🪴The Friday View 21/04
Three cheers for community gardeners, Cork World Book Fest finishes up this weekend, EirGrid opens an outpost in the city today and we have another entry from our Bridges of Cork photo competition.
Good morning and welcome to the Friday View on Tripe + Drisheen.
In praise of community gardens and allotments
This week on Wednesday, I was in Togher in a corner of Clashduv Park, where the local community as well as students from two nearby primary schools gathered around the polytunnel for the launch of “From the Garden” Togher Community Garden’s first-ever cookbook. You can read the full story here, if you haven’t already. It was a lovely occasion and a celebration of a communal effort.
It’s hard to believe that the community garden in Togher is only a year in the making. It feels like it’s been an anchor in the community for much longer, especially given how much they have built, grown and created in the space of 12 months. As well as the 18 raised beds, the polytunnel and planting a native hedgerow, the volunteers there recently dug a pond by hand. That addition hasn’t gone unnoticed; Denise Cahill from Cork Healthy Cities told me that she was at the garden recently when a duck flew over and landed in the pond. It is only down the road from The Lough, afterall.
It really is great though to see how communities across the city and county have rallied around community gardens and allotments. They’re hardly a novel idea, in fact it’s almost a back to the future move. But it’s likely a few factors have made people wake up and see the need for our collective need to understand where our food comes from, how we can grow it, and, not to get all KonMari, but the joy it can spark to see a seed grow into a plant or vegetable and make its way into a recipe book, as they did at Togher Community Garden.
There are currently 27 community gardens and allotments in Cork City, with two more on the way (Beaumount and Tower). I’ve asked Cork County Council for the number in the county, and will update if and when they get back to me.
There’s a powerful and knowledgeable network that operates between the gardens and gardeners. When I visited St Luke’s community garden last summer they told me they received lots of support from Knocknaheeny/Holyhill and the Glen community gardens during their setup.
What you also see with community gardens is how a space can be reimagined, and while that word is at risk of becoming a cliche as everything under the sun gets reimagined, it’s apt when you think that St Luke’s was a former quarry and then a dumping ground. Now, it’s a garden where toddlers crawl around and blackberry bushes grow as well as so much else.
Likewise with Togher. There’s nothing manicured or delicate about the garden. It’s alive and open. Locals of all ages come by to tend to plants and the soil, and to each other.
At Togher, last Wednesday for the book launch Mona El Kafsi, a volunteer gardener showed me a new seedbed of freshly planted amaranth that had been planted in the polytunnel. It’s far from amaranth I was reared, so Mona gave me a brief amaranth 101, and then someone else came along and added to the conversation and then a plate of amaranth biscuits appeared. All of this happened within a minute, a testament to how a small corner of Clashduv Park can bring people together, spark conversation, and cultivate a sense of community.
It takes imagination and courage to raise a community garden.
Bridges of Cork photo competition
News in brief:
A bridge rises: It’s been well signaled but the pedestrian and cycle bridge with no name (yet) has been installed overnight on the N40 (the Southlink). The road was closed while the bridge was erected, but was back open as we hit send on the Friday View. When operational later this year, it will provide access to Tramore Valley Park from Grange and Frankfield on the southside of the city.
The bridge will also connect Grange to Black Ash, which James Furey wrote about in the Friday View a few weeks back. It’s an area in the park (and former landfill site), that has a significant cultural association with the Traveller community, and James wrote about how the name Black Ash bridge would pay homage to that history. Besides, it’s also a fittingly poetic name. Cork City Council is inviting suggestions for the new bridge's name. If you have a suggestion, you can submit it here.
EirGrid in Cork: The Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, will be in Cork today to officially open a new office for EirGrid at Penrose Quay. According to the electricity grid operator, the new office represents a significant investment in their work in the south of Ireland, including the Celtic Interconnector sub-sea cable project that will link the electricity grids of Ireland and France. According to EirGrid, the new outpost will also support the development of offshore windfarms as Ireland looks to increase its renewable energy output. The new outpost comes as we’ll start seeing data centres come online in Cork over the coming months and years.
Two-way on Morgan Street: Cork City Council is seeking submissions on a proposal to turn a portion of Morgan Street into a two-way street. While it's less well-known than nearby Cook Street and Princes Street, Morgan Street connects the South Mall to Oliver Plunkett Street. The City Council is proposing to change a 70-metre section of the street to a two-way road “in the interests of road safety and convenience of all road users”.
However, as the street is narrow, fitting two cars side by side will be a challenge. Additionally, it's unclear whether the fact that there's a private car park on the street, combined with Oliver Plunkett Street's frequent closures to cars, played a role in the decision to only propose a short section of Morgan Street for two-way traffic. Further digging is needed?
Lights on: Contractors for the City Council began replacing some of the lighting on Coburg Street as part of ongoing infrastructure improvements in the area. At first glance, the new lights appear to fit in well with the surroundings. Interestingly, the “VQ” label has not (yet) caught on with the City Council and they are still referring to the area as MacCurtain Street. Long live MacCurtain Street.
Bird song: And, to finish up with some good news, the sand martin "hotel" which was recently built on the island in The Lough is to have its audio lure installed this morning. That's an essential piece of kit because without the audio track to alert the birds of the nesting site, it's unlikely they will find it. Visitors to The Lough, keep an eye out for the swallow-like bird in the skies above the lake.
Out + About
📚Cork World Book Fest, which kicked off earlier this week, finishes up on Sunday. There's lots to catch in the final few days, including a street book market tomorrow (Saturday) on Grand Parade outside the City Library between 10am and 4pm. There will also be a walking tour with three foreign-born poets, now resident in the city starting at 11 am, from the City Library on Saturday.
Additionally, inside the City Library, or outside in the Carnegie Courtyard off Tuckey Street, there'll be an afternoon of spoken word and music from 12pm to 2pm. Up the street in the Triskel, internationally acclaimed novelist Joseph O'Connor will be holding court with novelist Mary Morrissy from 3pm. Find full details of all events here.
Time, date, place: Until April 23 at the City Library and Triskel Christchurch.
🐝Togher Community Garden has a "Bio Blitz" lined up for this coming Saturday at the garden in Clashduv Park. The day-long blitz will feature an insect safari, a dawn chorus walk, nature drawing throughout the day with artist Luna Fox, and a talk with biologist and broadcaster Éanna Ní Lamhna. It's free and a great way to get familiar with the community garden and the volunteers out there. More details here.
Time, date, place: 8am to 2pm, Saturday April 22, Clashduv Park, Togher.
🌍To mark Earth Day 2023, which falls on April 22, The Metropole Hotel will be holding a neighbourhood cleanup from 10am to 12pm. The starting point is Harley Street, next to the hotel, with tea, coffee, and sandwiches after. All welcome.
Time, date, place: 10am to 12pm, Saturday, April 22, Harley Street, just off MacCurtain Street
🌸All this weekend, starting today, Ballyphehane Tidy Towns will be holding their Cherry Blossom Festival and not a moment too soon, as it's likely the last weekend before the petals float off their moorings. On Saturday, April 22, they'll be holding a tile-making workshop with the City Council's Parks & Rec team as well as the City Arts Officer. The tiles will form part of a new installation for Pearse Square. It's free to attend, and you can find booking information here.
Time, date, place: April 21-23, Pearse Road, Ballyphehane
🖼Artist and curator Dermot Browne's exhibition "The Beauty of Everyday Things" has been extended and continues at The Musgrave Theatre in Firkin Crane-Dance Cork until the end of the month. Soetsu Yanagi's (1889-1961) collection of essays on Japanese Folk Craft of the same title serves as the frame for what is an exhibition of Browne's exploration of form and formlessness, color, and light. More information is available here.
Time, date, place: Monday-Saturday, until April 29, Crane Visual, Firkin Crane-Dance Cork, Shandon.
This week on T+D:
On Monday, JJ’s long read was bird-related, this time from Ballyvourney where the county’s first swift nest boxes have been installed in a new building at Scoil Abán Naofa gaelscoil. The swift is a fascinating bird, capable of flying the distance to the moon and back three times over the course of its life. You can read the full story here.
On Wednesday, we were at Clashduv Park for the launch of Togher Community Garden’s new cookbook “From the Garden.” You can download a copy of the cookbook here, and read our news story from the launch here.
On Thursday, we had a short news report on industrial action by Cork city firefighters who picketed outside HQ on Anglesea Street over the continued closure of Ballincollig fire station. Firefighters want the station, which has been closed since 2021, to open immediately. The full story is here.
Also, this week the findings of Project Oasis, a pan-European media project, were released. The project looked at the state of independent digital native media outlets across Europe. We were interviewed alongside publications such as The Dublin Inquirer, and you can read comments from T+D ed Ellie O’Byrne and Sam Tranum of The Dublin Inquirer in that report here.
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 our About page here. 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.
Congratulations, Sarah, on your beautiful Bridge Picture!