⛅️The Friday View 21/03
Bridges, boards, new homes, sods turned, important meetings scheduled and cancelled. Where would you get it? Right here in Cork. Plus, our round-up of what's on for the week ahead.
Good morning and welcome to the Friday View. Let’s get to it!
A new board: The City Council has scrambled together a new board in its bid to try and sort out the Event Centre saga. Last week, The Irish Examiner revealed that the 10-person board would include a mix of local and national bigwigs and small wigs.
Included in the new board, which has already met once, are Conor Healy, chief executive of Cork Chamber; Aaron Mansworth of the Cork Business Association; Brian Geaney, chief executive of Cork City Council; Gary O’Doherty, principal officer at the Department of Local Government; assistant chief state solicitor Ciara Murphy; Fiach Mac Conghail, chief executive officer of The Digital Hub and a former director of the Abbey Theatre; and Dr Jean van Sinderen Law from UCC.
Essentially, the board’s job is to sort out the procurement (mess) process, following a government decision last year to restart the procurement process based on legal advice. The terms of reference for the new board have not been published, and the board will spend the next 12 to 18 months overseeing the procurement process.
It’s all a bit embarrassing when you consider that the former Chief Executive of Cork City Council foresaw arses on seats in the Event Centre by 2026, and yet here we are with a new board nine years after the sod was turned on the site. Will we even see building begin before the end of next year? Will they manage to satisfy the third tenet of the new Chief Executive’s mantra: Keep it Simple, Decide, Deliver? Exciting times. Nine years of them.
A new bridge:A new pedestrian and cycle bridge connecting the Event Centre site to French’s Quay and Crosses Green was installed on the site of the former Beamish & Crawford brewery this week. The bridge, which looks wide enough to accommodate vehicular traffic, will serve as the entrance/exit point from French’s Quay near St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral.
One thing that’s puzzled some is how a 6,000-seater Event Centre would accommodate 20 trucks for a set-up. That’s likely at the upper limit, but even 10 big rigs? South Main Street, Sullivan’s Quay, and French’s Quay - none of them are getting any wider. Maybe the new board (see above) knows more. Certainly, the width of the new bridge could accommodate trucks, but it will be accessed via steps on one side and tight corners on the other. Maybe we’ll see a much smaller capacity venue, or perhaps regular closures of South Main Street.
Nearby, South Main Street has also reopened to traffic. Its closure highlighted the lack of north-south arteries in the city, with Merchant’s Quay being choked for the past few months. The 214 and 216 buses, which pass down the street, were rerouted while the street was closed.
Meanwhile, works in other areas are progressing steadily. Keyser’s Hill is being refurbished, connecting the public realm works with Barrack Street, and work on Tuckey Street and South Main Street is nearing completion. The tower in Bishop Lucey Park also looks nearly done, but works are yet to start on French’s Quay, Proby’s Quay, and Hanover Place. The project is aimed to be completed by the end of the year.
Cancelled: On Wednesday evening, the City Council released a short update stating that the Lord Mayor was planning a “special meeting of the Council to consider issues relating to Uisce Éireann and water quality in the city” for Thursday afternoon in the Council chambers.
As has been well documented, there are major problems with water quality and discolouration in certain parts of the city. Another major issue is establishing water connections to new housing developments and expediting that process, as well as addressing issues around the transfer of water services from Cork City Council to Uisce Éireann.
Later that evening, the City Council issued another update: the Thursday meeting was off. While no official reason was given for the cancellation, meetings have been ongoing in the background between councillors and City Council officials. That special meeting could still happen by the end of the month, but the ongoing question is whether Uisce Éireann will show up.
A paint job: Businesses and residents of North Main Street can apply for a City Council-backed painting grant. Successful applicants can get up to 50% of the costs of improvement works, up to the value of €1,500 per building or €2,500 for corner buildings. The closing date is April 25, and application details are available on the City Council’s website here.
Mark your calendar: Cork Lifelong Learning Festival returns next month, with over 420 free events to be staged across the city between April 2 and April 9. Last year, Tripe + Drisheen took over the lovely Callanan’s for an hour during the festival for a talk on trees. The full programme will be announced today, March 21, so make sure to stop by the website. There’ll also be programmes available in city libraries and civic buildings.
Homes: The Lord Mayor & Co. turned the sod on 43 new apartments at Model Farm Road this week, while 30 one- and two-bedroom apartments were officially opened on Church Road in Blackrock on the southside of the city. Close by, there was more sod-turning at the new 90-home development in Bessboro, Mahon. Clancy Project Management Limited will oversee the construction of 28 one-bedroom apartments, 56 two-bedroom apartments, and six three-bedroom, two-storey houses.
This all comes as house prices are going only one way: up. The latest figures show that residential property prices in Ireland increased by 8.1% year-on-year in January 2025, and the median price of a dwelling purchased in the 12 months to January 2025 was €359,999.
Elsewhere, the Glenmore Heights Affordable Housing Scheme in Lehenaghmore on the southside will finally start accepting applications at the end of this month. The development is made up of 45 homes, comprising fourteen 3-bedroom semi-detached houses, twenty-one 3-bedroom townhouses, and ten 2-bedroom townhouses
Call out: Antiques shop Salvagem at the bottom (or top?) of MacCurtain Street is inviting crafters and makers to showcase their wares in store over the next few weeks. The list is wide: textile, ceramics, glassware, art and scultpure. You can drop Michael a line at salvagemcork@gmail.com with your name, contacts details and a brief description of what you make.
Back open: Lidl has reopened on Cornmarket Street following a temporary closure for renovations. Notorious for queues at busy times, along with the competing Tesco in the ‘Fifth Quarter’ (a new name for Paul Street Shopping Centre that nobody wanted), Lidl has added more self service tills.
Out + About
The latest issue of Bloomers, ‘Bless the Corners of this House’, will be launched in Plugd this coming Saturday. In the newest issue of the Arts Council-funded magazine, artists, writers, and activists explore the meaning of home and the spaces we occupy. Some of that line-up will be in Plugd for readings (from 6-7pm) followed by wine and tunes afterwards. You can pre-order the latest issue here. Free to attend. All welcome.
Time, date, place: 6-9pm, Saturday March 22, Plugd, Cornmarket Street, Cork
The Gab are back on familiar ground this coming Tuesday, when the storytellers will convene in Callanan’s, and it won’t be for the Guinness, because there’s none on tap. Instead, they’re there for the “Mixtape,” in which the storytellers try out new scéals and hone their craft. There might also be some song and poetry. However, it’s not an open mic, as the organisers have a pre-planned set list.
Time, date, place: 8:30pm, Tuesday March 23, Callanans, George’s Quay, Cork.
HeArt of Gaza is an exhibition featuring children’s art from Gaza. Taking place at the Firkin Crane, the project grew out of a WhatsApp exchange of images of children’s drawings and paintings between Gazan Mohammed Timraz and Sligo woman Féile Butler, and features raw depictions of life in Gaza from artists as young as three. More information here.
Time, date, place: Thursday March 6-Saturday April 19, The Firkin Crane, John Redmond Street, Cork.
Artist Bill Griffin has an exhibition ongoing at St. Peter’s, running until Sunday. Based in Beara, Griffin had a varied life, working in the Ford factory in the Marina before moving to London to pursue art, and then going to work on oil rigs. He returned to art later in life, and 33 of his works are currently exhibiting at St. Peter’s. The exhibition ends Sunday, so not long left to have a nose!
Time, date, place: Tuesday March 11-Tuesday March 25, St. Peter’s, North Main Street, Cork.
Sarah Jayne Booth and Alison O’Shea’s exhibition, City of Ladies reimagines Christine de Pizan’s allegorical city, in a trembling, distorted way, in which spatial and ideological architectures of containment discipline the female body. Booth is a multimedia artist who examines gendered structures of control, while O’Shea isolates female features to symbolise a fragile connection between “being” and “belonging”. The exhibition takes place at the Laneway Gallery until April 19.
Time, date, place: Friday March 14-Saturday April 19, Laneway Gallery, Shandon Street, Cork.
The Cork Podcast Festival is currently ongoing and although Birdsong & Irish Rewilding show with Seán Ronayne and Eoghan Daltún is sold out, there are still tickets going for Ronayne’s ‘Nature Boy’ show in the Opera House on Wednesday. The Creep Dive will also be in St. Luke’s tomorrow night. Tickets for Ronayne here, the workshop here, and the Creep Dive here.
Time, date, place: 7:30pm, Saturday March 22, Live at St. Luke’s, Summerhill North, Cork; 8pm, Wednesday March 26, Cork Opera House, Emmett Place, 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.
From the archive:
The dressmaker of Blackpool
When I stepped into Pam Moretti’s new dressmaking shop on Watercourse Road in Blackpool last week, Pam was hunched over a small table and busy altering a very official looking jacket.