Tripe + Drisheen: The Friday View 19/08
The City Council has published its six-year development plan, there’s heritage and food related events galore and Cork remembers one of the country's most influential figures - Michael Collins
In praise of public spaces and public performances
If you build it, they will (eventually) play sessions in it. Last Friday, August 12, a group of trad musicians gathered at the original parklet on Douglas Street outside Cork Flower Studio for a session which was arranged to celebrate Cork Craft Month. While we weren’t there (Tripe+Drisheen were still on holidays, but we’re very much back now), it looked and sounded like a great event.
The idea for a session came about when Justine Looney from Cork Flower Studio suggested that they organise something to celebrate Craft Month and the local crafters who helped make the parklet. Brian Leech, a musician and guitar maker, who, because this is Cork, was also involved in making the original parklet at Benchspace came up with the idea for a session, and lo on a balmy Friday afternoon at the Capwell end of Douglas Street, the banjos, uileann pipes, bodhran and guitars were taken out and Cork Flower Studio provided Loop the Loops and Choc Ices as the musicians settled in on the larch wood playing slow airs and slides.
Dave Crowley, a designer who took the photos above and below, said there was a lovely atmosphere and a festival vibe for the session on the street. Pedestrians paused on their journeys, people heading to and from the pubs and cafes nearby came out to hear the music. Families with small kids came by to hear the music (and eat the ice-creams:)
Justine from Cork Flower Studio said they’d be definitely considering making the Friday parklet session a monthly fixture.
Since the original parklet was installed on Douglas Street in 2019, more than a dozen have now been placed around the city. The Douglas Street parklet was only meant to be temporary, and, as Justine told me for this short documentary I made with Andrei Scintian last year, the idea for the parklets was borne out of an experiment to see what could be done with a space normally reserved for cars.
There’s no doubt that the pandemic accelerated the adoption of the parklets and in many ways they tie in with the modus operandi of a city council that appears to favour a third way when it comes to a hands off approach to maintaining services. Justine and the staff at Cork Flower Studio clean and tidy the parklet on Douglas Street, and it’s the same with parklets dotted outside the businesses around the city. But one of the drawbacks about the parklets is that there is a perception that you need to be engaged in some sort of commercial activity to use them. You don’t. The parklets are for everyone, and mostly everything, such as crochet demonstrations (see below). And sessions might help reinforce that idea. And, who doesn’t love a good trad session? (And a Choc Ice with it!)
JJ
News in brief
Cork city, we have a plan. It’s a long one. Cork City Council released the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 this week and it comes in at hundreds and hundreds of pages. It’s the first time that towns such as Ballincollig, Blarney, Tower and Glanmire are included in the city development plan. Like most public bodies, the council is not short of plans, but what makes this one (more) important is that it’s a statutory plan and it’s subject to scrutiny by central government which could put the brakes on zoning.
There’s plenty of jargon and buzz words in there (“Compact Liveable Growth” “15-minute city” “liveable walkable neighbourhoods” etc.), but it’s undoubtedly a hugely important policy document that will form the basis of everything from housing, education, recreation, transport to sustainability for the next six years. It will also tie in with subsequent development plans (2028-2034 and 2034-2040) as the population of Cork city is expected to increase to nearly 336,000 by 2040 (a 17% increase from the current population of around 210,000). We’ll go through it in more depth over the coming weeks and months, but if you are interested in getting a head start and perusing it yourself, you can start here.
Ballincollig Regional Park was back in the news again this week following another fire, this time in the playground at the west end of the park, close to Lidl. In June, a refurbished mill building in the 134-acre park was gutted when vandals set the structure alight. Cork County Council restored the building in 1992 and it was opened to the public in 1993 but was destroyed in the June blaze. Councillors have called for more lighting and security cameras to deter the vandals.
Hangdog Road. Now known as Tramore Road, Hangdog Road was one of the most evocatively place names in Cork city. The road and the name has popped up quite a few times of late in Jo Kerrigan’s Throwback Thursday column in the The Echo, as readers wondered if it really was the official name, and how such a name came about. James Furey, T+D’s resident historian, wrote about it last year in an excellent piece for us:
How did a name as peculiar as Hangdog Road come about? An educated guess will get you halfway there.
The road was the site of a solution to a problem that was rife in the mid part of the 19th century. Prior to and preceding the Great Famine in the mid 1800s, Cork was rife with stray, rabid dogs, comparable only to Lisbon for its number of crazed canines.
So, which one is it? The leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will be in West Cork this weekend to commemorate one of the most significant assassinations in modern Irish history - the killing of Michael Collins. A piece this week about the commemorations in Cork.ie states that “Béal na Bláth or Béal na Blá or Bealnablath or Bealnabla is a small village on the R585 road in County Cork, Ireland.” Which one is it, though?
Earlier this year on Twitter historian Niall Murray was unequivocal - there’s no ‘m’ - there “never was”.
If you are going to Béal na Bláth this weekend, you’re more than welcome to drop us a line with a few images or thoughts about the centenary commemorations. Contact emails below.
Poster of the week
Numbers of the week
10: the number of city libraries in Cork
618,766: the numbers of items in stock
805,422: the number of visitors (in 2019)
Out + About
🎭 Playwright and actor Timmy O’Mahony will be performing The Story for two more shows at The Cork Arts Theatre this week. It tells the story of Tom Walsh, a hikikomori (or recluse) living on the northside of the city who is obsessed with Sherlock Holmes. When his close friend George goes missing he is driven back out into the world and on the chase to find him. Perhaps his Holmes obsession can help? More information and show times here.
Time, date, place: August 19 -20, lunchtime and evening performances, Carroll's Quay, Carrol’s Quay.
🎹Organ time: Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral will be holding organ recitals every Friday lunchtime for the month of August. Admission is €5 which will goes back into funding music at the cathedral. This week it’s the turn of organist Mark Keane from Tuam who will be performing just after lunch. More information here.
Time, date, place: 1:10pm, each Friday in August, Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork city
🧶 Cork Craft Month is heading into its final stretch, but there’s still a huge amount to see and do across the city and county. Dara Healy from Cork Textiles Network will be crafter in residence at the parklet on Douglas Street as Cork Flower Studio and Craft Month organise a crochet demonstration. The event is free and more information here. For more information about the events and exhibitions happening this weekend for Cork Craft Month you can check the full listing here.
Time, date, place: 2-4 pm, Douglas Street Parklet, Douglas Street
🖼 Show’s nearly over. It’s the final weekend of A Temporary Iteration by Cork artist Fiona Kelly who is showing her work at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh. The exhibition combines sculpture, moving image, and sound as Kelly depicts a range of landscapes based on her research into Esker Riada. More information here.
Time, date, place: Daily until August 20, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh
🌳As part of Heritage Week, author Gerard O’Brien will be giving a guided tour of the Glen (Gerard has written a history of the local valley and its place in the history of the development of the Northside). The guided tour is being organised by Frank O’Connor library in Mayfield, and anyone who would like to join should contact them first. More information here.
Time, date, place: 11am - 12pm, August 20, Frank O’Connor Library
🎙Historian and teacher Anne Twomey from the Shandon Historical Group will lead a lecture about 11 remarkable women form the Northside during The Revolutionary Years of 1916-23. The event is free and all are welcome.
Time, date, place: 1-2 pm, August 20, Hollyhill Library
🍜 Cork on a Fork Fest finishes up this weekend, and there are a few free and not too expensive events in the City Council backed food festival. If you’ve been yearning to get in the doors of Callanan’s (and Lord God we have!) you have your chance on Saturday, August 20 (2-4pm). The catch is you’ll be learning how to make sourdough bread in a two-hour course led by Dr. Fanny Leenhardt-Cohalan and Ben Le Bon. You might remember we profiled sourdough bread maker Angela Nöthlings a few weeks ago on T+D. It promises to be a great event. In Callanan’s! More information here.
Time, date, place: Various venues across the city until Sunday, August 21.
This week on T +D
On Tuesday we came back from holidays with a news story by Ellie about an unused railway underpass in Carrigtwohill which is linked to an inquiry into recently resigned An Bórd Pleanála Deputy Chair Paul Hyde. The underpass is set to become part of the Carrigtwohill to Midleton cycleway. Full story here.
On Wednesday JJ reviewed Letters of a Country Postman playing at The Everyman until August 27. It’s a production played for laughs, but one you could imagine its creator John B. Keane enjoying. Full review here.
On Thursday Ellie wrote about the decision by An Bórd Pleanála (ABP) to overturn a decision by Cork City Council to grant planning permission to the GAA for a redevelopment of the stadium and surrounds. However, the County Board have been slapped down for its car parking proposals. Full story here.
Make sure you stop back tomorrow or check your inbox for Ellie’s Arts+Culture podcast with the comedy crew from Snatch Comedy. As my neighbour would say, laugh - you’ll drink your tears!
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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.
