The Friday View 13/05
A new design and arts festival kicks off this weekend, bus stops are moving and KPMG have a thing or ten to say about the city centre.
“Magnet cities” is where it’s at. Say what now? This is a new concept (to me at least) and very buzz-y, and given how we all love these two things, perhaps it was not surprising that magnet cities features strongly in the KMPG draft report on the future of Cork City centre, a document that will provide the blueprint for how the city centre will be developed and evolves over the next ten years.
Do magnet cities spell the death of “15-minute cities”? Or can we have both? Perhaps first up, we should explain what a magnet city is. In a nutshell - or a 94 page report - magnet cities are designed to attract new residents, visitors, business and finance. In theory, magnet cities are awesome places: they have “strong city leaders”; are “fundraisers”; “attract wealth creators”; “have a definable city identity” and the list and jargon goes on.
While the KPMG report goes into great detail on what a magnet city is, not once are the words public toilet mentioned in it. (Magnet cities gets 13 mentions). It’s not on KMPG to provide public toilets, but how did they not recognise that Cork city centre is sorely lacking in this essential utility and then set about providing a solution to our lack of them? After all, the report had something to say about dereliction and vacancy.
As it stands there are three, possibly four, public toilets in the city centre. The population of the city centre is currently around 24,000 and is expected to grow by 15% to over 26,000 by 2028. Naturally, the transient population swells and ebbs throughout the day and night as people pour in and out of the city.
The Cork City Centre Revitalisation Action Plan is a long one and there’s much in there of merit, and yes, this is nit-picking, but that doesn’t change the situation. Surely between now and the final version (the copy we have is a draft report) they can put some of those KMPG brains to work and show the City Executive examples of cities that have well-run, well-funded public toilets and suggest ways and means that we could provide similar services. Public toilets might not be sexy, but they are essential. Magnetic even.
-JJ
News in brief
Cork City Council will begin transferring the bus and coach stops that are located on St Patrick’s Quay to new locations in the final week of May. The quay stop has for many years served as the boarding and disembarking spot for passengers headed to Dublin Airport on Aircoach buses (hence why it’s also known as Terminal 3), but the quay has also been used by a raft of other private bus companies. No more. As part of the upgrade to the quay and the streets around MacCurtain Street, the depots will be spread around. Mostly they’ll stick to the area around MacCurtain Street; the map below gives more information on the moves.
Aircoach and Gobus.ie ➡️ Lower Glanmire Road
Cobh Connect ➡️ Anderson’s Quay
Citylink ➡️ MacCurtain Street
Also this week
City for sale: Cork City FC are riding high in the first division and are once again back in the news as talk of a sale resurfaced this week. We’ve been here before. The Irish Examiner reports that representatives from Grovemoor, the UK-based company that also own Preston North End (where quite a few City players have ended up), will be back Leeside for talks with the co-op that owns Cork City. As you might recall, a deal to sell the club to Grovemoor in 2020 fell through. A major hurdle is Turners Cross which is owned by the Munster Football Club. Grovemoor was set up by Trevor Hemmings, a billionaire horse race owner and property developer who died in 2021. His company brought Centre Parcs to the UK and closer to home owns Trabolgan in east Cork. Sports journalist Andrew Horgan wrote about Cork City FC for Tripe + Drisheen last year when the club was in a much worse place coming after a few horrid years and languishing near the bottom of first division. The crowds though are back at the Cross, the goals are (mostly) flying in, and now too it seems the money men are returning.
Swim city: Sticking with sport, the Vibes & Scribes Lee Swim returns this summer after an absence of two years. The application site went live on Thursday night for the 2km point-to-point swim which has been held since at least 1914. The swim takes place - in the Lee! - on Saturday, July 8. More information here.
Photo of the week
He’s a favourite on T+D, and he might be Cork’s original street photographer. This shot from Anthony Barry of The Swan & Cygnet at the top of Pana was taken in the 1960s. The pub was built by Beamish & Crawford and popped up in a conversation with Jack Lyons (Jackie the Bell) earlier this year as The Swan & Cygnet was a favourite spot for bus drivers, conductors and inspectors based across the road at the ‘Hut’ to go and spend a penny. And possibly relieve a thirst.
Out + About
⚒️ Put a stamp on it: A new design and arts and crafts festival kicks off - or pops-up to use the preferred lingo - from today until Sunday in multiple locations across the city. The inaugural festival called STAMP sees Benchspace, Sample-Studios, Cork Craft & Design and Shandon Art Studios unite to offer a rake of events and activities including bookbinding, spoon making and a live Blacksmith’s forge at the city council-owned derelict site on Kyrl’s Quay which has been repurposed as an arts and culture space.
The emphasis with STAMP is on doing, and there are many opportunities to have a go at making and doing. In making STAMP happen the organisers and creators drew on the experiences of Dundee, a partner city, and according to the City Council’s EU affairs coordinator: “The festival is only one, frontloaded element of the STAMP concept arising from the project process to date.” I have no idea what frontloading means here (or in general), but STAMP could be a great addition to the city’s arts and craft calendar. More information and full program of events here.
Time, date, place: 13-15 May, multiple venues across the city.
🪴The Gathering: It doesn’t get more grassroots than the Gathering which will take place this weekend on the Northside of the city. Over the past few months local volunteers in St Luke’s have taken on four green spaces in the neighbourhood (which includes Summerhill Park and Railway Park) turning out most weekends to pitch in and enhance the green spaces, some of which have been neglected for years. On Saturday, at St Luke’s Garden on Ballyhooly Road, they will convene a gathering to discuss plans for each space. All are welcome to attend.
Time, date, place: 2pm, Saturday 14 May, St Luke’s Garden on Ballyhooly Road
🗣Liam O’hUigín of Middle Parish will be speaking in the City Library today about Shawlies and the tradeswomen of Cork from yesteryear. Liam was featured in Tripe+Drisheen a few months back for our long read on swimming and the city. You can read that piece here.
Time, date, place: 11am, Friday 13, City Library, Grand Parade
🎻As part of the opening night exhibition for STAMP at Shandon Art Studio there will be live music by Tom Bouttaz and Phill Guiton. The open studio exhibition includes work by Holly Walsh (painting), Sarah O’Connor (sculpture), Rossie Roccaforte (ceramics), Pierce Fox (installation) Suzy O’Sullivan (glass), Karina Killeen (ceramics), Aleksandra Kowalczyk (ceramics, wood), Paul McKenna (painting).
Time, date, place: 7pm, Friday 13, Shandon Art Studio, 19 Dominic Street
The Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra will perform an eclectic programme featuring Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Beethoven’s First Symphony in Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral this coming Saturday. The conductor is Keith Pascoe with leader Eithne Willis, also featuring Maria Mulcahy on flute and Eimear McDonagh on harp. Tickets available at the door. More information here.
Time, date, place: 7.30pm, Saturday May 14, Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral.
Nano Nagle’s Shane Clarke will be chatting to artist Deidre Frost about Translations, a new exhibition from Frost and Romanian artist Flavia Lugigan. The talk will centre on the role of nature in urban spaces.
Time, date, place: 2pm, May 14, Nano Nagle Centre, Douglas Street
Cork City WFC are back in action at Turner’s Cross this weekend when they’ll take on Wexford Youths Women. Kick off has been moved up to the evening.
Time, date, place: 7pm, May 14, Turners Cross
This week on T +D
On Monday we wrote about how the lack of maternity leave for elected officials remains a major barrier to women in local politics. You can read that piece here.
On Wednesday we published a news story about the upcoming flood relief plans for Bantry, once described as “the most flooded town in Ireland.” The proposed €6.7m flood relief scheme for Bantry will be debated in public forums over the coming weeks. You can read that piece here.
On Thursday morning our news story was about how the cable car plans for Dursey island have been shot down. No doubt this one will go and go.
Also on Thursday, Ellie wrote a wonderful long read about the past and future of the Butter Exchange building in Shandon and where its future lies?
That’s it for this week’s Friday View. Watch out for tomorrow’s instalment of our Arts+ Culture newsletter from Ellie.
Any tips, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact either of us at jj.odonoghue@gmail.com or emailellieobyrne@gmail.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.
The Crawford Gallery kindly offers loos to folk who make it to the second floor - perhaps with the intention to draw people in to see a bit of art - as the gallery will be closing in the near future for works there will be a drastic reduction in this service.......