☔️The Friday View 13/10
It's Friday, and it's the thirteenth. Now that's out of the way, let's move on with news, events, and minutiae that make up the Friday View
In, and out
So far this year, two Cork City councillors have called it quits, bowing out of political life (and the nearly five-hour-long monthly meetings). As we reported earlier in the week, Cllr. Eolan Ryng (Sinn Féin) told Monday night’s meeting in City Hall that he could no longer devote all of, or enough of, his efforts to the part-time role. He follows Fiona Ryan, who resigned earlier this year. (Both are parents of young children)
Cllr. Derry Canty, a long-time Ballincollig and Fine Gael councillor, will also not be standing in next year's election. Those local (and European elections) are scheduled for next June, and between now and then, there will likely be more movement as some from the old guard weigh up whether to keep on keeping on, while would-be councillors step into the fray.
Enter Pádraig Rice, who last week announced that he has been selected to stand for the Social Democrats in Cork city. In light of his announcement and Cllr Eolan Ryng’s retirement after just two years as a councillor, I asked Pádraig why he is standing and, more importantly, what he hopes to achieve if elected.
"I would like to achieve three things. First, I'd like to be a voice for young people. If elected in June, I will be one of the youngest members of the City Council. It's crucially important that we have young voices at all decision-making tables. The City has a large young population, including a lot of students. I've just finished a Law degree at UCC, so I understand many of the concerns young people have - particularly about housing and climate action, I want to ensure these issues are addressed.
Secondly, I'd like to be a voice for public services and improve public spaces. We can make Cork a better place to live by enhancing public spaces and public services. There are simple things the Council can do, like installing more benches, planting more trees, and building more public toilets and water fountains that would improve life for everyone. The Council could also be more proactive in reducing the number of vacant and derelict buildings.
Finally, I want to be a voice for equality and for marginalised communities who are often unheard in City Council debates. I was a member of the Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance for two years, and through this network, I have worked with a range of community groups across the City. I want to make sure the voices of diverse communities are heard and that their needs are responded to. My vision is for a City of Equals where everyone has access to decent housing, timely healthcare and a clean environment.”
Padraig can be reached by email at: padraig.rice@socialdemocrats.ie
-JJ
News in brief
Call me by my name: Sticking with City Council matters, the agenda at the monthly meeting is always a packed schedule and there’s always much to unpack, but one thing that caught my eye this week was a motion by Cllr. Kenneth Collins. His motion in full reads:
USE OF THE TERM VICTORIAN QUARTER ‘That Cork City Council writes to all stakeholders across the City including all public bodies and ask them not to use the term Victorian Quarter. Also the Ard Mhéara of the day would go to MacCurtain Street and unveil a plaque to Tomás Mac Curtain’s honour after the upgrade of MacCurtain Street.’ (Proposer: Cllr. K. Collins 23/421) North East Local Area Committee – 23/10/2023
It’s pretty hard to police what people say, but it’s clear that Cllr. Collins has strong feelings about the term "Victorian Quarter" and making sure that it doesn’t catch on for the area around MacCurtain Street. Separately, there is an active lobby group called the VQ, which is comprised of local businesses in the area and is led by Shane Clarke, formerly CEO of Nano Nagle Place. The VQ steadfastly avoids any mention of the words "Victorian Quarter" on their homepage.
Palestine: Cllrs Eolan Ryng, Dan Boyle, and Oliver Moran also had a motion at this week’s meeting to build networks with Palestine. That motion was drafted prior to the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israelis which killed over 1,200 people over the weekend and the subsequent retaliatory attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces on Gaza which have caused the deaths of nearly 1,500 Palestinians. It’s unclear how long the pummelling of Gaza will last and how many thousands of Palestinians will die now that the IDF has issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in Gaza. It's also unclear where they are expected to go in an area that is often described as an “open-air prison”.
“The motion on Palestine pre-dated the awful events of the weekend and the timing of when it came back to Council was coincidence. Last week, I was expecting to be able to speak to it with happy heart, but the horrors at the weekend put a wholly different importance to it,” Cllr Oliver Moran told Tripe + Drisheen
“It's very notable alongside of Ireland's national approach in maintaining its position, and not allowing ourselves to be deterred by atrocities, and a contrast to the European Commission, who proposed to suspend aid to Palestine in reaction. It's an example of the potential for local government to work alongside national policy and give it a practical effect, even in international affairs which you wouldn't think of when you think of local government,” Cllr Moran added.
Paradiso turns 30: Congratulations are in order to Denis Cotter and all the team, past and preset, at Paradiso as they gear up for 30 years in business this October and all the time in their little corner of the world on Lancaster Quay. Paradiso publish a newsletter which comes out a few times a year, and in this week’s edition they lead with a painting by former head chef Meadhbh Halton.
Before finishing up her three-year stint with Paradiso in 2022, Meadhbh gifted them a painting she created which shows how the restaurant has changed in the intervening 30 years. Now hanging in the restaurant, the painting goes right back to 1992 when the crew first moved in and the branding for Masser Hammond was still on the front of the building. Masser Hammond were looking to move out, and when Paradiso expressed an interest, “they tossed us the keys and legged it. They did leave a very fine dishwasher behind, in fairness, which lasted sixteen years.”
It’s a huge accomplishment to keep any business going for three decades, especially a food business. Kudos, and here’s to the next 30 years.
Sticking with food, some very interesting morsels turned up in Megabites, a newsletter by food writers Sally and John McKenna, in which they delve into food and the business of making food from across Ireland. In the latest issue, they were in The English Market. Besides treading over well-trodden ground (that picture of the Queen and the fishmonger), they also included this:
Mutton
The English Market is one of the last places in Ireland where you can call in and simply buy Mutton. It’s usually available in The Meat Market (see Helen O’Callaghan below), and in Coughlan’s, established 1906, where five generations of the family have manned the stall. “There was always at least one son amongst the market offspring” explains Alan Coughlan Snr, “but now this new generation are too well educated”. If you request it in advance, Coughlan’s will make up a batch of salted mutton. In the past, salted mutton was made on a Saturday night, when the unsold pieces of mutton were dunked in brine and sold the following week. Now it’s only made to order.
The Butcher Lady
Helen O’Callaghan is the only female butcher in the Market. When she started working there were 27 butchers stalls: today there are only 4. Whole carcasses used to be brought straight into the market and hung from butcher’s hooks, and The Meat Centre, originally established in 1980 by a first generation butcher, Ken Barrett, is a traditional butcher, where everything is butchered from the bone.
Marian Devotees
In advance of the Marian Year of 1954, a stallholder’s committee wrote to the Corporation “suggesting that a picture or statue of the Blessed Virgin be placed in a prominent position either inside or outside the Grand Parade Market and that the name of the market be changed to ‘Our Lady’s Market.’” The application was rejected.
Beadles
The Corporation employed two Beadles to patrol the market to maintain good order. The Beadles were supplied with “Chesterfield overcoats lined with fine woollen plaid”, which cost £2. 5s 0d each, the equivalent of three week’s wages. The coats had to be returned in the event of dismissal.
Car Parking
In 1973 the Corporation considered a number of plans to develop the market site into a car park and ‘ultra-modern office block’. Intensive lobbying by the traders led to the plans being dropped.
You can read the rest of the Megabites English Market edition here.
Out + About
🖼Cork-based visual artist Sarah Long’s latest exhibition The Licks Within the Lip, curated by Kim Crowley, is now on at the Crypt in St. Luke’s. Comprising a combination of new and reimagined works, the exhibition reflects on the relationship between language and the creation of landscapes and space. The exhibition explores Long’s approach to the landscape through painting, installation, sound and moving image work. The The Licks Within the Lip is open all this weekend from 2pm-6pm.
Time, date, place: Until October 21, The Crypt, St Luke’s Mahony’s Avenue
🍀Édaein Samuels explores the relationships between people and their plants as part of Tender, at Backwater artists. Samuels is doing this as part of research and is using the first hand information that she gathers from the public for her findings. Some of this information was gathered at a show and tell last night, while people are welcome to visit Édaein as she draws to tell her about their plants, during weekday opening hours from 10am-1pm and 2pm-4pm. More information here.
Time, date, place: October 9-October 20, Studio 12, Backwater Artists, Wandesford Quay, Cork.
🎼Fuzzy Pockets returns to The Roundy for their monthly gig, with Eimear Keys, Conor Bourgal and Arin taking to the stage this on Sunday. Eimear Keys and Arin are regulars at Fuzzy Pockets’ weekly open mic nights in Fred Zeppelin’s, and are both making their gig debuts. Conor Bourgal is a music student from New York who met Fuzzy Pockets at their Daniel Johnston tribute show last month, and he will be playing an alt-folk set.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Sunday October 15, The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork.
🎶Síomha is a folk musician from Clare with jazz and soul influences, and after a sold-out show at Coughlan’s Festival last month, as part of her ‘Infinite Space Reimagined’ album tour, she plays Levis’ in Ballydehob tonight. Her album has impressed critics, and fellow musicians, from Vulfpeck to Paul Brady, have been singing their praises.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Friday October 13, Levis’ Corner House, Main Street, Ballydehob.
🎧The Liberty has established itself as a good spot for music over the past while, with a bar downstairs that changes its decor once a month, and a cocktail bar upstairs. Local DJ Danilo Milk plays there on Saturday night with Penny Drop, to play some tech house and techno.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Saturday October 14, The Liberty, South Main Street, Cork.
🎹Cate Kennan is a composer and recording artist from Los Angeles who uses synthesisers, amongst other instruments, and recently released her debut album, ‘The Arbitrary Dimension of Dreams’. Ruairí de Búrca is a local sound designer and musician who plays with Ana Palindrome, Trá Pháidín and Crying Loser. Both will be playing in Plugd tomorrow night, tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Saturday October 14, Plugd, Cornmarket Street, Cork.
🗣Sos Lóin is a weekly Irish-language lunch hour that takes place every Tuesday in The Roundy, with an evening session taking place in O’Sho every second Thursday. The next meeting is at 12:30, on Tuesday, in The Roundy. Bí ann nó bí cearnógach.
Time, date, place: 12:30pm, Tuesday October 17, The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork.
🎹Fuaim Music at UCC is a series of Autumn concerts around the UCC campus and beyond, and it returns today with a lunchtime concert at the Aula Maxima of language land sea, a multichannel soundscape created by local composer Karen Power for Loré Lixenberg. It is built from field recordings from extremely remote locations, it is a visual and theatrical piece where Lixenburg attempts to find her place, through listening and understanding the needs of the environments, and alters her behaviour and mannerisms accordingly.
Time, date, place: 1:10pm, Friday October 13, Aula Maxima, University College Cork.
This week on T+D:
On Tuesday, we reported from the monthly City Council meeting. You can read that report here.
On Thursday, Kilian spoke with people from Cork’s LGBTQ+ community for a piece on where to for the community as they search for safe spaces in the city for socialising and entertainment.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View.
Any tips, 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.
