🌥️The Friday View 23/08
Election leaflets are arriving in your letterbox whether you want them or not, we've had a change of heart about the (non) Event Centre, and there’s a dog show on North Main Street this weekend.
Electioneering: While we don’t have a date for the next general election (it’s going to be this side of Christmas), we definitely know it will be a different lineup of TDs from Cork South Central entering the next Dáil.
That’s because former Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney (Fine Gael) is bowing out of politics, and Michael McGrath (Fianna Fáil) is off to take up a post in Europe, leaving two seats vacant on the Southside of the city. One would imagine that the other incumbents would be re-elected, so the fight is on for the two remaining seats.
So far, newly elected councillors Pádraig Rice (Social Democrats), Laura Harmon (Labour), and Fianna Fáil county councillor Seamus McGrath (FF and brother of Michael) have all announced they are running in the general election. Likewise, former City Cllr Mick Finn (Independent) and Shane O’Callaghan (Fine Gael) have both announced they are throwing their hats in the ring. O’Callaghan will be joined by Cork County Cllr Úna McCarthy on the ticket. That’s definitely a blow to Senator Jerry Buttimer (FG), but it’s likely the party didn’t want to run an all-boys lineup in 2024. Remarkably, Cork City and County elected only one female TD in 2019. Will that change in 2024 or 2025?
Cllr O’Callaghan has wasted no time getting his message out in the form of fliers through the door, and one thing that’s not changing is the FG stance of being tough on crime. As a barrister, he announces he has “firsthand experience of the flaws in our criminal justice system,” and one of his fixes is for “much longer sentences for offenders, particularly for violent and repeat offenders.” Missing from that bit of campaigning is the fact that prisons in Ireland are over capacity, and that in 2022 there was a 12 percent increase in the number of people sent to prison.
Likewise, O’Callaghan doesn’t mention the words "homes" or "housing" in his flier. Could that be because of his party’s dismal record on the above?
Elsewhere, Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran will be standing in Cork North Central, while in the South, Dr. Monica Oikeh has been selected for Cork South Central.
Expect more fliers, more promises, but to alter a trusty maxim: voter beware!
Change of heart: There’s no getting away from the fact (and the noise) that a considerable part of the city is a series of building sites. Pity the poor punters outside the Oval, sipping pints at their tables in the plein air next to, or in the middle of, the redevelopment of Tuckey Street and Bishop Lucey Park. But we hope it will all be worth it.
The Event Centre, if it gets the green light, would be right across the road from the Oval (in the Grand Parade Quarter or the Brewery Quarter), so punters could expect a three-year building site. We’re still in the dark about whether the government is going to kick in with an additional €30m. A decision, which Michael McGrath said was coming “very soon” back at the start of the summer, is now not expected until the autumn. It’s like a bad soap opera, except nothing happens in this version.
But something does need to happen. IN 2024 EIGHT YEARS AFTER THE MOST FAMOUS SOD IN CORK WAS THOWN IN THE AIR. We’ve argued before that the South Main Street location is not the right place for the Event Centre, mainly due to access reasons. However, the inner city on the Southside desperately needs that Event Centre. Not only would thousands of concertgoers bring much-needed business to the bars, pubs, cafes, and restaurants in the area (and to those that would be built subsequently), but they would also ensure that the city center remains relevant, especially at night.
It would also mean that all those businesses (hello BAM) sitting pretty on dust holes would either offload sites or get busy building. While there are definitely sites outside the city center that would be more easily accessible, it would be one more reason not to go into town.
Build it already, and put in place dedicated park-and-ride bus service to support it.
ESB to LDA: This week it was announced that the ESB had signed deal to transfer a 2.7 hectare greenfield site, next to the Wilton Shopping Centre, to the Land Development Agency “with the potential to build 350 homes”. Good.
The press release omitted a key detail reported by The Irish Examiner: “the land was valued at €500,000, but the deal included some €2.6m in compensation to the ESB for the inconvenience of selling the land.” May they never be so inconvenienced again.
Money aside, subject to planning approval, construction could start in early 2026, with the first homes being delivered in late 2028.
Go North: It’s Carnival time on North Main Street this coming Saturday, August 23. The street will be open to fun and pedestrians and closes to traffic. The Roaring Forties all be providing the music, while there will be ping pong tables an dither games on the street. Also, if you’re in town with your dog and your dog is feeling showy, there’s the North Main Street Carnival Dog Show. Comedian and actor Jon Kenny will also be on the street at St. Peters performing his show “In Words, Lies and Songs” tonight, August 22. Tickets here.
An empty space: The Crawford Art Gallery announced its closure date this week: September 22. The process of moving artwork is already well underway. This week, it was the turn of Obelisk of Bronze by Michael Warren, the Crawford’s largest sculpture in the front garden that many people didn’t even realise was there until it was moved out early one morning this week. That’s a challenge for all galleries—how to give prominence to all the artwork. It’s a big task for the National Gallery to figure out or reconfigure how they’ll put everything back together in their new, shiny gallery. But they have nearly three years to do it, starting this September.
Sláinte: Congrats are in order to The Mutton Lane, Paladar, Costigans and The Shelbourne who all came away with trophies at the Irish Bar of the Year Awards 2024 held this week in Dublin. Paladar took home top honours while Mutton Lane was voted best city bar, Costigans best traditional bar and The Shelbourne took bronze in the nest whiskey bar category. There was no winner for biggest awning outside a pub. Full list of winners here.
Out + About
A Listen Back to False Lankum and a conversation with music producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy are taking place at the Rory Gallagher Music Library at the City Library next Wednesday. Murphy produced that album, as well as many others, and is also a member of the folk group ØXN. Lankum have been described as a ‘genre defining group’, who draw on traditional folk songs, with their own dark, distinctive mark with heavy drones and sonic distortion. Tickets can be reserved here.
Time, date, place: 11:30am, Wednesday August 28, Rory Gallagher Music Library, Cork City Library, Grand Parade.
PRISMA is a queer film festival in The Roundy, curated by Out of Frame and Benjamin Rupprecht. Taking place on Sunday, it focuses on the LGBTQ+ community’s representation in film, the power of film as a tool for activism, and the important roles that queer individuals play within the industry. Running between 12pm and 11:30pm, it includes the talk ‘Enough Queer Trauma!’, with Jonathan Hughes, A screening of queer-themed short films, a Networking event, an Out of Frame Monthly Film Talk, and an Afterparty. See the schedule here.
Time, date, place: 12pm-11:30pm, Sunday August 25, The Roundy, Castle Street.
Memorial are a Brighton-based indie-folk duo consisting of Oliver Spalding and Jack Watts. No strangers to Cork, they played Sounds From A Safe Harbour back in 2023, and return to play a gig in Levis’ this Sunday. They recently released a new LP, ‘Redsetter’, which has influences in Brighton and Texas. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 7:30pm, Sunday August 25, Levis’ Corner House, Ballydehob.
Masters of Tradition is currently underway in Bantry, running until Sunday. Much of the weekend action is sold out, but you can catch an exhibition of paintings by Tim Goulding titled ‘The Music Room’ in the Marino Church, while tonight’s concerts still have tickets going. The early concert features fiddle player Toner Quinn, sean-nós singers Caoimhe and Séamus Uí Fhlatharta, accordion player Danny O’Mahony, and concertina player Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh. The late concert features pipers José Manuel Tejedor, Brìghde Chaimbeul, and Pádraic Keane. More information and tickets are here.
Time, date, place: Wednesday August 21-Sunday August 25, Bantry.
Pitch’d Circus Festival makes its return this weekend, running until the end of the month. This year’s festival is based around looking to the future. Saturday night sees a Festival Gala in The Everyman, hosted by Laura O'Mahony and featuring performers Giulia Pasquale, Síolta, Sadbh Grehan, Circus 250, and Symmetry Circus. Wednesday sees a film night at The Pavilion, in collaboration with Indie Cork and Ken Fanning. All information is available here.
Time, date, place: Friday August 23-Sunday September 1, Cork.
The filmmaker Silvio Severino is starting a crowdfunding campaign to put together funds to make a short film about Gubu Man, a Dublin artist who was part of Dublin's surreal folklore and suffered from an unusual condition involving L.E.D. lights. A launch party for the crowdfunder takes pace on Saturday, August 24th at the Laneway Gallery on Shandon Street.
Time, date, place: 5pm, Saturday August 24th, Laneway Gallery, Shandon Street.
That’s it for this week’s Friday View.
Any tips, comments, 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.
This week on T+D: ICYMI, when the late, great Nell McCafferty lived on Evergreen Street.
