The Friday View 23/09
Culture, culture, everywhere - it must be culture night! It is. Get your culture fix here.
ONE VENUE where there won’t be any culture this evening is the Events Centre in the centre of Cork city because there is no Events Centre. Yet. In its place here’s a brief history of the (non) Events Centre:
The 6,000 capacity multi-purpose venue is expected to be completed in 2018 and at peak construction will employ around 400 people. On completion it is expected to support over 1,000 direct and indirect jobs for the Munster region.
BAM Ireland in a press release from February 12, 2016. BAM bought the former Beamish & Crawford site from Heineken.
“Everyone is very brassed off in terms of what’s happened here, because before 2016 the sod was dug by Enda Kenny, Simon Coveney and everyone else, and everyone thought the construction would start in six months, and it never did.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin canvassing in Cork, February 2020.
"Nothing has changed in the context of the case for the events centre. It is important now as it ever was in terms of its contribution to the economy for the city, hospitality, the hotel business, to everything that functions in the city.”
Ann Doherty, Chief Executive of Cork City Council, speaking at a Cork Chamber Business Breakfast in November 2020.
“I’m obviously very associated with the event centre. I’m very confident that this will still happen. I know people have become sceptical because it has gone on so long, but the €50 million (in public money) that the Government has committed to this project is very much intact.”
Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs, speaking at the launch of the 32nd Cork French Film Festival and his obvious association.
“It’s been a long process, it’s been a very complicated process but we’re about to start on the design of the centre and after that construction can begin.”
Mike Adamson, CEO Live Nation, November 2021. The Events Centre will be run by Cork City Council, BAM and Live Nation.
"Once completed, the Cork Events Centre and Grand Parade Quarter will be a public space that the entire city and country can be proud of.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin welcomes progress on Cork Events Centre. From a press release issued via the Department of the Taoiseach. February 8, 2022.
The last word goes to Twitter:
-JJ
Car day: There was no “no car day” (officially it’s called World Car Free day) events or activities organised this year by Cork City Council to mark the symbolic occasion on September 22 when cars take a back seat. Instead, it was business, or traffic, as normal. T+D asked the City Council why nothing was planned this year and were told that the Council “is working with An Garda Siochána, community groups, Cork Chamber and Cork Business Association and other key stakeholders on how to best deliver an Open Streets Day for 2023, as this involves preparations and decision making that extend beyond the remit of the local authority.”
Cyclist and active travel advocate Tom Hennessy lamented the fact that nothing was planned in Cork at an official level as “Car Free Day was a fantastic opportunity for Cork City Council to demonstrate their commitment to a more sustainable Cork City.”
Tom, one of the organisers of the first cycle buses in Ballincollig which went ahead earlier this year, told T+D that Cork is still a city “very much dominated by cars and that committing to initiatives such as car free day would have demonstrated the kind of leadership required if we are to meet our various emission reduction targets and do our bit as a city to protect the environment for future generations.”
The City Council and supporting groups have a year to prepare until Car Free Day in 2023.
Budget watch:
The Budget will be published next week and ahead of that Cork Chamber published their Budget Submission. There’s much in there on housing, transport, employment and, as you would expect, measures to support business. There’s also support for local authorities such as with this opaque paragraph:
“Provide financial stability to the funding model for local authorities which play a crucial role in the planning of infrastructure projects. Increase funding to scale up the resources and skills in planning departments at local and national levels so that better planning decisions can be made at earlier stages which can survive scrutiny in the courts.”
That full report can be found here.
Photo of the week
Out + About
Douglas Street, that narrow lengthy spine that connects Capwell to Evergreen on the Southside of the city, goes car free this Sunday as the Douglas Street Autumn Fest returns with a bang and a wallop. The street is home to a wide range of businesses, shops, cafes, studios, pubs, a flower shop, the Nano Nagle Centre, the original parklet and not least of all the many, many residents who make up the community there and the neighbourhood around it.
In place of cars, there’ll be street performances from Pitch’d, a guided walking tour, face painting, pizza making, music from Ukelele Shandon and so much more. Events are free and for all the family.
Time, date, place: 12pm- 6pm, Douglas Street.
🎹Coughlan’s at 10: Sticking with Douglas Street, Coughlan’s, down at the Capwell end of the street, is celebrating 10 years as a live music venue with a stellar line-up. While some of those gigs (Gemma Hayes, Interference, Villagers acoustic set) are sold out, there are still tickets as well as free gigs for their week-long celebration which kicked off last night and also takes place in The Everyman. Here’s to 10 more years of music on Douglas Street. Full line-up here.
Time, date, place: Daily from September 22 - 26, Coughlan’s, Douglas Street.
🎉The Cork Deaf Association is holding a family fun day in Carrigtwohill Community Centre this Saturday. Attendees can expect an ice cream and coffee truck, face painting, art projects, ball games and much more. In attendance will be sports stars Rebekah Grant from the Irish Deaf Woman’s Futbal team, All Star Valerie Mulcahy and senior hurler Alan Cadogan for what promises to be a fun day. The event is free but people are asked to register their attendance through Eventbrite. Details can be found on their Facebook page here.
Time, date, place: 2.30pm - 5pm, September 24, Carrigtwohill Community Centre
Around the World of Food in Macroom
🧀Macroom’s town square will be a busy marketplace this Sunday as part of Macroom Food Festival: the town’s hinterland is home to some of Ireland’s best loved producers including Macroom Buffalo Mozzarella, the Real Olive Company and Macroom Oatmeal so the entire day should be delicious, but from 12 noon until 3pm there’ll be a “World Food Tour” celebrating food cultures from 12 countries. Worth sinking your teeth into.
Time, date, place: 11am until 4pm, Sunday, September 25, Macroom Town Square
Culture Night highlights - City
Come and see Tripe + Drisheen: both your Tripe + Drisheen editors will be doing live interview events for culture night! You can catch JJ interviewing artist and disability activist Ciara Chapman in Cork Opera House from 6pm-7pm. Ellie can be found in conversation with artist Marie Brett in Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh from 6pm-7.30pm.
What else is on? Way too much: a baffling amount. Here we select just three recommendations from Cork city and three from Cork county.
Get into the joys of reading children’s picture books
A nice afternoon event to attend with little people: see your favourite picture book projected onto the big screen and read it aloud at Civic Trust House. Competitive parents alert: there are two prizes of €50 book tokens up for grabs.
What: MY FAVOURITE PICTURE BOOK
Where: Civic Trust House, Cork City
When: 3pm-4.30pm
Get up close and personal with The Bard
Enjoy a one-on-one theatrical experience with Cork’s Shakespeare company, Cyclone Rep, while bringing some purpose to the Covid pods in the foyer of Cork City Hall. Enjoy the enduring, breath-taking power of words written over four centuries ago as actors perform scenes of between one and five minutes long, just for you. Choose from learning to swear like Shakespeare, try out Shakespeare with a blindfold, fall in love to Shakespeare or try some Shakespeare as therapy. You need to reserve a time slot in person on the night.
What: SHAKESPEARE IN THE PODS
Where: The pods in the Foyer of Cork City Hall
When: 6pm-9pm, with reservations open from 5pm
Make your own chess pieces
It’s your move at Anna Barden’s FALTER.CHECK.RESOLVE chess-themed exhibition at Backwater Artists’ Group. Some of the best Culture Night events are the participatory ones and here you’re being asked to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in to making chess pieces of your own. And you don’t need to feel constrained to the traditional forms of knights, castles, bishops and pawns: Anna’s work is inspired by the absurdist chess game in Murphy by Samuel Beckett, in which all the pieces are horses.
What: CHECK MATES: MAKE YOUR OWN CHESS PIECES
Where: Backwater Artists’ Group, Wandesford Quay
When: 5pm-7pm
Culture Night highlights - County
All that jazz, in Kinsale
Jazz club! It’s a musical genre misunderstood and loved in equal measure, but not here in Cork which is home to the verb “jazzing” rolled out at the annual Jazz-ish Festival. Tonight in Kinsale you’ll have the chance to get to grips with jazz, or at least try to, with this special filology workshop by John Philip Murray. There’s a cracking line-up of musicians for the hour-long concert afterwards.
What: WHAT AM I HEARING WHEN I LISTEN TO JAZZ?
Where: Salvi's Cafe, 7 Pearse St, Kinsale
When: 6pm-8pm
There be ghosts!!
What: PARANORMAL LOCKDOWN AT YOUGHAL CLOCK GATE TOWER
Where: 85 North Main Street, Youghal
When: 4pm - 5:45pm
Did you know that Cork has a Supernatural Society? Of course it does and they’ll be out in force in Youghal for Culture Night. This is both a workshop and a ghost hunt. First, you’ll get the chance to check out and use the equipment that paranormal research groups regularly use, while they show you past results of real paranormal activity captured in some of Ireland’s most famous and haunted locations. Once you’re trained up there’s a ghost hunt at the Youghal Clock Gate Tower.
Scullion in Ballydehob
Scullion will be at The Everyman next week for a gig as part of Coughlan’s Live Music 10th birthday celebration. But, tonight they’ll be further west, in Ballydehob for a free gig in Levis. They’ll be joined by local duo Les SalAmandas. Great gig promised.
What: CULTURE NIGHT AT LEVIS | EARLY CONCERT WITH SPECIAL GUESTS SCULLION
Where: Levis Corner House, Ballyehob
When: 5:40pm - 6:25pm
This week on T +D
On Tuesday, we published a culture night-related news story about the much-loved Cork Butter Exchange Band, affectionately known as “the Buttera” who have been waiting years to find a suitable replacement for their council-owned John Redmond St band room which is now derelict, while they squeeze into a tiny space nearby. You can read that piece here.
On Thursday, Ellie wrote about the mad plans concocted in the 1960s to bring flyovers into the city centre. Those plans are the focus of a new documentary by Michelle Delea entitled The Sprawling Octopus of an Elevated Highway, which screens tonight for Culture Night. Full story here.
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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 either of us at jj.odonoghue@gmail.com or emailellieobyrne@gmail.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.
