The Friday View 17/01
This week, Dry January lived up to its name, mostly. Traffic is back like the plague and a Cork City task force, like the new government, is incoming.
Good morning and welcome to the Friday View. Let’s get to it.
Stat of the week: Figures released from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage this week revealed that house building was significantly ramped up in 2024, with a total of 60,243 homes commenced last year.
Of all the homes commenced in 2024, 34% were in the four Dublin local authorities (20,712 homes). By local authority, the most homes commenced in 2024 were in Dublin City (7,116) followed by Fingal (5,770) and South Dublin County (4728). The highest outside of Dublin was in Cork city (4,384). In Cork county, 3952 home buildings were started.
However, if you go back 10 years to 2014, the picture you get is drastically different and helps explain both the catch up position we’re in and the current housing crisis. For the first five months of 2014, Department figures show that there were zero monthly commencements, and a grand total of 19 for the entire year in Cork city. In Cork county, the picture was pretty much the same for the first few months of 2014, but they finished out the year with 209 home buildings have started. Fine Gael and Labour were the coalition government of the time.
Task force incoming: By this day week we will have a solid idea of the new government, perhaps even a new government in place, and once more a Taoiseach from Cork in Micheál Martin, the leader of Fianna Fáil. We’ll also see the establishment of a new Cork City Taskforce, which was one of Fine Gael’s elections pledges.
Task forces are a lot like fact-finding missions in that everybody is willing to get on board. They will result in “learnings,” but whether these will translate into actions is the big question. It’s likely that the Dublin City Taskforce, established in May 2024 by the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, will serve as the model for Cork’s soon-to-be-established task force. David McRedmond, CEO of An Post, acted as the independent chair of the Dublin task force, which launched its report in October of last year.
That report identified “10 Big Moves”, which included:
Big Move 1 – Revitalise O’Connell Street and environs.
Big Move 2 – Prioritise the total regeneration of social housing complexes in the city centre
Big Move 3 – Convert derelict sites into high-density residential with provision for essential workers.
Big Move 4 – Make policing and security more visible and add 1000 more Gardaí
Big Move 5 – Deliver more targeted and better located services for vulnerable populations in city centre
Big Move 7 – Operate the City Centre Transport Plan with agility.
Big Move 8 – Offer Dubliners compelling reasons to visit the city centre.
It’s likely you could substitute St Patrick’s Street for O’Connell Street and Corkonians for Dubliners and arrive at many of the same conclusions. But, as always, the devil is in the detail, so we’ll have to see what the Cork City task force comes up with, and how they’ll spin it in the end, now that Dublin has taken its 10 Big Moves.
Reacting to the news of the task force, Jerry Buttimer, FG TD for Cork South Central, said he welcomed the task forces and the inclusion of working towards the completion of the long-awaited Cork Event Centre. “This will help enhance Cork’s cultural landscape and boost the city’s regeneration.”
You may recall that Jerry’s former boss, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, famously turned the sod on the Event Centre in 2016.
Funding: Applications for Cork County Council’s community fund scheme are being invited. The €1.8 million scheme support projects such as Tidy Town groups, community associations and sports clubs to create gardens, deliver infrastructure projects and buy sports equipment. In 2024, the scheme helped 398 groups. Applications will close at 4.00pm on Friday, February 14. More information here.
Camera shy: As The Echo reported this week, Cork city councillors are to push for the introduction of traffic cameras to catch drivers breaking laws. This comes on the back of the news that Dublin are motoring ahead with this initiative so why can’t we? One councillor who voiced his dissent was former Lord Mayor Cllr Kieran McCarthy, who said, “I don’t agree with the idea at all, it’s too dystopian having someone constantly looking at people’s plates.”
Could this be the same Cllr, who in November of last year, appealed on Facebook to residents in Ballinlough to help with a spate of cars being broken into by sending “info in particular camera footage” to the Gardai?
Shutting down: It’s rarely the best of times in the hospitality industry, but this week three more cafés in Cork announced they were shutting up shop: The Kabin Cafés in Ballinhassig and Ballincollig, and West Café in Bantry. Kabin owner Tadhg Long cited the increasing cost of business as the main reason for bowing out, as did Chris Heinhold and Emer Kelly, owners of West Café. While The Kabin will close its cafés, its catering company will remain open.
Taking aim: In her Irish Examiner column last week Jennifer Horgan took RTÉ, and Morning Ireland in particular, to task over representation. The repeated references to Cork during the show she heard earlier this month stopped her in her tracks.
I was listening to a genuinely national broadcast — an inclusive, holistic capturing of our small country. A broadcast without the assumption that everyone listening was listening from Dublin.
In her column, she goes on to outline how the national broadcaster is stacked with Dubliners, or those who “came to the capital early doors” and might as well be Dubliners. While there’s some truth to this, it’s worth pointing out that two former excellent CorkBeo journalists can be regularly heard on RTÉ Radio: Gavin O’Callaghan (Wexford) and Eimer McAuley (Antrim). Closer to home, Brian O’Connell is a staple of the Claire Byrne Show and reports from across the county and the country.
Horgan’s bigger point was about representation, and the problem of representation in journalism is both real and a real concern. Journalism has a middle- and upper-class problem. Starting salaries for new journalists typically range from €22,000 to €30,000. Many former journalists, myself included, often come through expensive master’s programmes, meaning that living at home is the norm for newly minted journalists, unless parents can provide financial or material support.
This all contributes to the underrepresentation of people from lower-income families entering the profession and being represented at all levels of journalism, including in the newsrooms where crucial editorial decisions are made.
Could the same also be said of the stable of Irish Examiner columnists, which includes Horgan, Terry Prone, Fergus Finlay, Sarah Harte, among others?
More funding: Funding of up to €3,000 and €6,000 for communities as part of the Creative Communities Grant Scheme 2025 is now open from Cork City Council via Creative Ireland. The scheme is designed to financially assist community groups in actively collaborating with artists and those involved in the culture industry. Applications open until February 12. More information here.
Out + About
Gig of the week: Tomorrow, Saturday 18, is a a busy day for the Carducci Quartet comprised of Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming (violin)Eoin Schmidt-Martin (viola) and Emma Denton (cello) as they take to the Triskel for a lunchtime concert and then hightail it to Kilkenny for a second show. The award-winning quartet have lined up the music of Hayden, Donnacha Dennehy and, Shostakovich on the anniversary of his death 50 years ago, for what promises to be a delightful rendition. More information here. Tickets from €14.
Time, date, place: 1pm, Saturday, January 18, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork
Cork Clothes Swap is back this weekend at St Peter’s. If you’re unfamiliar, the rules are simple: bring up to five good-quality items that you no longer wear. Make sure they’re washed before bringing them along, and you’ll be entitled to browse the collection, swap your offerings, and choose up to five items in return. Full details on what you can and can’t bring, as well as more information about the event, are all here.
Time, date, place: 11am - 1pm, Saturday, January 18, St. Peter's 87A North Main Street
Film funding: How do you get a film from idea to the screen? A workshop this Sunday from the People’s Picturehouse aims to answer that question and others. Taking Flight - Take One: Irish Short Film Funding, will cover the basics of applying for film funding for short films in Ireland, both live-action and animation. The free two-hour session will include detailed overviews of the many schemes currently available from The National Talent Academy, Screen Ireland, Árdán/RTÉ, TG4, as well as regional film funds such as Engine Shorts. More information here.
Time, date, place: 2pm, Sunday, January 19, The Kino, 23A Washington St
Hahahahahahahaha: Cork is on a comedy roll at the moment, and if you want a taste of how funny, or how hard it’s trying to be, check out Rebel Comedy Club: Open Mic Night. Hosted by Graham Francis, it takes place upstairs every Sunday at the Franciscan Well. More information here.
Time, date, place: 8:30pm, Sunday, January 19, 14 North Mall
Queer is an Italo-American film directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig. Based on a novella by William S. Burroughs, it is set in 1950s Mexico City and follows an outcast American expatriate who becomes infatuated with a much younger man. It screens at the Triskel this weekend, tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 4:15, Sunday January 19, 8pm, Monday January 20-Wednesday January 23, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork
Julian Taylor is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter who has been active in the Canadian music scene for twenty years. His latest album, The Ridge, led to his international breakthrough, and won Solo Artist of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, while also being nominated for countless other domestic awards. Levis’ host him this evening, January 17, at 8pm. More information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Friday January 17, Levis’ Corner House, Ballydehob.
This is Pop? is an exhibition by Geoff Spiers and Silvio Severino at the Laneway Gallery featuring drawings, paintings and collages. Looking back to a time when pop music could be challenging, innovative and popular all at the same time, the pieces feature images of pop figures and statements. More information here.
Time, date, place: Saturday December 14 - Saturday January 25, Laneway Gallery, Shandon Street, Cork.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View. As always, any tips, comments, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact us 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.
