☕️The Friday View 18/04
Good Friday, bad weather. It was a week of transport news: trains, trams and porpoise in the Lee. Plus, our usual round-up of what's on for the week ahead.
Hello and welcome to the Friday View, let’s get to it!
There was a lot of understandable hoopla about the announcement of the Cork Luas route, which finally saw daylight this week. The route has been a long time coming, and, as we all know in our heart of hearts, the Cork Luas, the thing you get on and off, will be an even longer time coming. In fact, a timeline was conspicuous by its absence.
That’s understandable but also unfortunate, given how, well… how to put this nicely? Spectacularly inept state bodies and local authorities have proved when it comes to infrastructure (the National Children’s Hospital, the Event Centre, all those Cork commuter train stations that have yet to be built, and the fact that state-built or state-backed housing construction was mostly non-existent for much of the last decade).
The cynicism, where it exists, is largely around the timeline. As Cllr Oliver Moran pointed out in an op-ed on T+D this week, the Lord Mayor is correct when he said that there needs to be a “commitment in relation to the funding that will be available. We need a timetable as to how that will happen. The indicative timetabling, as of now, to start in the middle of the next decade and to have this service up and running by 2040, is still too long.”
Northsiders were understandably upset that the route is nearly an entirely southside affair.
Public consultation about the new route is now open and you can, as they say, “meet the team” on the following dates:
Monday 28th April 2025 - 12 noon to 8pm
Kingsley Hotel Victoria Cross, Cork.Tuesday 29th April 2025 - 12 noon to 8pm
Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork.Tuesday 6th May 2025 - 12 noon to 8pm
Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street, Cork
Lots more information about the Cork Luas here. Also, if you have a suggestion for a name for the light rail system, drop us a line in the comments. We had a few gems via T+D’s Instagram such as Local Area Network Great Electric Rail (LANGER) and the Cork Urban Network Tram…
Lastly, fun fact via a comment on Cllr Moran’s piece this week on T+D: Cork used to have about 6 city centre train stations and an extensive commuter rail network about 100 years ago. I don't know how or why they managed to completely mess it up. No use crying over spilled milk I suppose.
Up in flames: Seven units of the city’s fire brigade were called out to a major fire in the Good Shepherd Convent site in Sunday’s Well on Wednesday night. The former Magdalene Laundry site has been on the City Council’s derelict sites register since 2019.
According to The Irish Times, Moneda Developments Ltd bought the site in 2016 for €1.5 million—a massive decrease on the €20 million price tag when Frinilla purchased it in the early 2010s. Before that, developer Pat Hegarty owned it, and prior to that, it was the property of UCC.
Moneda Developments has a registered address in Dublin, with all four of its directors living in Northern Ireland and the UK. In 2017, Moneda was granted planning permission to build 182 apartments.
Tenant-in-situ: Homelessness is almost certainly an inevitability for some families and individuals in Cork, as the City Council is one of a number of local authorities that will cease its tenant-in-situ programme due to a lack of central funding. The scheme allows local authorities to step in and buy a rental property where the landlord is selling up, allowing the tenants to remain in place and continue renting.
"The funding allocation received by Cork City Council is inadequate to fulfil its existing commitments and the projected programme for 2025," said Alison O'Rourke, the City Council's director of services in housing, according to The Irish Examiner.
Cork World Book Fest 2025 kicks off next Tuesday, 22 April, and runs through to Sunday, 27 April. As usual, there’s a great lineup of local writers and those from further afield who’ll be dropping by the City Library, the Triskel, the River Lee Hotel and other venues to talk all things books and publishing, and read from their work.
Folk Musician of the Year John Spillane will be in conversation with James Furey at the City Library about Fíoruisce on Friday, 25 April, while the same day, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Grace Neville will be discussing Irish food history with The Irish Examiner’s food writer Joe McNamee at the Farmgate. On the final day of the Lit Fest, Tom Spalding will be hosting a walking tour centred on his recently published Designed for Life: Architecture and Design in Cork City 1900–1990. Full details and programme here.
Headline of the week: ‘You Kent stop progress’ via the Cork Independent on the unveiling of the new platform at..Kent Station.
The view west: The City Council installed the first of two pedestrian bridges to link the quays to the former Beamish & Crawford brewery site this week. As one wag noted, a bridge to what exactly? A building site.
Exactly.
Visitor of the week: a harbour porpoise spotted in the north channel of the Lee on Wednesday.
Out + about
🎸Local five-piece I Dreamed I Dream are releasing their second EP, Boyopoisoning, at Dali this Easter Sunday. Supported by ‘noisegaze’ band Therapy Horse, this is a chance to go see some of the city’s best original music. Tickets and information available here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Sunday April 20, Dali, Lavitt’s Quay, Cork.
🎶Canned Pineapple are a Cork band based in Brighton, and having recently released their ‘Big Break’ EP, they’re currently touring the UK and Ireland. They play two gigs in the Kino today, an early all ages gig at 2:30, and a later gig at 8pm. Tickets for the all ages gig here and the later gig here.
Time, date, place: 2:30pm & 8pm, Friday April 18, Kino, Washington Street, Cork.
🎭Making History is a Brian Friel play about Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, around the time of the Battle of Kinsale. It is being performed at The Everyman until next week, directed by the theatre’s new Artistic Director, Des Kennedy, in his inaugural season. Tickets are available here, you can see Pádraig’s review here.
Time, date, place: Friday April 11 - Saturday April 26, The Everyman, MacCurtain Street, Cork.
🎻There will be tunes blaring across Sliabh Luachra’s pubs for the Maurice O’Keeffe Festival. The Why Not and Harp and Shamrock in Kiskeam, and Johnny B’s in Ballydesmond will be hosting trad sessions in the evening and the night. Full programme here, a great time is to be had in Sliabh Luachra this weekend.
Time, date, place: Friday April 18 - Sunday April 20, Ballydesmond and Kiskeam.
🎤Five local songwriters take to the stage at The Roundy on Easter Monday for the the third Roundy Night of Singer Songwriters. Performers include Julia-Maria, Peter O'Sullivan, Fiona O'Connell, Sean Anthony, and Aaron O'Sullivan. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 7:30pm, Monday April 21, The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork.
🎶Clare and Rusangano Family’s God Knows is in Cork this Easter, performing at Connolly’s this weekend. His latest single, The Art of Alienation explores identity and belonging, particularly through his experience as a first-generation immigrant in Shannon, and is inspired by Outkast’s Da Art of Storytelling. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Sunday April 20, Connolly’s of Leap.
🎸Zoe Basha is touring Ireland, and plays several gigs across the county over the next few days. She’s in the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh tonight, before heading over the Kerry and returning to the Rebel County for a gig in Ballydehob, followed by a gig in Prim’s Bookshop, Kinsale. You have a few chances, get on it! Tickets here.
Time, date, place: 7:45pm, Friday April 18, Sirius Arts Centre, Westbourne Place, Cobh; 8pm, Sunday, April 20, Levis' Corner House, Ballydehob; 7:15pm, Monday, April 21, Prim’s Bookshop, Kinsale.
🎶After several successful nights in Dali, Funksmack present visionary DJ, broadcaster, and music curator Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy at an intimate night at Connolly's of Leap on Good Friday, with Funksmack & Lump Hammer Disco playing support. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Friday April 18, Connolly’s of Leap.
This week on T+D:
Cllr Oliver Moran was the launch of the preferred Luas route.
Cork has a Luas plan; now comes the hard part
Great ideas have many fathers. And so great announcements have many elected representatives laying claim.
Pádraig O'Connor was at the theatre:
Making History review: Game of Thrones without the gratuitous sex. And dragons.
Trying to appear on the right side of history is a performative act, which in the past, used to at least allow for the slow passage of time.
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 long weekend.