☕️The Friday View 11/04

The finest weather, Cork back to winning ways, a mini-park quay-side park shuts temporarily and our usual round-up of what to see, hear and do for the week ahead.

Hello and welcome to the Friday View. Let’s get to it.

The Arklow Breeze docked at the Port of Cork this week. Credit: JJ O’Donoghue

This week, the Government approved €456 million in funding for the M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy motorway project. The 11km motorway will connect to the N40 at Bloomfield Interchange, extending to Barnahely near the Port of Cork, while a 1.5km single carriageway will link to the eastern side of Ringaskiddy. Construction work on the Ringaskiddy access road has been underway since October 2024.

Cork County Council welcomed the funding approval in its press release, though notably omitted any mention of the project's budget, the chronic traffic congestion on the existing route, or ongoing road safety concerns. Accentuate the positives.

While comparisons are odious (to some), for those interested, the Macroom to Baile Bhuirne bypass, opened in November 2023, is nearly twice as long (22km) and cost €280 million. Could land prices be part of why the Ringaskiddy road is nearly twice as expensive?

The new motorway is expected to take three years to complete and is part of the critical infrastructure network that will link the Port of Cork to Dublin Port, and ultimately free up Tivoli to be developed into a new town.

Staying with transport, or the lack of it: Half the county was down at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday for what was a great first half in which the Cork hurlers took home their first league title in 27 years.

One thing that is sorely missing (besides silverware) is public transport to and from the stadium. One idea the County Board is floating is to put a queuing circle on public land at the southwestern corner of the stadium, near the 4G pitch. This is not the first time the County Board has pushed for this idea; previously they were refused permission for parking and access off Monahan Road as part of plans to redevelop the south stand to include a GAA Museum/Visitor Centre and café. (The museum plan was approved but not the proposed access and parking workaround).

However, the County Board is back and met with residents online this week. The plan is broadly the same, but it doesn't come with a public transport plan. Fundamentally, it still involves using public space and inconveniencing users of the Marina Park, so it's hard to see how they'll get it past planning authorities - especially as the Marina will be home to thousands of new residents in the next few years, who will be making good use of the public land.

What would be great to see from the County Board, TFI, Bus Éireann and all the other stakeholders is a proper park-and-ride plan. Currently, the plan is: everybody parks wherever they can at all points from Blackrock and Ballintemple to the city centre.re.

How might that look? Firstly, there's Black Ash Park and Ride, which has around 940 car parking spaces. There are plans to expand the number of buses using Black Ash as well as build more bus bays. For people parking in the city car parks, running buses from City Hall up Centre Park Road and Monahan Road on a loop would help. Plenty of people can and do walk (especially on a fine day), but that's also because public transport is currently not an option.

One positive: There are more bike parking spaces at the stadium now.

The "Peace Park" on Pope's Quay is temporarily closed.

Boarded up, but coming back: Northsiders and those strolling along Pope's Quay may have noticed that the new "Peace Park" is boarded up and the white flag is down (thanks to the eagle-eyed T+D reader for letting us know). The "Peace Park" was only opened in January of this year, but it needs a bit more reinforcement work according to Liam Mullaney, owner of Myo Café and one of the driving forces behind the new quayside micro-park.

"It's a great success," Liam told T+D this week, adding that he can't wait to get it back open.

For the birds: Birds and their habits have a special place with academics in UCC; the president, John O’Halloran, is after all an ornithologist. But it was another academic from UCC who popped up in the news this week with her look at why seagulls in Cork city don't seem as aggressive as their Dublin cousins.

According to Dr Fidelma Butler, a lecturer in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at UCC, we have fewer incidents of sandwich-stealing gulls in Cork for a few key reasons: they are fewer in number here, we don't eat in public en masse, or at least to the same extent as takes place in Eyre Square or St Stephen's Green, and, as one Cork exile in Dublin noted, could it also be that there is less food left in bin bags than in Dublin? Whatever it is, Cork seagulls keep their distance. For now.

Long read: This week, the Guardian came south to Carrigaline and the "white beaches" near Shanbally to see what might happen to the pharma industry if tariffs were imposed on pharmaceutical products. They weren't included in the original line-up, and now Team Trump has paused "reciprocal tariffs" - another sign that nobody knows what he's doing, especially him, and he's not bothered.

"Half the place would be blown to bits - all the workers, the subcontractors, from the guys supplying the toilet rolls to the farms supplying meat for the canteens," John Twomey, a local historian and Shanbally GAA man, told the Guardian's reporter.

New street furniture/planters on Tuckey St

Tuckey Street: The best thing to happen to Tuckey St since it lost Tribes café is the ongoing pedestrianisation and refurbishment, which is nearly finished. This month it also got new planters that rather grudgingly have seating on only one side (other than that they look great, as do the cherry blossom-like trees in them). Already it feels like it could be a great street to hang out on – the way Princes St was briefly before it faded, businesses shut, and Cork’s so-called “foodie street” (awful term) lost all its buzz.

There’s money in barrels: Or whiskey casks, to be more precise. A breezy press release this week announced that Cork-based LYQD has raised “€1.2 million in pre-seed funding to launch a secure, transparent platform for trading Irish whiskey casks and bulk whiskey.” Like many things tech-related, the hype is strong, but the detail requires a little more digging.

According to LYQD’s website, their mission is simple: to make the benefits of Irish whiskey cask ownership accessible, transparent, and rewarding for everyone. The venture is backed by Ernest Cantillon, formerly of Electric, and James Jardella and like many before them they’re out on a journey of disruption, or to “revolutionise the way people connect with casked spirits.” A potential US tariff on Irish whiskey could disrupt those connections.

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Out + About

🎬🎶St. Peter’s will be hosting their first Arts Night this evening, with a mix of films, poetry and a live musical performance. There will be film screenings in collaboration with Out of Frame an The People’s Picturehouse, poetry readings with The Underground Loft, and live music from improvised music group Gotha. Tickets are available here.

Time, date, place: 7pm, Friday April 11, St. Peter’s, North Main Street, Cork.

📚Novelists Louise Hegarty and Rebecca Watson are in conversation in UCC on Wednesday. Both have recently released works to some acclaim, with Cork-based Hegarty's debut novel Fair Play receiving positive reviews, and Watson's new paperback, I Will Crash, recently shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. More information here.

Time, date, place: 6:30pm, Wednesday April 16, The Hub, UCC.

🎵Plugd will be having a big celebration on Saturday for Record Store Day, and its birthday. Starting from 9am, they will be playing Record Store Day releases on the turntable, a few live performances, including from Fixity, and Éist radio will be playing through the day. You can read Pádraig’s interview with them here. Pop in for a nose!

Time, date, place: From 9am, Saturday April 12, Plugd, Cornmarket Street, Cork.

🎨Sirius Arts Centre are running an Easter Camp on Saturday, for children between 5-10 years old. Organised in collaboration with Gloria O’Doherty of Glorious Arts & Crafts, who has been entertaining and teaching children with her workshops for 15 years, there will be arts and crafts, games, treats and more. Tickets available here.

Time, date, place: 11am, Saturday April 12, Sirius Arts Centre, Westbourne Place, Cobh.

🎻The Ballydehob Trad Festival gets underway this weekend, with an eclectic mix of musicians taking to the village’s pubs and halls. The Máirtín O’Connor Trio perform at Ballydehob Community Hall tonight, while award winning instrumentalist Alannah Thornburgh is joined by Macdara Ó Faoláin on Bouzouki in Levis’. The Weaving’s Cáit Ní Riain & Owen Spafford perform in Levis’ on Saturday, while Ultan O’Brien who released ‘Dancing the Line’ to a sold out show in Coughlan’s, performs with harpist Méabh McKenna on Sunday. There sessions in Rosie’s, O’Brien’s and The Sandboat every day, all information for events and tickets here.

Time, date, place: Friday December 11 - Sunday April 13, Ballydehob.

🎼The MTU Music Soc are hosting a Gig for Gaza in Cyprus Avenue, with a lineup featuring Kendall Moody, Gorilla Gorilla, Kevin Quigley and the Great Ideas, Noah Hayes, and the Howling Coyotes. Tickets available here and on the door.

Time, date, place: 7pm, Cypus Avenue, Caroline Street, Cork.

🖼️The Triskel Sample Project Space has a new resident, Kate McElroy, an artist who’s work practice spans across media, with expanded photography, moving image, sound, spoken word and sculptural installation forming part of her practice. She is using the residency to point to the tension between the economic need for constant growth and the destruction of our natural environment and human experience, and the residency and exhibition will coincide with Ireland’s Overshoot Day, a day that marks when the Earth’s resources would be exhausted for the year if everyone lived as we do in Ireland.

Time, date, place: Tuesday April 8 - Sunday June 1, Triskel Sample Project Space, Tobin Street, Cork.

🎨Sample Studios also have an exhibition in the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, featuring the work of Fiona Boniwell. Boniwell, who’s practice is based around drawing and martial arts, previously had a residency at the Triskel Sample Studio Space. Check it out!

Time, date, place: Friday April 11 - Sunday June 8, Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald Park, Cork.

🖼️Cork Printmakers’ Exhibit It takes two to speak the truth, a two person exhibition by Emma O’Hara and Evelyn Goold, that brings together works in print and ceramics and is a celebration of expressive mark making, colour and abstraction.

Time, date, place: Thursday March 6 – Friday April 25, Cork Printmakers Studio Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork.

🎨Two exhibitions are currently taking place at the Lavit Gallery. There is a solo exhibition by Clonmel-based painter John Kennedy, The Man Who Wanted To See It All, which tells the story German man Heinz Stücke, who left Germany in 1962, with his bicycle and a tent to, visit all the countries of the world. There will be an artist in conversation with fellow painter Colin Crotty, on Saturday 12 April at 12pm. Also being exhibited in the Lavit is Lara Quinn’s Lady Lazarus, a new body of work held in the vaults of Cork’s Lavit Gallery. Quinn has linked the space with another subterranean site that is of major significance within Irish folklore, Oweynagat Cave.

Time, date, place: Until Saturday April 19, and until Saturday May 3, Lavit Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork.

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.

This week on T+D:

Kilian wrote about "HOME – the HeART of Gaza", a new exhibition of kid's drawings living through the destruction of their homeland a new exhibition in the Firkin Crane.