Tripe+Drisheen: The Friday View 03/09
Our weekly round-up of news and events from across Cork
September
The blackberries have ripened, schools are open and the traffic is back. With a vengeance. It must be September. Which reminds me of a few lines my parents used to say to my brothers and sister (best said in a Kerry accent):
April, May, stay away from the sea
June, July, stay there ‘till you die
August, September, live to remember
On writing
The gang at Rebel Reads down at the Marina Market will be running a writing workshop every Sunday, starting this week (05/09) throughout September.
It’s called 'The Asking' and as the name implies, the emphasis is on interrogation. The workshop was developed by American writer and poet Jesse Ball (A Cure for Suicide, Census). At Rebel Reads, Cork-based poet Niamh O’Connell (and Rebel Reads volunteer) will be facilitating the writing workshop. It is a workshop free of critique and is open to all writers from any background, regardless of genre. Spaces are limited and you can contact them via direct message on their Instagram page.
Not walking
This week, Cork City Council and the Lord Mayor’s office officially launched the parklets which are dotted around the city centre and suburbs. I’m not sure if launched or opened is the right term here, but regardless, earlier in the week the Mayor visited five of the city centre parklets. Considering the original one on Douglas Street outside Cork Flower Studio was only only meant to be in place for a few months and it’s still there two years on (because it proved a point that people want places to meet, sit and chew the fat) the parklets are a success.
What was baffling about the Tuesday photo-op was that the Mayor was driven between each parklet. The most westerly parklet he visited is outside the Lavitt Gallery on Wandesford Quay, and the nearest one is down the road from City Hall on Union Quay, with the three other parklets he visited, all in between.
Tuesday was a grand day for a walk with the leisurely schedule allowing for plenty time between each visit. It’s just a shame that for a city centre engagement such as this the car is still the reflexive option for the Mayor.
How scary are you?
What terrifies you most? Bats? Mysterious white-clad, see-through ladies? The fact that our government ministers have been deleting FOIable communications for years?
If you’re able to raise goosebumps with your campfire ghost stories, or if you’ve ever experienced something that truly spooks you, you might like this.
Cork Community Art Link are looking for contributors to a sound installation that will be heard on the streets of Cork for Halloween. Yes, it’s a good way off, but the nights are certainly starting to close in. If you’re interested in recording a short, spooky story for inclusion in the Samhain festivities, the details are here:
This week’s long read: Páirc Uí Chaoimh and a parking controversy
Ellie spent much of this week around the Marina and on the phone talking to people to put together her long read on what’s happening with the publicly-owned land around Páirc Uí Chaoimh GAA stadium. It’s a deeply reported piece which takes a great deal of time. Journalism like this is the reason we started Tripe+Drisheen so we really appreciate if you can support and share our work so that we continue doing it, and keep it accessible for all.
Get yourself some soul
Soul in the City is taking place in Cork this weekend and while many of the gigs are sold out there’s pop-up events and free concerts still to be found (or heard).
There’s a Block Party on Cornmarket Street (the Coal Quay) on Sunday, 5 September from 2 p.m. Tickets are free but you need to register here first.
Meanwhile, down at The Marina Market there’s plenty going in and on: Cork band Mi Jazza will be on down there as will singers Kate O’Connell and Fiona Kennedy and the mega ensemble Quangodelic will also be doing their thing. The gigs are free at the Market and there’s a lot of new businesses gone up and going in at the Market. Check out Soul in the City on Instagram for more details of times etc.
Tweet of the week 1:
Ben Harrington, a law graduate of UCC shed a little more light on the who, what, why etc. around that infamous (in Cork anyway) stat that one CityTree (a.k.a. RoboTree) “can clean the same volume of pollutants as 275 individual trees.”
As the information in Ben’s tweet above shows, someone from City Council included that stat in the information that went on to the National Transport Authority, which provided the €350,000 funding for the five air filters. They don’t. A representative from the German manufacturers in Cork told Ellie as much last month.
“This number of 275 trees is four or five years old, but the internet never forgets,” Mr Dierks said with a wry smile. “That number is not true, and it’s not smart to say, because we don’t want to compete with trees.”
That stat was amplified by many - in the media also. Thanks Ben for shedding more light on what went on in the background.
Artist and musician Deirdre Frost will be exhibiting at St. Luke’s Crypt and The Backwater Artists Group (Wandesford Quay) in a two-venue exhibition entitled ‘In Habitat, In Transition’. Deirdre’s paintings juxtapose the natural and the man-made world.
The Crypt part of the exhibition features an installation artwork titled Áitreabh (Habitation), made of birch panels, oil and acrylic paint, with a musical response composed by Paul Frost and recorded by Mia Cooper on violin. ‘In Habitat, In Transition’ opens September 9 and runs until the end of the month.
Tweet of the week 2:
Some lovely artwork from the students of Scoil Aonghusa in Mallow for their project on Japan and the Paralympics which come to a close in Tokyo this Sunday, September 5.
That’s it for this week’s round-up. We’re back Sunday with instalment eleven of Our Cork 2040 where the pages of Tripe+Drisheen are turned over to someone in the community.
We’ve also added James Furey to our roster of writers on Tripe+Drisheen. James is a folklorist and archivists and lives and works here in Cork city. His pieces looking back at the city will be published for subscribers, so if you can support us, you’ll also be supporting more writers as we continue to expand.
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.
Further reading on T+D: