The Friday View 11/10
🌥️Solar farms are popping up around the county, dead phone boxes are coming down and the new chief executive of the City Council starts next week. Plus, our round-up of what to do for the week ahead.
Good morning and welcome to the Friday View on Tripe + Drisheen. Let’s get to it!
End of the queue: The interminable queues have wound down, the fryers have stopped sizzling, and the last potato pie and battered sausage have been served. Lennox’s final days were a spectacle, a very public event, aided, of course, by non-stop media coverage and social media posts. And if you were in the queue, well, at least it ended in chips.
Given the public’s huge appetite for Lennox’s, one surprising element is that no one stepped in to take over and continue it as a franchise. Could that be because the rent—no matter how many free chips you threw in—was simply too high to take on? One figure we saw circulating on social media certainly suggested as much, but, as with everything on social media, that figure comes with a health warning. Much like fried food.
A mega solar farm: Ryanair boss and master of (self) publicity Michael O’Leary was in the news this week, but not for shitposting Boeing or Green Party boss Eamon Ryan, but rather singing the praises of his solar power farm in Co Westmeath.
O’Leary has installed 231 panels on his 2,000-acre farm, which he says are capable of generating 70% of the electricity the farm and house consume during the summer months. He exports around 30% of this back into the grid. “The numbers are compelling,” he says.
Closer to home, Amarenco, a much larger Franco-Irish operation, of which John Mullins is Chairman and CEO of solar, has applied to Cork County Council to build a 5 MW solar farm comprising approximately 22,200 photovoltaic panels on ground-mounted frames within a site area of 12 hectares at Ballynacrusha in Cobh. (A 5 megawatt (MW) solar farm has the capacity to power 1,500 homes annually, based on an average annual consumption of 3,300 kWh of electricity per household.)
Mullins’ face will be familiar to many. Appropriately enough, it was plastered on many a utility pole earlier this year as part of his unsuccessful run for a seat in Europe.
Amarenco is on a tear in Cork and currently has five new solar projects under Ireland’s fourth Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS 4), located in Midleton, Ennistymon, Cobh, Timoleague, and Carrigaline, totalling 29.84 MW. A ruling on the Cobh plant is expected next month.
South Main Street mess: Pity the poor bus drivers navigating South Main Street in double-deckers, with cars parked on the makeshift road and pedestrians trying to navigate the hot mess. The construction work is all for the greater good, part of the public realm improvements for South Main Street, Tuckey Street, and Bishop Lucy Park. But is there a way to make it less chaotic?
Marymount Calendar 2025: For their 2025 calendar, Marymount invited 12 artists to create a piece for each month. One of them was Emer Kiely, who T+D commissioned for our print magazine way back in 2021. The calendar is beautiful and you can pre oder it here. The full list of artists who volunteered their services are: Sarah Long, Nicola Sheehan, Siofra Hill, Denise Cronin, Thea Mercer, Emer Kiely, Kate Dukelow, Tom Herdman, Mary Whitty, Siobhan O’Connor, Norma Healy and Siobhan Collins. More information here.
City centre living: Students and staff from UCC’s urban planning dept are holding an open consultation next Tuesday, October 15, from 7 - 8:30 pm, evening on Lancaster Quay. Essentially, they want to know what it’s like for people living in the city centre, and what improvements they would like to see.
Anyone interested in attending should contact Jeanette Fitzsimons, Centre for Planning Education & Research, UCC at jeanette.fitzsimons@ucc.ie to register their attendance.
Somewhat awkardly, UCC own a huge premises adjacent to Morrison’s Island which is meant to be transformed into the university’s city centre business school. Construction was Covid interrupted, and now the university is riding a wave of austerity (Project Alpha), so who knows when ground will be broken there?
Leave the lights on: A recent initiative launched bye Cork Business Association and backed by the City Council’s Night Time Economy Advisor has asked city centre business to leave a light at night in an effort to create a better feeling of safety and community.
“This simple yet impactful initiative encourages businesses to leave at least one light on during the evening hours, brightening the streets and making the city feel more welcoming for those working or spending time in Cork City,” said Fiona Collins, the City Council’s Night Time Economy Advisor.
However, does increased lighting lead to safer streets and cities? The jury’s out on that one. A study from 2015 in England and Wales published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found the leaving the lights on has little impact on deterring accidents and crime. The initiative would add to electricity bills, and given any increase in rates, how likely are businesses to spend even a little more?
Power vs platform: Councillors, especially newbies and particularly those running for higher office, do love their press releases. Hardly a week goes by without Cllr Joe Lynch (Sinn Féin) sending out a missive, and this week was no different.
Hot on the heels of a meeting with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and Cork City Garda management at Cork City Hall, Cllr Lynch had his press release ready to go, in which he relayed that An Garda Síochána would consider the issue of increasing Garda station opening hours in Ballincollig.
According to Cllr Lynch, the western suburb’s station opens for “a grand total of fifteen hours a week – if we're lucky – and is closed on two of the busiest days of the week: Fridays and Saturdays.”
Another press release that landed in inboxes this week was from Cllr Pádraig Rice (Social Democrats), calling for the BAM-owned site on Sullivan’s Quay to be turned into a public park.
Cllr Rice, who is running in the next general election, has tabled a motion for the next City Council meeting, urging the local authority to get off its ass (paraphrasing here) and make the site less grim than it has been for the past six years.
Cllr Rice isn’t the first local politician to weigh in on the eyesore, and he won’t be the last. In his press release, he states: “There was a plan to build a hotel on this site, but to the best of my knowledge, that planning application has now expired. We can’t let this site sit vacant and unused for another six years.”
Our money is on the status quo and many more birthdays to come for the “giant dusty hole,” as Cork Beo quipped. No amount of graffiti will cover up that fact.
Nosh 19: One letter changes everything. Nosh 19, the new restaurant on Princes Street, has moved into Nash 19 which closed back in January. They should get a Circular Economy award before we get round to properly reviewing the restaurant. Welcome to the neighbourhood.
Phone kiosks: As has been reported, telecoms company Eir is removing derelict phone boxes across the city (the one on Oliver Plunkett Street was dug out this week), and will be replacing some of them with digital kiosks.
What might those digital kiosks look like? We have no clue and the City Council are doing little in the way of shedding light on the situation and the planning application process. (We did ask the City Council but heard nothing back).
The Irish Examiner provided some background earlier in the year:
The company will have to apply to Cork City Council for a special licence for the replacement kiosks, which will include advertising panels, at locations which have yet to be agreed with City Hall.
However, this process, unlike a planning application, does not provide for a public submissions process. The council’s decision in relation to these licences can, however, be appealed to An Bórd Pleanála.
If there’s no public submissions process, then surely there won’t be any appeals to the soon-to-be-renamed An Bórd Pleanála? Should the public and stakeholders not have a say in this process? For instance, how many new kiosks will be installed, and where? Will they be glorified digital ad spaces (and who gets to advertise)? Will advertising considerations dictate where they are placed (most eyeballs)?
Will the new kiosks allow access to free calls to emergency services and essential services like the Samaritans and Women’s Aid? How long will the licences last? Your guess is as good as ours.
Incoming: New Cork City Council Chief Executive Valerie O’Sullivan officially starts her tenure next Tuesday, October 15. Not that she’ll be tweeting about it…
Looking well: And finally, as Yay Cork might put it, we absolutely love what’s happening with this gem of a public park in Cork. The Marina upgrade is looking swell.
Out +About
🎥The IndieCork Film Festival is underway, with the last few screenings taking place this weekend. On Friday, there are screenings of By The Stream, a Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo, as well as two short documentaries about two local Cork associations. Meitheal Mara - The Voyage tells the story of the boatyard on Crosse’s Green and the impact it has on the city. The Dragon of Shandon documents the background work that Cork Community Art Link do in preparation for the famous Halloween Parade. The next few days see lots of Irish Shorts screening at the Arc, while there’s a screening Short Films from Palestine on the 13th. See the full programme here and get your tickets here.
Time, date, place: Until Sunday October 13, The Arc, North Main Street, Cork.
👯♀️Tearmann Aiteach / Queer Sanctuary is a performance by dance artists Isabella Oberländer & Fearghus Ó Conchúir at the Firkin Crane. It grew out of their separate practices as artists of different genders, generations and nationalities and shows the viewer what they are both capable of. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 7:30pm, Friday October 🎻11 and Saturday October 12, Firkin Crane, John Redmond Street, Shandon.
🎻The Esposito Quartet consists of the violinists Mia Cooper and Anna Cashell, viola player Joachim Roewer, and celloist William Butt. They play in the Triskel Arts Centre on Saturday, playing Beethoven, Paul Frost and Janáček. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 1pm, Saturday October 12, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork.
🎤Multi-instrumentalist trad and folk singer-songwriter John Francis Flynn is in Cork for the weekend, as part of his Ireland/UK tour. Hailing from Dublin, his debut album, “I Would Not Live Always,” was released in 2021 and received critical acclaim. In the city, he plays at Live at St Luke’s on Friday, before travelling to West Cork on Sunday to play in Connolly’s of Leap. Cork tickets here, Leap tickets here.
Time, date, place: 7:30pm, Friday October 11, St. Luke’s Church, Summerhill North, Cork; 7:30pm, Sunday October 13, Connolly’s of Leap.
🖼️Tom Campbell takes over Another Place Art Gallery on the ground floor of the Quay Co-Op which is going from expansion to expansion and strength to the strength. His new exhibition simply titled ‘Paintings, Drawing and Scultpure’ contains some of his signature dog sculptures which Campbell has been making for years, as well as drawings and, well, paintings. Do stop in.
Time, date, place: October 10, Another Place Art Gallery, Quay Co-Op, Sullivan’s Quay
🎨As part of their ongoing series of public lectures on all things art and art history, Cork Decorative & Fine Arts Society presents William Gallagher, an independent lecturer in art history, who will be expounding on ‘The Shock of the Old: Impressionism 150 years on.’ When it arrived Impressionism changed and upset the course of modern art. Gallagher, a former lecturer in the Crawford College of Art, will look at the “emergence from nineteenth-century conflicts in art over ‘truth’ and Realism, tradition and rule, the raw and the finished, and at how its engagement with the clash of high and low values in art continues to resonate today. More information here. Tea and coffee served from 11am.
Time, date, place: 11:30am, Saturday October 12, Nano Nagle Place, Douglas St.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View.
Any tips, comments, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact us via 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.
ICYMI: Pádraig O' Connor reviews ‘After Luke’ which runs until October 13 at the Cork Arts Theatre.
