☀️The Friday View 28/02
Plans for a major new route around the Northside are unveiled; John Spillane's ode to the Lough wins Best Folk Album and if you're in the market for a pub, there's a rake of them for sale.
Good morning and welcome to the Friday View. Let’s get to it!
CNDMR: We have a new transport acronym to sit along side CMATS (Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy). This time it’s for the Cork Northern Distributer Multi-modal Road, previously known as the Northern Distributor Road, and it will run 14km connecting Glanmire to the Lee Fields, via the Northside of the city (past Blackpool, Ballyvolane, Hollyhill and down into Sunday’s Well)
This is not to be confused with the North Ring Road, which has been knocking around since the 1980s and won’t get going until after CNDMR is built. On that point, construction is unlikely to start until 2031 on the Northern Distributor Road if the project runs to the timeline set out by the City Council (currently we’re on Phase Two with construction beginning in Phase Six).
Cork City Council directors spent the day briefing councillors and the media yesterday, February 27, and full details of the emerging preferred route are on their new public consultation site here. Bus lanes and segregated cycles lanes will straddle the entirety of the preferred route (hence the addition of multi-modal).
The City Council have informed more than 1300 individuals who either have land or live in the 100 metre corridor of the preferred route. The actual road would be 30m wide. No exact costs were proffered, and that’s because the final design is a ways off, but the council said that typically a road such as this comes in at around €25-€30 million per kilometre. That would put the overall budgets somewhere between €350million and €420million. For reference, the 22km Macroom bypass clocked in at €280m, but it runs mostly through agricultural land was.
Will the CNDMR ultimately improve traffic flow and journey times? The bus lanes and segregated cycle lanes are certainly welcome, but we’ll have to wait and see what effect the new route will have, especially if we keep on adding more private cars to the mix.
The Greens were first out the gate with their reaction with Cllr Oliver Morgan welcoming the new route calling it critical and adding that community engagement is essential to make sure it’s successful. And this is where it could all get held up, for one woman’s transport solution is another’s piece of precious land. Public consultation is open until April 10.
There’ll be four public information open days, where members of the public can view the proposed route and speak to members of the project team throughout March. Details below:
Wednesday 5 March 2025 at Clayton Silversprings Hotel, Tivoli from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday 12 March 2025 at The Maldron Hotel, John Redmond Street, Shandon from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Friday 21 March 2025 at Blackpool Shopping Centre, Blackpool from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Tuesday 25 March 2025 at City Hall, Anglesea Street from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Sticking with transport: Newly-elected Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central and Minister of State Jerry Buttimer was speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time this week on a feature on the all too common habit of sailing through red lights when he mentioned the Luas and Cork Light Rail as ways in which the government is taking cars off the road. Viewers might be forgiven for thinking those two things exist, when we still don’t have a final preferred route for the Cork Luas.
Best in class: Congrats to Wilton boy John Spillane for picking up Best Folk Album at the RTÉ Folk Awards for Fíoruisce - The Legend of the Lough which he released last year, suitably enough at the Lough. John was on with Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 recently and cycled through five songs in a kind of mini Desert Island discs. You can listen back to the here.
There’s money in pubs: €5.8milllion to be precise, the price tag for the Flying Enterprise, which it to be sold off by its owners Finbarr and Dolly O’Shea. The Echo called the Sullivan’s Quay spot “iconic” which it isn’t, but it is well known. There’s a lot on offer including the Flying Enterprise Lounge and Restaurant, The Courtyard Bar, the shop on the end of the Barrack St, apartments and the school building rented out to MTU. Add to that the scrap of land outside Forde’s Bar which has been unsightly forever and a day.
Sticking with pubs, The Cotton Ball Bar & Brewery in Mayfield has also been put up for sale. The Northside pub has been round for 150 years, and most recently went down the route of microbrewey. The owners are getting out of the pub trade and the pub is on the market for just shy of €1m.
Sticking price: O’Sho on Barrack St, polled their punters as to whether they should keep the price of a pint of Beamish at €4.90, and no prizes for guessing but the people responded with a, “hell yeah.” In order to keep the stout at that price, they’re going to try and push sales of the black stuff. They’re also going to publish Beamish sales “each week and at the end of three months if Beamish sales are up 20%, it stays at €4.90”. Democracy, accountability and drink!
Up + running: Crush Coffee recently moved into the shipping container formerly occupied by Gugi down at the Marina Market. Besides serving coffee they’ve also started a running club on Monday mornings at 7am. The running route takes in the newly refurbished Marina walkway. What better way to start your week and tell everyone about it? All abilities welcome. Meet at Crush Coffee. More info here.
LGDs, and it’s always sunny on Pana: Earlier this month, we wrote about LGDs, or Local Green Deals, which Cork City Council has initiated with a range of partners, including sports clubs and lobby groups. According to a City Council spokesman, the LGDs agreed most recently include a broad spectrum of actions ranging from building retrofits, installation of solar PV panels, waste management and community education programmes.
While not in the Council’s LGD scheme, Drittus 50 GmbH, registered in Germany has got conditional approval to install 18 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on the rooftop of the 39 Patricks St. which currently houses a Northface shop.
Sign of the times: Elsewhere, V.S.C Limited the owners of the Victoria Casino at 28 MacCurtain Street will be changing the sign advertising the casino and the shop front to fit in more with the genteel surroundings of the historic street. MacCurtain St is still a mixed bag of signage and architecture and pub awnings.
It hasn’t always been plain sailing for V.S.C. Limited. The Council took enforcement proceedings against the owners a few years back and they were refused retention for the casino, a decision which was upheld by An Bord Pleanála (ABP). However, the City Council backtracked, deciding that the operators were exempt. It was worth the gamble. Regardless, a new sign is going up and an old one is coming down.
Pana trees (real ones): Wrapping up the upgrades to Patrick’s Street which started in the summer of 2024, two new trees were recently planted by the City Council, to replace ones that had been removed or were significantly damaged. One location was near the “bike box” on St Patrick’s Street, which the council said are used to store cargo bikes. According to the City Council, a review of the storage units is to be carried out this year.
Out + About
Ukrainian artist Viktoria Kondratieva hosts a workshop on Saturday as part of her Studios of Sanctuary residency at the Sample Triskel Project Space. The workshop explores The Art of Ukrainian Motanka, types of dolls that were sacred family talismans with a history dating back over 5,000 years. The hand-knotted dolls represent the deep cultural heritage of Ukraine. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 11am-12pm, Saturday March 1, Sample-Triskel Project Space, Tobin Street, Cork.
Sample-Studios present another exhibition at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion for the coming month. Grammar of Home, which opened last night, presents contemporary painting, photography and photographic installations by Chris Finnegan, Colette Cronin and Síomha Callanan, exploring the home, the domestic and the everyday. It also includes interactive games suitable for children and families. More information here.
Time, date, place: Thursday February 27 - Monday April 7, Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald Park, The Mardyke, Cork.
The country’s only directly elected mayor will be in UCC next week for a lecture entitled From the People, For the People: Leading Limerick with a Mandate. Voters in Limerick backed a directly elected mayor in 2019 (the vote was narrowly defeated in Cork), and John Moran, a former civil servant and businessman topped the polls in the mayoral vote last November. He’ll be in UCC to talk about local politics, democracy and his vision for Limerick. Free to attend, all welcome.
Time, date, place: 11 am, Tuesday March 4, Aula Maxima, UCC
The Órtús Chamber Music Festival takes place across the county, with sold out shows in Blackrock Castle and Dripsey Castle. However, there are still tickets for concerts at the Sirius Arts Centre featuring violin duo Lucia MacPartlin & Maria Ryan, at the Aula Maxima in UCC with the Marmen Quartet, Johannes Marmén, Aljaz Begus, Siobhán Doyle, Bryony Gibson-Cornish, Sinéad O’Halloran & Aliaž Beguš, at St. Peter’s with Sinéad O’Halloran, Johannes Marmén, Aliaž Beguš, and Bryony Gibson-Cornish, and at the Curtis Auditorium at MTU. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 1pm, Saturday March 1, Sirius Arts Centre, Westbourne Place, Cobh.
7:30pm, Saturday March 1, Aula Maxima, University College Cork.
11am, Sunday March 2, St. Peter’s, North Main Street, Cork.
3pm, Sunday March 2, Curtis Auditorium, Munster Technological University, Bishopstown.
Jean Pack is the singer-songwriter project of local musician Niamh Hayes, described as having charming melodies wrapped up in a comical and heartfelt performance. She performs at Prim’s Bookshop as Jean Pack and the Slay Babies, presumably her full band, with support from Chicken Burger. Tickets are available here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Sunday March 2, Prim’s Bookshop, Main Street, Kinsale.
Jean Pack and the Slay Babies also play in Cork city this evening, supporting the no-wave four-piece Crying Loser in Dali. Crying Loser are one of the hottest acts in the city at the moment, having already done TWO tours of La France with their Rennes-based label, Swish Swash Records. Tickets for that are available here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Friday March 28, Dali, Lavitt’s Quay, Cork.
Jack O’Flynn is an Irish artist currently based in Bergen, Norway, on a residency at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen. His work for this residency focuses on the River Ilen that flows through Skibb, with themes of connection and ecognosis in a decaying world. Jack’s time in the residency primarily works on the creation of a stop-motion film about the Ilen. This is the last week you can see his work, more information here.
Time, date, place: Until Thursday March 6, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen.
Pancake race: Fancy your chances of winning the Metropole’s annual pancake race? All you need is a pan, and if you turn up at the Metropole next Tuesday, March 4 at 11am the hotel will provide the pancake and off you go.
Time, date, place: 11am, Tuesday March 4, outside the Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain St.
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