The Friday View 15/12
Misinformation, disinformation and cycle lanes wider than roads...also Live at The Marquee has a new home, where homes are planned to be built. Plus our round-up of what's on for the coming week.
“Journalists should not spend much of their time writing about journalism. The world is more interesting than the inky habits of the people who report on it.” So says the Leader in The Economist this week. They then go on to devote thousands of words to journalism and the people who report on it, their biases and how they think we are moving away a set of shared facts. I agree with them, though, journos should spend less time writing about journalism, but like them, I’ll make an exception and devote a few hundred words to journalism in this week’s Friday View.
When it comes to misinformation and disinformation, there’s a tendency to think it’s the province of conspiratorial minds or nefarious state actors. While that’s true, it also happens at a local and granular level and gets fed into our news ecosystem. I was reminded of that this week from a clip from C103FM featuring Pat Horgan, the new chairman of Cork GAA. In the clip below (press the play button to listen to it), he outlines that “we’re seeing cycle lanes as twice as wide as the road.” Apparently, this is happening in villages, towns, and cities across Ireland.
First of all, that's entirely bullshit, or disinformation. I asked a few different sources from the cycling infrastructure world if there was any truth to Pat's claim. They all said the same thing: cycle lanes at their widest are about 2 metres, and that's when they are at their most generous. In contrast, roads are 5-6 metres and wider, so in the imaginary cycle lane-infested world that Pat describes, cycle lanes are averaging between 10-12 metres. LOL. Perhaps Pat is confusing cycle lanes with greenways like the one that is being built to pass by Midleton, where he hails from, on the old train line, which are at their widest 4 metres and will be used by cyclists and pedestrians.
The clip is in reference to, surprise, surprise, BusConnects and plans to remove some on-street parking on the Boreenmanna Road where Páirc Uí Rinn is located. What the GAA, the City Council, and the NTA need to do to solve the transport problem for Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Páirc Uí Rinn is for another day, but my issue here is on how journalism all too often falls down by not doing one of its most basic tasks.
Firstly, this clip is clearly marked as news, from the news team. However, it’s not at all factual. The job of journalism is not simply to report whatever is thrown out there but to pause, check for veracity, and push back when and where necessary. Because what happens when journalism and journalists don’t is that disinformation makes its way into the public narrative. People then find their own truths, and they vary on a scale that contains misinformation and disinformation, such as vaccines being a form of state control, immigrants being more likely to commit serious crimes, and cycle lanes twice as wide as roads taking over the country.
Having worked in the world of digital journalism and experienced the breakneck speed and need for content, I have sympathy for journalists. It’s the model that’s broken, and this bug is a feature. However, journalists should relish being on the frontline of treating skeptically pretty much everything that anyone in an official capacity says or tells you. That’s not a cynical take but rather a practical one.
When it comes to transport to and from Cork GAA grounds, a spokesperson for Cork Cycling Campaign told T+D, "Páirc Uí Rinn and Páirc Uí Chaoimh are in a unique position to take full advantage of new walking, cycling, and public transport routes directly to the stadiums. BusConnects routes to the stadiums should be welcomed. Walking and cycling amenities directly to the stadiums should be promoted in event travel plans. There should be proper bike parking at the stadium as per planning conditions instead of having people lock their bikes to fences."
There will always be a need for some journeys to be made to the stadium by car. However it is not reasonable to expect that the vast majority journeys will continue to be made to stadiums by car.Examples can be looked at from other stadiums in city centre locations around the world of how alternative transport options are promoted by the stadium’s management to reduce traffic issues and congestion in the surrounding areas."
Finally, last summer, I brought my youngest son to his first-ever Munster hurling championship game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Cork played Tipp to a draw, and he fell asleep in the final 10 minutes of a great climax. We cycled—well, I did; he got a lift on the back of the bike—to and from the stadium. We came in along the greenway from Mahon along the old railway route and down the Marina, locking the bike up at a pole next to the stadium near the Atlantic Pond. The game, the crowd, the weather, the cycle to and from—it was a lovely, lovely day. I reckon Pat Horgan should give it a go. By bike.
-JJ
News in brief:
Sticking with cycling (last mention!), five Cork City Councillors are off on their bikes to Utrecht for an NTA-funded cycle study trip at the end of January. Cllr Mick Finn was in the original gang of six but has pulled out owing to work commitments. Cllr Finn and Cllr Canty, who is going on that trip, are both not running in the local elections in June of 2024. (Apologies to Cllr Paudie Dineen, also off to Utrecht, who we incorrectly said was retiring at the next election. He most certainly isn’t and will stand in 2024). Also, in that peloton bound for Utrecht are Terry Shannon (FF), Thomas Maloney (Ind), Paudie Dineen (Ind), Kenneth O'Flynn (Ind). We look forward to seeing if their views of cycling and cycle infrastructure have evolved post Utrecht.
Live at The Marquee is back
Never bet against promoter Peter Aiken. As The Examiner reported yesterday, the show businessman has found a site for LATM, very near the Showgrounds where work is slowly getting underway for a major housing development.
LATM will be held on the site of where Tedcastle Oil was located. Interestingly, this site too is also slated to have houses built on it, 823 according to the Strategic Housing Development application that’s sitting on a desk at An Bord Pleanála. This is intriguing because Aiken told the press LATM is going to be there for the next three years. So, where does that leave the 823 houses and the SHD (and yes, in the middle of a housing crisis)?
The Tedcastle site is, as Aiken correctly told the press conference in Cork this week, a bigger site. It also comes with a much bigger cleanup operation. Tiznow, the owners of the site, have quite the unintentionally hilarious corporate video of how the site looks now (decline, derelict, dilapidated, to use their captions in the video) and how amazing it will all look when it’s finished. When will that be? Who knows, but for the next three years, we can expect Peter Aiken to be planting his festival tent on-site.
Apartments on Horgan’s Quay, finally
Some good news this week from the Land Development Agency (LDA) as they are going to press ahead and build on the site at Horgan’s Quay where planning permission for apartments had been granted. Property company Clarendon and construction company BAM have put their energy into building the office block at the railway site. The second block is nearly complete, and in the original plans, there is also a third block, all the while nothing was happening with the apartments on the site of the first railway station in Cork city.
The Examiner reports that: “The move should see the first of 302 apartments delivered by the end of 2025, with the majority being made available at cost-rental, at least 25% below the regular local market rate.” It goes on to say this is good news for Apple, the flagship tenant in Horgan’s Quay. It’s also good news for everyone else too.
And lastly, the third (and final?) round of consultation for BusConnects Cork closes on Monday, December 18. Portal here.
Out + About
Test Site host a Winter Solstice Celebration next Thursday, and collaborate with Molly Garvey to host this month’s song exchange, with a festive twist. They also have a wishing tree that you can add an intention to, as well as a workshop for making native leaf prints and greetings cards, to exchange over the festive period. This is an all ages event without alcohol, and it is free to attend with a €5-€10 suggested donation. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 5:30pm-7:30pm, Thursday December 21, Test Site, Kyrl’s Street, Cork.
Spaces is a musical and visual artistic project based around electronic music and psychedelic modernism. Following a successful popup at Sunflour last month, they have an artistic residency this month at the Rising Sons Brewery. Working in collaboration with VLR and the Electronic Music Council, they’re hosting shows every Friday, with the lineup tonight this week including Munk, Texas-Plant, and VLR.
Time, date, place: 10pm-2:30am, Friday December 15, Rising Sons Brewery, Cornmarket Street, Cork.
Fuzzy Pockets host their final show of the year on Sunday with a Christmas Party in support of the Cork Simon Community. The lineup features most of the musicians that have been on Fuzzy Pockets’ billings this year, including Eimear Keys, Twitcher, That Guy, Rua Rí and Peter O’Sullivan. They are also joined by Hank Wedel, who has shown them great support this year. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Sunday December 17, The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork.
One Space Culture is a new gallery just outside Rathcormac. Tomorrow they launch a new exhibition, Love Directions, featuring at least twenty local artists, including Éadaoin Glynn, Dermot Browne, David Crowley, and Rebecca Bradley. Launch time is between 2pm and 4pm.
Time, date, place: 2pm-4pm, Saturday December 16, One Space Culture, Ballybrowney-Mountain, Rathcormac.
The annual Indie Cork Film Festival takes place over the next week at the newly reopened Arc Cinema. On Thursday, they play six short films about Christmas, with different takes on what it represents, at An IndieCork Nativity. It includes films by Paddy O’Shea, Paudie Baggott, Edwin Mullane, Scott Newton, Michael Creagh and Cashell Horgan, and the film-goers get a complimentary glass of Kinsale mead.
Time, date, place: 8:30pm, Thursday December 21, Civic Trust House, Pope’s Quay, Shandon, Cork.
Flowers at Night is the music project of Juno Cheetal, from Sherkin Island. Her style combines synths, guitar, and vocal layering with electronic soundscapes, and she is influenced by 80s instrumental B sides and film soundtracks. Twitcher is the musical project of Lisa O’Grady, who makes lo-fi, drone-style folk songs using a Casio. They play in Maureen’s on Monday, tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Monday December 18, Maureen’s, John Redmond Street, Shandon, Cork.
As normally happens during this part of December, there’s a scramble for gifts as people prepare themselves for you-know-what. The Next Step, which facilitates workshops and is dedicated to promoting positive mental health, are hosting a Christmas Craft Market this weekend in their building on Sullivan’s Quay. The market will include jewellery, scented candles, soaps, as well as your usual craft fair gifts.
Time, date, place: 11am-5pm, Saturday December 16, The Next Step, Sullivan’s Quay, Cork.
-KMc
This week on T+D:
On Monday, we reported on the problem with a prayer before the monthly meeting at Cork City Council.
On Tuesday, we reported on that meetings and some of the updates including news on the (non) Event Centre. That story here.
And on Wednesday, Pádraig O’ Connor went to the panto.
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.
