The Friday View 8/12
School, but for one day a week, in the 1960s; trees be excessive, a new plan for Skibbereen is shaping up, and why oh why is your bus late? Well...
Welcome to the Friday View on T+D. Let’s get to it.
In the same week that the OECD released their Covid-delayed educational assessment (PISA 2022) across a range of mostly rich countries I stumbled on an old news piece from Cork fronted by the late Bill O’Herlihy. His reporting days were before I was born, but Bill had the reporter’s doggedness to him, which softened to some degree before he took up his avuncular TV post with John Giles and Eamon Dunphy et al analysing the Irish football team.
The news segment focuses on a strange anomaly in the education system of the time: teenagers between the ages of 14-16 who were in full-time employment were compelled to attend one full day of school. Basically, the report asked, “what’s the point of one day of school?”
In fairness to Bill, he asked that question in a less pointed manner to the school officials he interviewed, some of whom appear weary with his line of questioning. That said, some teachers, long in the job, wear that weary look 24/7.
The segment opens with a shot of Christopher Fitzgerald, 15, "a delivery boy with a Cork store," navigating traffic in town on his bike. It's a dead-end job, Bill explains, hence why the one day of school a week will help with his future career. Or does the single day merely mark time, as Bill asks?
We never hear from any of the students in that report, many of whom would now be on the other side of their working careers and in retirement. (If Christopher or someone who knows him is reading this, I'd be interested to know how the intervening years panned out).
The classes, as you would expect at the time, were segregated by sex, and the focus on the girls' education was essentially to prepare them for their "future roles as homemakers." This meant that young women spent more time learning homemaking skills such as cooking, laundry, and dressmaking than on academic subjects like Irish and English.
(Awkwardly, Bill asks the headmistress if it's difficult to teach young women who are students one day of the week and young women for the other six days). Bill also inquires about sex education, and contrary to the popular belief that sex was never mentioned on RTÉ until the invention of The Late Late Show, that notion is a pile of rubbish.
In response, the headmistress, Mrs. Eileen Quinlan, states that while there isn't a sex education class as such, once a week, the girls have the opportunity to discuss their "little problems" with the chaplain.
Ireland has changed immeasurably and progressed in the sixty years since that report. According to the latest educational attainment report, females across all age groupings (25-64 years) have higher levels of third-level attainment than males. Furthermore, females aged 25-64 years old with a third-level qualification were more than three times more likely to be employed (84%) compared to females with a primary education or no formal education (24%).
Sixty years hence it will make for interesting viewing for the kids of today when they look back on news segments detailing how schools, teachers, students, parents and guardians tried to keep the wheels on the education machine during the pandemic as an estimated 1.5 billion students in 188 countries were locked out of school. It was a singularly weird time, and we are - or our students - are still dealing with the consequences of that period.
(Side note, if you feel like going down a rabbit hole on YouTube looking back at Old Ireland, CR’s Video Vaults will scratch that itch and some).
-JJ
News in brief
Excessive trees: Did you hear about the Fine Gael councillor who walked into a forest and loudly proclaimed, "excessive trees"? Spare a thought for Cllr Des Cahill, who, in describing the arboreal situation in Beaumont Park, asked the City Council "several times to deal with the excessive trees in Beaumont Park”. Well, they’ve been dealt with and are excessive no more.
Cheap shots aside, this is the second case of trees being felled in a week where there are more questions than answers. Could the respective councils, especially the ones with a trees officer, outline via some form of communication the reasoning and rational first, and not leave it to social media to parse the why and the what etc?
Dear Old New Skibbereen: The consultants are coming to Skibbereen next week as they outline to the public the draft plan for the regeneration of the West Cork town. A consultation survey was launched earlier this summer and that has garnered 930 responses, now the County Council, along with Cunnane Stratton Reynolds and A Playful City, will present the first draft to the public at the Town Hall in Skibbereen on Wednesday, December 13, at 6pm. Registration is needed to plan for numbers - see who is coming?- and you can do that here. A copy of the plan will be made available at the library after the meeting.
Bus, no bus: Green Party councillor for Cork City North East, Oliver Moran, parsed some of the data from the National Transport Authority and examined how our bus fleet in the city and county is faring. There's a lot of data in there. Here are a few top-line figures from the Green Party in Cork:
Among the six routes to meet the minimum standard were the 215A between Mahon Point and the city centre, the 203 between Togher and Fairhill, and the 205 between Kent Station and MTU.
Among the worst performing routes is the 214 between Glanmire and CUH, which despite running every 20 minutes, is late 40% of the time and missed its Minimum Performance Standard by 13% points.
Of the city's high-frequency services, the 202 between Ringmahon and Hollyhill was the worst performing, being an average of 4 minutes late. The 202 was also among the least reliable of services, with 1-in-16 services not showing up. This was only exceeded by the 226X between Kinsale and UCC, where 1-in-12 services didn't run.
Separately, T+D was informed that recruitment for new drivers for Bus Éireann is an uphill battle, especially as a sizeable cohort of relatively new drivers is heading for the exit door soon. Expect more delays.
A Dutch cycling study trip: This week we reported that no City or County Councillors had taken up the NTA’s offer to learn a thing or ten about why so many people across the Netherlands cycle (and don’t make a big deal about it) via the transport body’s cycle study trips. Well, the good news is that T+D hears that 2024 could see some councillors go Dutch and take the NTA up on the offer, possibly even in January. Good for them, and us.
Artists talk: Memorably, Pádraig O’Connor went pretty hard on the big money (€670k) Island City public art project that’s been unfolding across the city. (He switched his focus from the artists and administrators for Cork hurlers this week which you can read below). This weekend some of the Island City artists will be in the Triskel to talk through those pieces and the project. Padraig called it “ArtBollocks”. Is it? Well now it’s their turn to tell a different tale. Tickets here.
At the free talk will be artists Brian Kenny, Niamh McCann, Fiona Mulholland, Tanad Aaron and Tom Watt, and Jonathan Janssens. The discussion will be moderated by Sarah Searson, current Director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Incidentally, the Triskel is the site of the final piece in the Island City jigsaw. This weekend should see the unveiling of projection map.
Clickbait headline of the week:
Groan.
Out + About
The Crawford Art Gallery’s annual exhibition of Harry Clarke’s watercolours has returned. Focusing on one of Clarke’s most famous works, The Eve of St Agnes, and his illustrations based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, Harry Clarke: Bad Romance features twenty-six of Clarke’s drawings, book illustrations, watercolour studies, and earliest works in stained glass, which were purchased by the gallery from the artist in 1924. More information here.
Time, date, place: Saturday December 2-Sunday February 18, Crawford Art Gallery, Emmett Place, Cork.
The Cork Zine Festival makes a comeback this year, with a location change to a bigger space at the MTU Gallery on Grand Parade. Zines are small, usually handmade or digitally made magazines that follow a countercultural narrative and speak to, and for, an underground culture. They are independent, localised, and based on the ethics of D.I.Y and making your own culture. Featured artists include mankyy, Aisling Browne, Zootghost, Caoilfhinn Geary, Riki Mats, amongst others. Entry is free.
Time, date, place: 11-5pm, Saturday December 9-Sunday December 10, MTU Gallery, Grand Parade, Cork.
The Cork Decorative and Fine Arts Society present a talk at Nano Nagle Place about the artist George William Russell, known as Æ, by Dr. Eimear O’Connor. Termed "the man who was the father to three generations of Irish writers" by Frank O’Connor, Russell was a writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist who is often overlooked. The talk takes place tomorrow morning at 11:30, and is worth checking out if you want to learn about a highly respected but relatively unknown individual. More information here.
LOAFERS, a new documentary by author and activist Orla Egan will screen at IndieCork Film Festival this coming week. This year marks 40 years since the opening of Loafers Bar on Douglas Street (it closed in 2015). Using a combination of interviews, archival footage, photographs, illustrations and animation it gives a glimpse into the legend and legacy of Loafers Orla says. The documentary explores what Loafers meant to the people who ran it, worked in it and frequented it, and the impact of the loss of such an important safe space for the community. A full programme for IndieCork 2023 is available here.
Time, date, place: 6pm, Friday December 16, Arc Cinema (previously The Gate), North Main Street.
Time, date, place: 11:30am, Saturday December 9, Nano Nagle Place, Douglas Street, Cork.
Lewis Barfoot is a folk artist who blends ethereal, evocative vocals with original compositions and reinventions of traditional songs. Her new album, Home, explores the difficult lives lived by her Irish relatives, and she launches this album at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh. If you want to understand a little more about Lewis Barfoot and her music, why not check out this interview she did with Ellie for T+D in January 2022. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Saturday December 9, Sirius Arts Centre, Westbourne Place, Cobh.
Benchspace, the creative manufacturing hub which is based around giving makers their first workspace, hosts its first ever Christmas Market today. The space is home to some of Cork’s most talented emerging craftspeople, and the market will have jewellery pieces, woodwork products, Irish art prints, handcrafted wall art, and crochet pieces amongst the works. More information here.
Time, date, place: 4pm-9pm, Friday December 8, 11am-9pm, Saturday December 9, Marina Commercial Park, Centre Park Road, Cork.
Fuzzy Pockets return this month with a series of Christmas gigs, the first on Wednesday in Fred Zeppelin’s. Hosted by local music legend Hank Wedel, Daddy’s Barn is a country music showcase. Featuring ‘Bro’ Ken Hart, a country-based art experiment, and Cocaine Raincoat, a country music side-project by The Love Buzz’s Oisín Walsh-Agnew and I Dreamed I Dream’s Niamh Hayes. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Wednesday December 13, Fred Zeppelin’s, Parliament Street, Cork.
The Fógues are a ballad group from Mitchelstown, who recently released an album of originals and covers called "Long Nights in Pokey Places''. The play Saint George’s Arts and Heritage Centre in Mitchelstown tomorrow night, with some familiar covers and originals to be expected. Tickets and information here.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Saturday December 9, Saint George's Arts and Heritage Centre, George Street, Mitchelstown.
-KM
This week on T+D:
On Monday, we outlined how Cork City and Council Council’s availed of no cycyle study trips in 2023. That piece here:
On Tuesday, we had a stats round-up from this week’s Joint Police Committee. You can read that here.
On Wednesday, T+D’s critic at large wondered out lout why anyone is surprised by the GAA’s announcement to put three Cork hurling matches on GAAGO. The GAA as he outlined is a big business and is motivate by becoming a bigger business. But, where do Cork’s chances of bring back the Liam McCarthy Cup fit in? That piece below.
Finally, a big welcome to all the new readers. The T + D community continues to grow. Thanks for your support, especially as it helps us support (and pay) new writers and photographers.
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 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.
