The Friday View 1/11
The Friday View 1/11
🍂November is upon us. A "ghost estate" in Rochestown is for sale; Emmett Place is set for an upgrade and electioneering is well and truly underway.
Welcome to the Friday View and November. Let’s get to it.
The Skibbereen post office is one four town-centre post offices in Cork that will be sold off as the An Post restructures (the others are in Bantry, Kinsale and Macroom) Opened in 1904, the Skibbereen outpost had the Royal Crest where the harp now sits above the door. Postal services will continue in all four buildings, but there’s also the potential for other businesses to move in/start up as many of the operations such as sorting and delivery depots have been centralised freeing up space.
“No-go areas” and electioneering: At a City Council meeting this autumn, Cllr Shane O’Callaghan (FG) introduced a motion to increase penalties for public intoxication and aggressive begging, recommending harsher fines and longer custodial sentences. Firstly, local council meetings don’t have the power to change criminal legislation, something a practising lawyer surely knows. However, the motion sparked a lengthy and multifaceted debate, which took one of two perspectives: either the city is going to hell in a handbasket, or a more nuanced view that acknowledges many people have fallen through the cracks and that life on the streets sometimes leads to criminal behaviour
That debate was taken up in The Examiner this week in a report that drew on the experiences of workers in the city centre who have faced intimidation and violence as well as with interviews with passersby on Oliver Plunkett Street. Again it went both ways, but this from quote from Wille O’Brien, proprietor of Spar on MacCurtain Street stands out.
The language of the street is loud, aggressive but also very violent. Let’s not be under any illusions about that. When it comes to criminal law in this country there is an outdated revolving door system that doles out retribution with no restitution or rehabilitation."
“95% of the people you see sitting on the street have issues other than poverty. There are support services available but for some reason society is not giving them the help they need.
Crime and the perception of crime are two different things. But feelings and data are indifferent to one another. Does the idea of "no-go areas" in the city hold any water, or is it simply something to latch onto in an election?
Last weekend, around 100,000 people poured into the city for the Jazz Festival. A betting man or woman might wager that there was no area left unexplored by the crowds. At the same time, it’s clear that, due to addiction, homelessness, and mental health struggles, there are people suffering on our streets. Like any city, there is crime, but reducing this to a narrative of "no-go areas" is neither helpful nor accurate, and smacks of electioneering.
Strangest headline of the week: Cillian Murphy. Great Actor, Historically Ignorant Person. So said the Gript showing you can love/hate all in the same headline. Historically ignorant is an area that the Gript likely knows a thing to ten about.
On the move: Ex-Virgin Media News Southern Correspondent Paul Byrne announced this week that he’s making the move to the wireless, taking up a producer position with 96FM on The Opinion Line. That can only be a good thing for the show and its listeners, considering the contact book and experience the veteran journalist brings. Expect to hear Paul fill in on the hot seat as well.
Going, going, finally: “Rochestown Road in Cork is a highly sought-after residential area known for its convenient location and family-friendly atmosphere.” So reads the marketing blurb for the long derelict houses in the Ashley development close to St Patrick’ Church on the Rochestown Road. Quite how the four Edwardian-style houses, which were built 15 years ago but never used as homes remains to be written. (They were used to showcase what a mess our housing situation is in The New York Times earlier this year).
When the show house was finished in 2009 it had a guide price of €1.3m. The development is now online for auction with a minimum opening bid of €1,240,000. Originally built by the Ashely Partnership, something happened in the partnership to collapse it and subsequently leave the four houses with two remaining sites sitting in a time warp while house prices went up and up in tandem with the number of homelessness.
Emmett Place upgrade: A public consultation is now open for the proposed works for Emmet Place, the plaza around the Opera House and the Crawford Art Gallery. While literally a stone’s throw from Patrick’s Street, it’s mostly a dead space, used intermittently for outdoor events, such as the recent Jazz Festival.
The plaza was named Emmett Place in honour of Robert Emmett at the end of the 19th century. Emmett led a rebellion against British forces in 1803, which failed, and, like many Irishmen before and after him, he was executed by the British. When the plaza was first constructed in the first half of the 19th century, it was originally called Nelson’s Plaza. The name was changed around the same time Nile Street became Sheare’s Street.
One important detail in all this is that works will only commence once the Crawford refurbishment is complete, which is expected in 2027. However, given the slow progress of state building projects, it could be 2028 before the revamp of Emmett Place begins.
Check the register: Cork County Council’s Franchise Section will hold a clinic in Carrigaline Library on Tuesday November 5 from 10:00am to 1:00pm on details about how to register to vote, or what to do if you’re changed citizenship. You have to be registered on the Electoral Register to vote in the upcoming election. More details here.
Community safety forum: Nano Nagle Place is the venue for the next Community Safety Forum, a partnership between residents, An Garda Siochana and Cork City Council, aiming to improve the safety of the local environment and to enhance local policing.
Residents from College Road, Glasheen Road, UCC, Barrack Street, Douglas Street, Middle Parish and surrounding areas are welcome to attend the next forum on Douglas Street on Tuesday, November 12 at 7.30pm (entrance via Evergreen Road).
On T+D this week:
Padraig O’Connor paid a visit to newly-opened Pam Moretti Dressmaker on Watercourse Road in Blackpool. Pam, originally from sap Poalo in Brazil, has been living in Cork since 2017.
“People told us about Blackpool and that it’s dangerous, but it’s not. I walk around on my own and feel safe and I love the people on the northside.”
Out + About
Kurosawa anyone? Clocking in at 207 minutes, Seven Samurai, one of the masterpieces of cinema plays the Triskel this Sunday with a much needed five-minute intermission to get you through the mammoth film which turns 70 this year. Considered to be the most “remade, reworked, referenced” movies in all of cinema, the samurai battle has inspired everyone and anything from from John Lasseter (Bug’s Life) to Tarantino (Django Unchained), to the rain soaked battle scenes of John Wick. The list goes on. And on. Tickets and info here.
Time, date, place: 6pm, Saturday November 2, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St.
Dundalk slam poet and musician Jinx Lennon returns to Fred Zeppelin’s this evening for another night with, with London-based punk poets Wasps vs Humans. Ellie interviewed Jinx two years ago for Tripe, see the interview here. Tickets and information available here.
Time, date, place: 9pm, Friday November 1, Fred Zeppelin’s, Parliament Street, Cork.
Gaitkrash is a theatre troupe formed in 2007 by Bernadette Cronin, Regina Crowley and sound and visual artist Mick O’Shea. They perform their exploration of Samuel Beckett's Not I and Footfalls at Plugd on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Tuesday November 5 & Wednesday November 6, Plugd, Cornmarket Street, Cork.
Scary season is well underway, and Leap are celebrating it with the return of their Scarecrow Festival. A Scare at Samhain has been running since last week. Finishing up this weekend, it includes a daily tour of the woods in Leap, a witches dance on Saturday night, and a big closing party on Sunday. It’s your last chance to catch it! More information available here.
Time, date, place: Until Sunday November 3, Leap.
A taste of the South West is on offer at City Hall this weekend, with the Cork & Kerry Food Market taking place on Saturday and Sunday. A showcase of local and national food, it features chefs from across the county, and from the Kingdom too. It also features cooking demonstrations and food talks with chefs. More information and tickets here.
Time, date, place: 10am-6pm, Saturday November 2 and Sunday November 3, City Hall, Cork.
Cork Clothes Swap returns to Rebel Reads bookshop in the Marina this week. It’s a simple premise: swap your previously loved clothes for something new to you. You can swap up to five items of good quality clothes. Full details here.
Time, date, place: 7pm-8pm, Wednesday November 6, Rebel Reads Bookshop, Marina Commercial Park T12 AY92
Winter Exhibition 2024. The Lavit Gallery’s annual seasonal showcase returns (opening today November 1) and includes work by more than 50 artists all of which is for sale. Expect to see art, craft and design including paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and much else in the mix.
Time, date, place: Tue-Sat 10.30am-6pm, Nov 1 - Jan 19, Wandesford Quay, Clarke’s Bridge
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.
A lot of the rhetoric around the safety of the city center has been tremendously short sighted and damaging. There were quotes from a Garda inspector recently, referring to staffing numbers in the city, suggesting they wouldn’t want their mother walking down OP St in the daytime. This is then picked up on doom-mongers such as Michael Moynihan who have done enormous damage to the city’s reputation in the eyes of people who do not visit frequently and think it to be a hotbed and crime.