The Friday View 30/09
The Friday View 30/09
☀️Culture Night 2024 programme is out, Naked Bike Ride causes a belated stir, and John Spillane's new album—a paean to The Lough—is on the way. Welcome to the Friday View.
Offence taken: Earlier this month, a lively and colourful bunch of cyclists gathered in the city centre for the Naked Bike Ride. As the name suggests, what makes this group stand out is that many of them forego clothes for the event (cycling sans clothes seems like a challenge, but it’s hardly a crime). Anyway, Lord Mayor and Green Party Councillor Dan Boyle gamely smiled for a photo op with the group on the steps of Cork City Hall, and off they went.
The Naked Bike Ride has been going on for years, as has the photo op with the serving Lord Mayor, without much fuss. That is, until this week when Independent Councillor and poll topper Cllr. Ken O’Flynn emailed the Lord Mayor to express his displeasure and draw attention to the “Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, specifically Section 45(1), which addresses the exposure of genitals with the intention of causing fear, distress, or alarm.” LOL, as the kids might say.
In his letter Cllr O’Flynn writes, that “the optics of the event, particularly the involvement of a publicly revered office such as yours, are troubling and have raised considerable backlash among the citizens of Cork.
As you are no doubt aware, the office of Lord Mayor is not only a symbol of civic pride and governance but also carries the historical weight of the sacrifices made by revered figures such as McCurtin and McSweeney.” (misspellings his)
As Kevin O’Brien pointed out on X, a quick Google search shows that many previous Lord Mayor's have gainfully posed for a photo op the steps of City Hall with the naked and partially naked cyclists. But not a peep from Cllr O’Flynn on those occasions.
In comments to CorkBeo, the Lord Mayor said that Cllr O'Flynn is "well aware that this event happens every year" and defended his choice to be a part of such an important cause, adding that that the nakedness of the participants highlights "the fragility felt by cyclists on the roads."
Puzzling then why Cllr O’Flynn chose to be concerned this year. Fragility all round?
Infographic of the week:
Point scoring: Christian Brothers College certainly upped its game for the Leaving Cert results this year with a press release from local PR outfit Healy Communications announcing that MAXIMUM POINTS FOR THIRTEEN LEAVING CERT STUDENTS AT CHRISTIAN BROTHERS COLLEGE CORK (yes in all caps!)
Indeed, the press release had the intended effect of attracting an RTÉ reporter on the day of the results to the fee-paying all-boys school, this day last week, where two of the high achievers were interviewed.
Both students were gracious and thankful, with one of them, perhaps mindful of his privilege, noting that the same results aren’t possible for other students—not through any fault of their own, but because of the schools they attend. Ouch. Pretty sure that line wouldn’t have made it into a press release. Anyway, we look forward to more Leaving Cert press releases from more schools next year.
Swap spot: Cork Clothes Swap announced this week that they have their first Swap Spot in place at Cork College of FET in Ballincollig. It’s a simple and straightforward concept: you swap one piece of clothing for another via the clothes rail. Through funding from the 2024 Waste Prevention Grant, Cork Clothes Swap plans to roll out three more Swap Spots with local businesses and organisations in 2024.
For those interested in swapping more than one item, two swaps are organised for the first week in September—Wednesday, September 4 at Rebel Reads (7-8pm) in the Marina, and Saturday, September 7 at St. Peter’s (11am-1pm). Full details on how it all works are on their website here.
All that culture: As one awful headline put it earlier this year, how will you “culture” on Culture Night 2024. The annual night of uber culture is a still a few weeks off, the 19th edition takes place on Friday September 20, but for those of you who want to get to planning the full programme is here to peruse. There’s events from six-a-side soccer to chamber music taking place at more than 80 venues in Cork city and we’ll be back in time to have a look at what’s going on.
Tapping into The Lough: Some of team Tripe just happened to be strolling around The Lough on the same evening as the irrepressible John Spillane was on site with a curragh to record a video for his new album Fíoruisce - The Legend of the Lough which will be released on September 13 ( a Friday and all). This week Spillane released the opening track from the two-hour folk opera, ‘Réamhcheol/Overture’, featuring Niamh Farrell and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin on vocals. That video here:
Out + About
After being cancelled last year due to a weather warning, Autumnfest returns to Douglas Street with a bang. Featuring performances from the Pitch’d Circus Festival, there will be performances from Juggler Brendan, What’s Watt, Musica Maestro, and Root. There will also be a samba band, kizomba dancing and a silent disco for kids. It should be a cracking days for all ages.
Time, date, place: 12pm-5pm, Sunday September 1, Douglas Street, Cork.
The Cape Clear Storytelling Festival begins today on Cléire, and although many of the events are sold out, there is still plenty to check out. John Spillane and Paddy Ó Brien present a storytelling session as Gaeilge, Péire ar Chléire, at the South Harbour tomorrow morning at 9:30, while a storytelling boat trip departs from the North Harbour in at 1:30pm. On Sunday, Two Bards Have Words features Icelandic stories from Hjörleifur, with John Spillane. In the afternoon, Zahra Asfah from Iran and Tom Muir from the Orkney Islands connect their cultures. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: Friday August 30-Sunday September 1, Cape Clear Island.
Civilisation Blooming / 文明開花 is a cross-cultural exhibition by artists Deirdre Frost and Seiko Hayase, that sees both artists venture into new media and establish a synergistic practice. Hayase looks at the positives and the negatives of society blooming through addictive behaviours and explores how they are exploited. Frost’s work includes ceramic sculptural vessels that are reminiscent of vessels of past civilisations. The exhibition runs until September 21 at the Lavit Gallery.
Time, date, place: Thursday August 29-Saturday August 21, Lavit Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork.
It’s a busy few weeks at St. Peter’s as Cork Voices of the Irish Revolution continues to exhibit alongside an exhibition by local artist Yekal. Featuring works are influenced by music, street art, fashion, sport, photography and pop culture It's Not That Deep....Well Most Of It runs in St. Peter’s from Monday until Monday week.
Time, date, place: Monday September 2-Monday September 9, St. Peter’s, North Main Street, Cork.
Performance of the week: Wes Peden’s Rollercoaster at the Firkin Trance as part of Pitch’d Circus and Street Arts Festival. As Cormac Mohally, artistic director of Pitch’d Circus and Street Arts Festival, told T+D this week:
“I’m very excited about Wes’s show. He’s just off the back of a run in Edinburgh Fringe Festival and it’ll be really interesting to see this show indoors. It’s being staged on the floor area because he throws so high.
“He was voted best juggler multiple years in a row and his tricks are out of this world.”
Time, date, place: 8pm, Saturday August 31, in the Firkin Crane. Info and tickets here.
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.
From the T+D archive:
