Tripe+Drisheen: The Friday View 16/07
Our weekly round-up of what's happening in the city and county
Derelict no more
Edit (1:13 p.m. July 16): After publication the organisers announced that “due to unforeseen circumstances” Vinly Love will not be going ahead and are rescheduling.
The long-standing derelict site belonging to Cork City Council on Kyrl’s Quay is getting a new lease of life. The site, aptly named Test Site, just opposite the Bridewell Garda Station, has had the builders in over the past few weeks and they now have a new temporary wooden structure, a pavilion, in which to hold events.
First up: Ronan Leonard, Stevie G and other DJs will be brining Vinyl Love to Test Site this Saturday, July 17. It’s a free event and no booking is required. Starts at 12 a.m. Guests will be seated in pods of two, four and six.
Tweet of the week:
This is in relation to the news of the transformation of “The Grand Parade Quarter” in the city centre which will get underway in early 2022. Bishop Lucey Park will be completely overhauled which brings us nicely into our next point:
In one of our tweets about the redesign we (JJ) wrote that The Peace Park is getting an overhaul. Alas, it’s not, as the real Peace Park is actually down by the river. This error was spotted by James Furey, a folklorist and oral historian who works as a digital archivist at Cork Folklore Project. James is also a gentleman, and kindly agreed to write a little bit more to unmuddy the waters around Cork’s numerous peace parks:
Parks during peacetime
There is something special about small parks in urban centres. Places where you can take a few minutes away from the busy streets, packed shops or claustrophobic offices and find some peace. The cliched “urban oasis”. In Cork, we are lucky to have a few spots that fit this bill. Like St Peter’s Park on Grattan Street, or the Peace Park between the Grand Parade and South Main Street or the Peace Park at Grand Parade end of the South Mall. What's that you say? "Two peace parks?" Yes, there are two peace parks in Cork City - but neither are the one you're probably thinking of.
The original “Peace Park” is next to the Electric Bar on the South Mall where the monuments to the First World War (erected in 1925) and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (unveiled 1984) are situated. The great pretender, Bishop Lucey Park on the Grand Parade (which opened in 1985 to coincide with Cork city’s 8ooth Anniversary) is often erroneously referred to as the peace park. Why the confusion between the parks? What has led to this division? We can’t be too sure. What we do know is that people over the age of 40 generally don’t fall foul to this spurious place naming, and in fact can be quite vocal in correcting those who are.
But where is the other peace park I hear you say? Head out by the Elysian and brush up on your Hebrew.
So, let this be a call out to unite the city once and for all, north and south, 'peace park' and Peace Parks. Norries and Sorries - lets meet up down the park and sort this out. James Furey
Editors: Great idea James, but ahhhh at which park should we meet?:)
Rith Rá
An interesting new group popped up this week. They’re called Rith Rá and starting this Monday (July 19) they’ll be convening in Tramore Valley Park. As you might have guessed they have an intertest in the Irish language and running and that’s what they’ll be doing. Meet at 6 p.m. As for your standard of Irish: “Don’t be worried - we love talking, and we’d love to talk with you.” Fair play and good luck and don’t break a leg. You can get in touch with the organisers via Twitter below.
City Kids
Pure Cork have launched a play trail for kids, essentially a map of cultural centres and parks in Cork city. There’s around 15 participating venues and at each one you can pick up a bag of goodies which includes maps and trails and colouring pencils, stickers etc. Also look out for Bláithín, Ireland’s only native reptile and the official mascot who will be hiding out at the venues. The full list of participating is here. And importantly all of these venues should have toilets.
Why does a Cork person go anywhere outside of Cork?
The CAT Club has reopened…
…and it’s showing a Cork classic.
It’s good news for Cork Arts Theatre, the city’s small, open-access venue that stages amateur as well as professional productions, because last winter, they were forced to turn to a crowdfunding campaign to stay afloat when they found themselves ineligible for Covid arts funding.
Having set a target of €20,000 on their Go Fund Me page, the venue raised €22,000 and have now reopened, with John Power’s As Some Tall Cliff, a Cork family saga, running until July 31.
The play is directed by veteran Cork theatre-maker Marion Wyatt, who makes something of a speciality of community theatre with a strong Cork theme, having worked on a play about Blackpool’s Sunbeam factory and the Coal Quay’s famous Shawlies.
Go East
Midleton Arts Festival kicks off today and runs until Sunday July 18. Lots going on form busking, readings, art exhibitions and a soundwalk on the banks of the Owenacurra River to coincide with “World Listening Day” and devised by artist Danny McCarthy. The theme of this year’s festival is “The Flow of the Wild”. Over at Ballyannan Woods there will be family forest bathing walks on both weekend days. Full listing of events here.
Tripe tips: If you want to tell us about a story or pass us some information, please email 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.
That’s all for now folks, have a great weekend.