The Friday View 19/05
R&H Hall reaches its conclusion as the price of a pint goes up. Plugd has a birthday party, we're building a voters' guide for the local elections and some links for last week's Trees Talk.
Welcome to the Friday View on T+D. Let’s get to it!
One of the big talking points of the week is that the price of a pint will be going up once again. First, it was news that the price of Guinness would be increasing which Diageo announced last month. It will also hike up the price of Guinness 0.0 by about 10c. In many pubs, this means Guinness will be €6. Unsurprisingly, Heineken followed suit.
The price of the pint has traditionally been a strong indicator of the rate of inflation. I’ve worked in bars for a few years, working my first bar job in 2019. At the time, Beamish was €3.70, which was on the cheaper end of the spectrum at the time. Now, in that same bar, it’s €5, which is the average price. Since 2022, I’ve been working part-time in a bar on the southside, where it was €4.70 when I started. It’s now €5.20.
Grand, says you, less people will drink! It costs too much to go out anyways, better off watching TV at home with a few bottles. And while it is cheaper to drink a bottle or can at home and watch the football/hurling/rugby there, unless you have some friends over, you’re all alone. You’d just be looking into your phone, texting “some goal” into a group chat.
The thing about the pub is that it is a community hub. Where I work, the same regulars come in most days, sit together and chat. Some have been drinking there for more than fifty years. On a Monday, they all play don, a card game. They watch the football, they watch the big rugby games. They feel at home. Down the street is another pub with a similar community. Further down, another. The same is replicated across the city and county. I documented some of this in features about the Constellation and the KLM for Tripe + Drisheen, and each group is unique to each pub. But every pub has a thousand stories to tell.
In Spain and Italy, the auld lads sit on the town square and sometimes drink coffee. In Ireland, they sit in the pub, but it’s at risk. Irish Times columnist Úna Mullally believes that they should be declared a cultural asset. Since 2005, 365 pubs have closed in County Cork, and 50% of all pub closures nationally were in Cork. Now, it is the biggest county, but still, it’s too many. This next increase by Diageo could cause further damage.
I’ve seen a few arguments online advocating people to switch to our beloved Cork stouts, Beamish and Murphys. It now appears, since the genius marketing idea that was Island’s Edge, that Heineken have been marketing Beamish as the primary competitor to Guinness. It’s about time, Beamish has been a trendy drink for years, and it can market itself. Their recent collaboration with Memeish Stout, an Instagram page that makes memes about the stout, was evidently a good idea, and there is small hype being created around it. Its availability is also increasing around the country, probably a few years too late, and now Beamish taps are even common around Belfast. If they had any more sense, which appears unlikely due to their pushing of Island’s Edge, they would keep the price of Beamish as is, nearly a whole euro cheaper than Guinness. But monkey see, monkey do, and this week Heineken followed suit and announced that they would also be raising their prices.
Unrelated to this price situation, both Guinness and Heineken are bidding to become the Premier League’s beer partner. Reportedly, the Guinness proposal is three times higher than Heineken’s, who have been invited back to bidding with a revised proposal. Maybe that’s where the pint increase money is going? Just to hear that Mo Salah has won the “Guinness Goal of the Month”?
-KMc
Government to introduce traffic light cameras: Minister for Transport Éamon Ryan announced on Monday that cameras detecting drivers who break red lights will be introduced across the country. They will, of course, be introduced in Dublin before a nationwide rollout.
There is an obvious and increasing brazenness amongst motorists and matched with level of red light running across the city. A video shared on the Cork subreddit last week showed seven cars break the red light at the top of North Main Street, while an updated video showed the sequencing of the lights and how short a green is there. Either way, breaking a red is illegal, and the government could bank a bit with the cameras.
Marina Quarter and Horgan’s Quay Start: The Irish Examiner reported on Thursday that the Marina Quarter, the apartment development earmarked for the former Live at the Marquee site, has begun construction. The site, located next to Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Marina Park, was recently undergoing decontamination. It is set to include 12 apartment blocks, with some up to 14 storeys in height. Meanwhile, the Horgan’s Quay apartment blocks site, which was due to begin back in January, has seen some increasing activity on site this week, with construction enthusiast CorkCraneCount sharing images of piling machines and diggers being installed onsite.
Paul Byrne sues Virgin Media: Virgin Media News’ Southern Correspondent, Paul Byrne, is taking Virgin Media to the High Court, over internal disciplinary proceedings leading to his suspension from the broadcaster. He claims that the broadcaster suspended him due to allegedly breaching the broadcasters News Guidelines and Production Handbook, because he had allegedly failed to speak to his line manager regarding the broadcast of information which turned out to be inaccurate. The information was in relation to a line of inquiry being followed by the Gardaí around the murder of a young boy in County Waterford in February, and was reported by other media outlets.
R&H Hall Demolished: The R&H Hall grain silo, which towered over the docklands for nearly eighty years, is no more. An image of the Cork subreddit shows the view on the site from one of the office blocks, an empty skyline where the silo once stood. The countdown begins for the new development.
Biodiversity Discussion to take place on Grand Parade: The Dáil will tomorrow have a discussion about a motion regarding the Citizen’s Assembly report on biodiversity loss. There will be a demonstration related to this outside Leinster House, while in Cork, Maggie O’Shea and Creativity and Change will host a discussion on the crucial topic that is ‘the rights of nature’ on Saturday. “We’re creating a space that will provide some education and just facilitate discussion around ecology and the potential implementation of laws surrounding the rights of nature,” O’Shea told Tripe + Drisheen, “It’ll be for all ages and interactive, and it can be as specific or general as people want to chat about.” The discussion runs between 2-4pm.
Local election voters’ guide 2024: Ahead of the local elections in Cork city on June 7, Tripe + Drisheen is building a voters’ guide to give the electorate in Cork a comprehensive overview of the main issues that are affecting the lives of people in Cork. The information will be collated in one place and available to view for all (i.e. not behind a paywall). We believe that a freely accessible all-in-one voters’ guide such as the one we are building will help the electorate exercise their democratic decision. We’ve contacted many of the candidates already and will be contacting the rest very soon. You can access the document here. We might ask your help in reminding your local candidates to fill it in due course.
Out + About
An Choill Bheag is an important feature of Test Site, creating a small wood with in an urban environment. On Saturday, from 11am-1pm and 3pm-5pm, they will be hosting Meitheals where they prepare the trees for a transition from a Coll Beag (small wood) to Coll Mór (big wood). Some of the saplings from last week’s Talk About Trees, hosted by Tripe + Drisheen, will be planted in the wood!
Time, date, place: 11am-1pm, 3pm-5pm, Test Site, Kyrl’s Quay, Cork.
Local coffee shop and DIY space Plugd celebrates their birthday this weekend. The big celebrations begin at 9am, they will be hosting local DJs, giving away free drinks, and will have a special record release instore. At 6pm, David Murphy will play Cuimhne Ghlinn: Explorations in Irish Music for Pedal Steel Guitar, joined by Niamh Dalton and Ultan Lavery. Get down and celebrate one of the city’s coolest and most important artistic spaces!
Time, date, place: 9am, Saturday April 20, Plugd, Cornmarket Street, Cork.
St Joseph’s Cemetery is located in Ballyphehane, and has an interesting history as the city’s former Botanic Gardens. Home to graves of famed local shawlie Katty Barry, the teetotal Fr. Theobald Mathew, and famed whiskey salesman Paddy O’Flaherty (who Paddy whiskey is named for), local historian Liam Ó hUigín will lead a night time Graveyard Tour through the cemetery tonight, between 7pm and 9pm.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Friday April 19, St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane.
The Dancing Grass is Sample-Studios’ next exhibition at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, a solo exhibition of Gerry Davis’ work. Davis is an artist from Cahir, County Tipperary, who experiments with AI-generated imagery in the painting process. The exhibition opens on Thursday April 25, with an artist talk, and runs until June.
Time, date, place: April 18-June 9, Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald Park, Cork.
This weekend, the Triskel will be hosting Ireland’s first Baltic Film Festival. No, no, it doesn’t mean they’ll be screening films with the heating turned off. They are celebrating twenty years since Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have joined the EU. There will be three screenings as part of the festival. Living Images, a 2013 Estonian film, will screen at 7pm on Friday April 19. Kisses, Juozas is a 2023 about the life of a high-ranking Lithuanian officer who, during WWII, joined the partisan movement, and screens at 5pm on Saturday. The final screening, Soviet Milk, is a Latvian and Belgian female-led drama about women versus destructive power, and screens at 7pm on Saturday.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Friday April 19, 5pm & 7pm, Saturday April 20, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork.
Pier is a Sardinian musician based in Dublin, who blends 90’s alt rock & Sardinian folk influences to create his own unique sound. He joins Abbacaxi, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer from Ireland and Sierra Leone who crafts songs strongly rooted in House music, at Connolly’s of Leap. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Saturday April 20, Connolly’s of Leap, Leap.
There’s a packed schedule of events taking place this Saturday in the Imperial to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Hidden Ireland" by Daniel Corkery. Daniel Corkery: The Hidden Ireland – A Hundred Years On will feature a mix of lectures as well as some songs and music about the Cork-born writer, politician and academic. More information here.
Time, date, place: 9:30am - 3:30pm, Saturday April 20, The Imperial Hotel, South Mall
Cobh-based threatre group Haulbowline Theatre Group (HTG) has been on the go since 1963 with its origins in the Irish Naval Service. This weekend, at SIRIUS arts centre in Cobh, they present When no-one else can understand me, a series of four plays repeated over two nights. This includes a plays about Elvis impersonators and a traditional Irish play both by David Scally, a look at women swimmers by Joanne McCall, and a play about the day after of a night out by Glenn Kavanagh. More info here.
Time, date, place: doors from 7:45pm, April 19 and 20, SIRIUS Arts Centre, Cobh
And finally, a very big thank you to all who came out to our Trees Talk last Friday night in Callanan’s for Cork Lifelong Learning Fest. It was a great event and a special thanks to speakers Eoin O’Callaghan and John Baker, host Rob from Callanan’s and Maria Younge from Green Spaces for Health for her support as well as Test Site for the saplings we gave away.
A few links here from Eoin O’Callaghan for those looking to lean more about the history of woodlands in Ireland, collecting seeds and much else
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.