along the quay towards the junction of Monahan Road and Centre Park Road.
What does it look like? Well from the drawings, it’s an improvement, but that would be expected. There will still be considerable room for car parking when all is said and done, but also bikes lanes, bus lanes and rain gardens are going in and the road network will be better divided for road users. Under the Arup proposals, car access to Kennedy Quay will be shut off from Albert Quay, roundabouts would be ripped up and the walkway along Albert Quay would edge out to the Lee. Submissions are open now here and will close on March 10.
Fringe calling: There’s a few days left for submissions for the inaugural Cork Fringe Festival which kicks off on May 9. The focus is on showcasing emerging and experimental work but established artists are also welcome to apply, and the directors will consider works-in-progress as well as finished pieces. Application form and guidelines.
Who said it?: “Build it and they will come.” That would be Paul Moynihan, director of operations at Cork City Council, who, on LinkedIn praised the new Marina Promenade which half the city and county converged on over the Christmas break.
You could probably say the same thing about a new library in Mahon/Blackrock, redeveloping the City Library and, wait for it, an Event Centre!
Photo request: We’re always on the hunt for images to lead off the Friday View, so if you have a photo you’ve snapped in the city or county, feel free to send on to tripeanddrisheen@substack.com with your name and a brief bit of the photo.
Out + About
🎬Doc of the week: Some readers will likely be familiar with Dzogchen Beara, the spiritual retreat centre perched on the cliffs overlooking the Beara Peninsula. This part of Ireland has long drawn visitors and transplants seeking something different on the path to enlightenment or escape. Chasing the Light tells the story of how it evolved from the home of the Cornishes into a world-renowned Tibetan Buddhist centre, the luminaries and teachers it attracted, and one individual in particular who was accused of serious misconduct
Time, date, place: Sunday 12- March 15, various times, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street
🎸Brouhaha is back with a lovely New Year gig at the second-hand bookshop in the Quay Co-Op on Sullivan’s Quay. This time, it’s Jude Brothers, hailing from Northwest Arkansas and inspired by the regional folk music of their Ozark home. Support comes from Dublin-based A Clatter and Drone, a neo-psychedelic folk-rock group. This will be the last gig for a while from Katie Archer, who set up Brouhaha in 2023, but hopefully, the gigs will continue in her absence.Tickets here.
Time, date, place: Tuesday, January 14, 6:30pm, Key Books 24 Sullivan's Quay
🗣️Lón le Gaeilge i gCorcaigh gach Máirt: If your New Year resolution is to hear more Irish, speak more Irish and learn more Irish, then you should consider putting Sos Loin on your weekly planner. The gang of Irish speakers meet every Tuesday at lunch time in the Roundy on Castle Street. Tá gach sort daoine ann.
Time, date, place: 12:30pm, gach Máirt, The Roundy, Sráid an Chaisleáin, Corcaigh
🎶Gig of the week (and album of the week) is undoubtedly multinstremnetalist Macdara Ó Faoláin from Ring who will launch his debut album in Coughlan’s tonight. The bad news is the gig’s sold out, but we do recommend getting your hands on Ar Thaobh Chill an Fhuarthainn which features an incredible supporting cast of Cormac McCarthy (piano, producer), Victoria Adiiye (guitar, vocals), Conor O'Sullivan (guitar), Áine Whelan (vocals), Michael Riordan (double bass), Ian Knepper (fiddle) and a string section consisting of Maria Ryan (violin, viola), Lucia MacPartlin (violin) & Maria O'Connor (cello). ‘Tis enough to draw you into Coughlan’s to chance your arm for a ticket or celebrate Dry January with a pint.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Friday January 10, Coughlan’s, Douglas Street
🖼️Fan art is a real phenomenon, and BTS fan art is a particularly big one. Edel Ryder-Hanrahan, a mother of three, rediscovered the joy of painting and sketching during the pandemic, taking inspiration from the Korean superstar group. The result is her solo exhibition, Me, Myself & BTS, featuring 30 pairs of portraits completed in ink, watercolour, and graphite. Each pair consists of a self-portrait of the artist and a portrait of a member of the global K-pop sensation BTS, linked together through song lyrics from the group’s music.
Time, date, place: Until February 28 at The Hideout Cafe & Art Gallery, 2 Verde House, Wellington Road
ICYMI: Our long read this week on T+D was all about the sorry state of the Glasheen Stream. You can read that here.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View. As always, any tips, comments, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact us 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.
But thank you for the hard work in 2025!
For all the council CEO’s puffery, I also think that Moynihan (Examiner) and Áilín Quinlan’s (Echo) articles are written to paint the city as some unpleasant, lawless place and I think they underestimate how damaging this is. I’ve since unsubscribed from The Examiner (also for how they covered things like expansion of the cycle network and bus connects…). Cork people long for a Cork that never existed, lament the passing of shops they never bought in, pubs they never drank in…it’s a terrible thing.