Tripe+Drisheen: The Friday View 13/08
Our weekly round-up of news and events from around the city and county
It’s been a week of firsts for Cork City Council: they’re the first council in Ireland to install CityTrees - a misnomer, as the electricity operated air purifiers and sensors neither look like trees nor do much in the way of what trees do - but five of them have been installed in the city centre.
At their official launch on Thursday, August 12 the council also outlined an Air Quality Strategy, another first for an Irish council. The air purifiers, purchased through central government funds at a cost of €350,000, form one tenet of that strategy as well as a (very) modest goal to plant up to 1500 trees next year and look at curtailing heavy goods vehicles in the city centre. However, key to traffic plans will be enforcement.
We have a detailed explainer about the CityTrees (below) which we published earlier this week. As council officials and the Lord Mayor were keen to repeat, the air purifiers are only part of a clean air strategy. More cycles lanes and a better connected bus network will also play a pivotal role in reducing traffic and emissions in the city centre.
Another part of the council’s clean air strategy is the network of sensors measuring air quality that are spread out across the city. You can access these to get current data about air quality here.
As you can imagine the arrival of five robotrees was Christmas for memes and hot takes. Councillor Lorna Bogue wondered why the German manufacturer of the CityTrees isn’t called Robocopse? Take a bow. (She also called for the city council to plant 1 million trees. Glasgow’s has a target of 18 million trees).
As for tweet of the week:
Take a deeper bow Jason.
City centre homes
Clúid Housing will build Cork’s first cost-rental homes at Lancaster Gate on Lancaster Quay. Clúid is one of three Approved Housing Bodies (AHB) in Ireland. Their function is to deliver affordable homes. The Lancaster Gate and Quay homes will consist of 73 apartments with rents starting at €990 per month – around 45% below local market rates according to the housing agency. O’Callaghan Properties will build the apartments. More information on eligibility here.
Sinn Féin’s plan to tackle vacant homes in Cork
Sticking with houses, last week Tripe+Drisheen attended the launch of Sinn Fein’s policy to tackle vacant homes in Cork. On average there’s a rate of vacancy of about 4% across Cork, but up to 25% in some areas of the city. The reasons are various.
Under Sinn Féin’s proposals, outlined by Thomas Gould, SF TD for Cork North Central and a member of the Dáil’s housing committee, the vacant sites levy would be increased to 15% (from 7%). Sinn Féin would fast-track voids so that local authorities could get a house back into its stock as quickly as possible.
Speaking at the event Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, SF TD for Cork South Central, said councils need to double down on getting sites off vacant or derelict site registries and "use all the tools at their disposal right up to compulsory purchase orders.
"Council needs to be more aggressive and more assertive where it comes to derelict sites and idle sites. If that's their own property they need to be on top of it."
The approach Sinn Féin would adhere to is carrot and stick: more money for councils so they can do more to tackle vacancy and dereliction, but have checks and balances in place also. The policy document is light on the finer details of that plan.
A few other interesting points to note from that policy launch: Cork City Council has one vacant homes officer.
Levies collected by Cork City Council on derelict sites:
2019: €189,975
2020: €613,231
2021 to date €155,240
Bear in mind vacant sites and derelict sites are not the same thing (For example, the council can collect levies on derelict sites, but not on vacant sites).
For more on dereliction and vacancy in the city, here’s a long read from the T+D archive:
Make music
Violinists Aine O Halloran and Teresa Foley of Violini will be performing this evening (Friday 13) at Fota House at 7:30 p.m. It’s an outdoor ticketed performance - bring your own seats, mats or rugs and a picnic while you’re at it. Tickets are €20.00 and available here.
Also at Fota House this weekend they’ll be staging outdoor theatre for kids centred on the tales of Fionn MacCumhaill. There’s several performances (not free) on Saturday and Sunday of this weekend. Details here.
Taking place today, Gerard Gillen is on the organ at Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral for a lunch time recital (1:10 p.m.). Gerard is the titular organist emeritus of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Dublin and he’ll be playing music from J.S. Bach, Naji Hakim, Flor Peeters and other composers. Capacity is limited to 50 and entry is €5. The event will also be livestreamed here.
Staying with music, on the second Friday of every month (so today) there’s an outdoor session on up at The Kabin (7-9 p.m.) The Kabin Sessions take place at community music centre next to Hollyhill Library and the hosts are a mix of some of Cork’s best known trad players including Paul Clesham, Jason Turk, Karl, Nesbitt, and Jessie Cawley.
And art
All this month at Douglas Village Shopping Centre as part of Cork Craft Month there’ll be an exhibition showcasing some of the various craftmakers working in Cork. More details here.
That’s it for this week’s round-up. We’re back Sunday with instalment eight of Our Cork 2040 where the pages of Tripe+Drisheen are turned over to someone in the community.
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.