☕️The Friday View 10/07
Dancing leprechauns, flat fare bus fees, Event Centre recriminations, a new councillor and our usual round-up of what to see and do while the sun keeps on shining.
Event Centre update #7564: As the decades-long saga drags on, and the former City Council chief exec's astoundingly misguided prediction that we'd be piling into the front row to catch a show in 2026 looks about as likely as the Cork hurlers turning up in the second half of crunch matches, a City Council apparatchik admitted this week that the previous process “was flawed and not fit for purpose”.
You. Don’t. Say.
The project, which has cost taxpayers over €2.2 million in admin and consultancy fees, was put out to re-tendering last year, 10 years after the ceremonial sod was flung in the air, never to be seen again. This time round, Brian Geaney, Cork City Council’s assistant chief executive, has been put in charge of the Event Centre development board.
According to The Examiner, Geaney said of the previous fiasco: ‘It just went on too long. It was an elongated procurement process where the amounts of State aid jumped at various increments,’ adding that one thing the last project lacked was… a project management team.
‘For projects of this scale, the first thing to do is appoint a professional project management team, like, for example, Aecom, which was the first thing that I initiated as chair of the new project development board.’
Aecom, if you know them at all, are a Texas-based ‘global infrastructure leader, committed to delivering a better world.’ Last year, they had annual revenues of $16.1 billion. In Ireland, they’ve secured government contracts to work on BusConnects. They’re also on a major hiring spree as they look to get key staff in place to deliver sustainable transport corridors, of which Cork has been promised a dozen.
BusConnects, non-event centres, flawed design, zero delivery… no more.
This week, Minister for Public Expenditure and Infrastructure Jack Chambers outlined a new risk appetite statement for critical infrastructure, such as houses, energy stations, public transport and water plants. Essentially, a rallying call to civil servants to take more risks, grab the bull by the horns, and, no doubt, appoint more professional project management teams.
Such as Aecom.
Derelict no more?: On the derelict sites register since 2023, the site at the corner of Watercourse Road and Berwick Lane could be redeveloped as a mixed-use residential development of 15 one- and two-bedroom apartments and a ground-floor café (for now). Watercourse Road, which cuts through Blackpool, is not short of derelict sites, including two shuttered former pubs: numbers 7, 32, 60, 68 and 69 are all on the city council’s derelict sites register, with most having been added in the past few years. Generally, the longer a site is on the limbo list, the more difficulty there is in getting it off and back as homes, commercial sites or a civic amenity.
Businessman Kieran O’Shea owns the derelict site on Watercourse Road. He also owns a derelict site close by on Broad Street, Blackpool, which was knocked back six times by city council planners. Planning for that site has since been withdrawn. The Castle, as it’s known locally, has been on the city council’s derelict site register since 2003.
A planning decision is expected by the end of August for the Watercourse Road development.
Bessborough go ahead: An Coimisiún Pleanála has this week upheld Cork City Council’s decision to allow apartments to be built at Bessborough. However, Estuary View Enterprises didn’t have it all their own way.
The planning regulator’s decision omits Block C of the proposal; instead of the proposed 140 apartments, An Coimisiún Pleanála upheld planning for 106 apartments.
For protesters and families of those who died while Bessborough was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the question remains: what about the hundreds of children whom the Mother and Baby Homes Commission said are “highly likely” to be buried on the 200-acre site?
Flat fare: From July 20, a flat fare of €1.70 will be introduced on the commuter bus network in Cork, allowing for unlimited transfers within 90 minutes (for Leap card holders). There will be reduced fares for children, students and young adults.
But as Cllr Niamh O’Connor of the Social Democrats said, while the flat fare is welcome, it does not solve the problem of reliability. She also pointed out that Cork is getting this five years after it was introduced in Dublin.
Cllr Oliver Moran of the Greens highlighted the theory vs practice element of the new flat fare: “In practice, a 90-minute fare isn't going to be practical for most users in Cork. The network isn't reliable enough to be able to plan changes between buses. So the increase in price doesn't mean being able to switch between routes on a single ticket; it just means higher fares.”
According to the NTA, more than 5,000 passengers in Cork make journeys involving more than one bus in Cork.
Ouch!: The less said about Cork’s All-Ireland semi-final outing last weekend the better, but one club that put the cart before the horse was Ringmahon Rovers on the southside of the city. Ireland and Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher’s former club were hit with a five-year ban from the FAI Cup after they handed their opponent a bye when they forfeited the second leg, to be played on July 19. The club, like much of Cork, figured that the hurlers would be in the final against Limerick that day, and so gave the Dublin side a walkover.
As it turned out, Limerick upheld their end of the bargain, just overcoming Clare in their side of the semi-final draw. Cork, for a second successive year, crumbled in the second half, this time to Galway, and 19 July, when the All-Ireland hurling final will be staged, will be a Cork-fan free zone.
Ringmahon hastily, and humorously, posted on their social media that they were available and willing to travel. The FAI did not reply with laughing emojis. Instead, they have handed the Munster side a five-year ban from the FAI Cup, a three-year suspension from the FAI Intermediate Cup and a €5,000 fine.
Good job there’s money in the kitty from Caoimhín Kelleher’s transfer.
Zazzle, frazzle: €2m will get you the former Guinness HQ, which in recent times has been reconfigured into an incredibly vanilla corporate HQ for American online marketplace Zazzle. The Yanks are moving out and selling their HQ on Union Quay and should turn a profit on the premise they paid €1.2m for in 2013.
No. 6 is just upstream from the parade of pubs on Union Quay and downstream from the School of Music; the quayside building has always been a centre of commerce and manufacturing. Per The Examiner, more than 100 years ago it was a butter factory operated by Dowdall O’Mahony & Co Ltd.
So where to for Zazzle? Sinéad Barry of Zazzle told the Examiner that while the company valued the waterside base, they were shifting to smaller offices as part of a flexible work culture.
“With a global workforce, the company has invested in tools and processes that support collaboration from any location. As part of this shift, Zazzle is also rethinking its physical spaces, moving toward smaller, purpose-built offices designed for team-mates who collaborate in person,” Ms Barry said.
In other words: WFH.
ICYMI: At the May meeting of the full council, long-serving councillor Ted Tynan of the Workers’ Party announced he would be retiring. Tynan, 83, was first elected in 1979 for a single term, before being re-elected in 2009 and subsequently at every local election since.
Jerrica Struthers, also a member of the Workers’ Party, was co-opted to replace Ted. In her inaugural speech at last month’s city council meeting, Struthers praised her mentor, calling Tynan a “titan” who “dedicated his life to the working class. He has total integrity and is a man of principle.”
“I’m a council tenant, a mother, and a proud Norrie from Mayfield. And I’m here to do the hard graft for the North-East Ward and for every person who feels overlooked, forgotten or pushed aside.”
Struthers follows in Tynan’s footsteps. A lifelong housing activist, he has protested illegal evictions across the Northside and, as a tenant, was involved in a long-running strike by corporation tenants in the 1970s who refused to pay in protest at the poor housing conditions. That was settled in Celia’s pub in Togher over a round of pints paid for by the then city manager.
In 1979, Tynan ran in his first election and, as he memorably told Donal O’Keeffe, the result upset a few people:
“I was elected in 1979 and the establishment was shocked. I remember the comment being made at the count centre: ‘Who the fuck are these people, voting for Tynan?’ We were accused of fiddling the vote and all. People who had never voted before voted. We brought them into the polling booth and all.”
Tynan cut a singular figure in city council meetings in how he framed every issue – from dereliction to tenants’ rights and workers’ rights and everything in between – which could be best summed up by the Marxist rallying call: the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Not everyone at city council saw it that way; in fact, most didn’t and don’t, but Tynan never backed down. And throughout it all, he acted with great decency and grace.
Stat of the week: 2,211. Per The Journal, the number of PQs, or parliamentary questions, Cork TD Ken O’Flynn of Independent Ireland, lodged for May 2026.
New on the shelf: The next time you’re in Callanan’s have a look up from the selection of whiskey and you’ll see Blúirí Oileánda – Island Pieces, a new book which looks at Cape Clear through a social history lens. Beautifully designed, the book by local historian and writer Diarmuid O Drisceoil, covers dry stone walls, dressers. emigration, religion, birds and shipwrecks and much else in the bilingual book. O Drisceoil’s father hailed from Cape Clear and he's returned there often enough to apreaciate the changes with an unsentimental eye. It’s also available in all good book shops and online here as well as in Callanan’s.
LEAF Funding: Cork City Council and IPB Insurance have opened a new €50k fund geared at all things environmentally sound. That could be projects such as pollinator planting schemes, rain gardens, community orchards, biodiversity enhancements, energy upgrades to community facilities, small-scale solar projects, environmental workshops and community sustainability events.
The funding is only open to members of the Cork City Public Participation Network (PPN) and there’s a strong emphasis on collaboration. Projects must be completed between September and November 2026. More info on how to apply here; deadline July 29.
The leprechauns will not go quietly: The bus stop on St Patrick’s Street where buskers Gerry Barry and Damian Barry, outfitted in leprechaun suits, perform might have been temporarily moved (as the City Council starts “greening” the thoroughfare), but the duo are not for moving, or performing a little less loudly.
Fines have been levelled at the “Leprechauns” for contravening busking by-laws, but as Gerry admitted to CorkBeo, he hasn’t paid a single one yet. Even more defiantly, he added: “I won’t go easy. They’ll have to handcuff me.”
That would certainly be a performance.
Festivals:
Kinsale Arts Weekend. July 9-12. Across Kinsale.
The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. July 23-25, Shandon
Another Love Story, July 17-18, Ballyvollane House
Skibereen Arts Festival. July 24-August 2. Across Skibereen
West Cork Chamber Music Festival: 26 June – 5 July. Various locations.
West Cork Literary Festival. 10-17 July. Bantry
Cork Craft Month: August. Across the city and county
Cork on a Fork: August 12-16. Various locations across the city.
Out +About
🎻This is How we Fly: Anyone who has followed the music and career of fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh will know that he likes his collaborations (The Gloaming). For his return to the Triskel this weekend, he will be performing with Seán Mac Erlaine (woodwinds, electronics), Nic Gareiss (percussive dance) and Petter Berndalen (drums) as part of the ensemble This Is How We Fly, first formed in 2010, a year before The Gloaming. What to expect? Well, a mash-up of trad, Swedish folk, jazz and percussive dance. The group released their second album, Foreign Fields, in 2017, following their eponymous This Is How We Fly. There are unmistakable crossovers with the sound of The Gloaming, but the music of This Is How We Fly travels further. Tickets €35. More information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Saturday July 11, The Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St
📈The Story of Us: Census 1926 is a touring exhibition marking the historic release of the census records from 100 years ago. Essentially, it puts more colour and flesh on all those stats as it explores the world reflected in the census and reveals what life was like in 1926: in towns and cities, across rural communities and islands, from crowded urban tenements to the mansions of the aristocracy. Free in. More info here.
Time, date, place: 10am – 5pm, Mon – Sat, 9 – 25 July, St Peter’s, North Main Street.
🖼️In conversation: Artist Stephen Doyle will be joined by Crawford curator Michael Waldron to chat about the artist's painting In Between a Place to Be and Where We Are, which was recently acquired (or bought, in plain English) by Cork City Council. The diptych was painted while Doyle was Cork Pride's artist in residence a few years back and portrays members of The Gay Project and LINQ. The paintings and projects have quite the backstory: they were stolen from their public vantage point at one stage, before being returned and exhibited and ultimately added to the City Council's collection of art. This will all be on the table for discussion in the Atrium at City Hall
Time, date, place: 6pm, Thursday July 16, The Atrium, Cork City Hall
👖Festival gear: Cork Clothes Swap will be landing at TEST SITE on Kyrl's Quay tomorrow, 11 July, for a timely festival-themed clothes swap. As well as clothes, there'll be music courtesy of Danilo Milk. The usual rules apply: you can bring five items of clean and dry clothing (jewellery also) and go home with five newly acquired accoutrements. Tickets (€5) available here or cash at the door.
Time, date, place: 11am-1pm, Saturday July 11, Test Site, Kyrl’s Quay
📖Ó Bhéal go Beal returns next week with their monthly evening of poetry at the
The Hayloft in the Long Valley Bar. The format, much like a sonnet, remains the same: poetry film screening, five word challenge, guest poet and open mic to finish. This month’s guest is poet Cassandra Moss, a Mancunian, now living in Dublin. Moss has been shortlisted for the Creative Writing Ink Poetry Prize, long-listed for the Fish Publishing Poetry Prize and The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize, and nominated for Best of the Net. Her debut collection Unstoppable Utopia is out now. Free in. All welcome.
Time, date, place: 7.30pm, Monday 13 July, The Hayloft in the Long Valley Bar, Winthrop St.
🇮🇪"IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN": So begins the first words of the 1916 Proclamation, which was, as this exhibition in the Boole Library at UCC shows, quickly, quietly and urgently written, designed and printed as the Easter Rising exploded and was quickly crushed. The exhibition reveals how a small group of printers, working with limited type, faulty machinery and under the constant threat of arrest, brought the document into being. Their work transformed a revolutionary idea into something tangible, portable and dangerous. Printed in Defiance: Making the 1916 Proclamation is centred around an original first-issue copy of the 1916 Proclamation, which conservationists in the university's library have restored. The proclamation was gifted to UCC by Liam and Kaye Cronin and is now part of UCC's permanent collection.
Time, date, place: daily until September 13, Boole Library, UCC
🎶The Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra perform today, 10 July, in St Anne's in Shandon in a special concert that marks the culmination of a week-long music course for 16 young musicians from across Ireland who've been getting to grips with baroque music under the guidance of Artistic Director Claire Duff and other baroque specialists from the Irish Baroque Orchestra. They'll be performing Suite Dreams in the centuries-old St Anne's, and if that all sounds a bit baroque, well it should, because on the programme is the Purcell Suite from The Fairy Queen, Marcello's Oboe Concerto in D minor, S.Z799, and Telemann's Ouverture Burlesque de Quixote, TWV 55:G10. Tickets from €10 (online and at the door). More information here.
Time, date, place: 6pm, Friday, 10 July 2026, St Anne’s Church, Shandon
📽️Next Thursday sees a short programme of music videos by a bunch of talented young directors who have all come up through the Youth Music Video Competition (YMVC), originally devised by Cork director Brendan Canty (Christy). The Triskel showcase brings 10 directors from the last two years who worked with an Irish music act to make their music video. Free in, booking essential. More info here.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Thursday July 16, The Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street
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!
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From the archive:
Who owns the derelict site with a Mercedes buried under a pile of cookers in the centre of Cork city?
No two derelict sites are alike; they all have their own unique biography.