“No live or loud music”
Top line: On Wednesday, Fáilte Ireland published their operational guidelines for the reopening of hospitality. It includes the phrase “No live or loud music,” which means that the wait goes on for an awful lot of musicians and those working in the music industry in Ireland.
Details: The Fáilte Ireland guidelines say that from June 7, outdoor service is permitted for a maximum of 6 people aged 13 or over per table. This does not include children, with the maximum at any table being 15.
Guidelines mean there’ll be no live music including acoustic or solo acts. Considering that it’s the those employed at pub gigs and sessions which are the backbone of the music industry, it’s disheartening for musicians and bands across the country.
One Cork venue owner we spoke with this week said it’s all just getting very frustrating now, and that one-off sentences banning any and all live music are not helping.
Tweet of the week:
Footage from Cormac O’Sullivan (our Marina correspondent!) of the flotilla of fishing boats from their protest last Wednesday. The fishermen steamed up the harbour, docked up and walked a letter up to the Taoiseach’s constituency office in Turner’s Cross. Interesting to note that Irish fishermen now have rights to just 16% of the catch in Irish waters.
Volunteers wanted
Ballyphehane Tidy Towns is running their first community clean up on Saturday, June 12 and looking for volunteers. Info below.
The Tripe+Drisheen long read
This week’s long read was all about the lack of public toilets in Cork city and the council’s new policy response. The big takeaways are that any new toilets that are opened will be pay to use, and with its “Leeside Leithreas” sticker initiative, the council is hoping to formalize an arrangement whereby private businesses will let the public use their toilets. As one councillor told us, it’s the cheapest way of solving this. Read the piece in full here.
A tragedy uncovered
Cork City Missing Persons Search and Rescue were trialling a new piece of sonar equipment this week on the Owenabue river in Crosshaven when they identified what turned out to be a car matching the description of one belonging to Barry Coughlan, a young fisherman who went missing in 2004. Garda divers are working to recover the vehicle.
Ellie interviewed members of the Cork Missing Persons Search and Rescue a few years back. “They are truly amazing, definitely overlooked Cork heroes who volunteer to do a terrible job,” she says.
Festivals
Cork Harbour Festival runs from June 4 to June 14, and there is a pile of In Real Life activites as well as virtual events from poetry, to origami boat building to boat racing - great to see the Ocean to City curragh race is back - as well as kayaking in the city, and diving in the harbour. Full details can be found on their website.
Cork Midsummer Festival starts on June 14 just as Cork Harbour Festival finishes up, and as with the Harbour Festival, it’s a mix of online and in real life events. Again there’s loads going on including Bád Shiobhán (Siobhán’s Boat), a performance featuring dancer Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín who performs alongside her father, traditional boat-builder Pádraig Ó Duinnín.
Borrowing from an original concept by Helsinki Festival, 20 Cork artists will deliver over 300 free Art Gifts around specific areas of Cork city. Artists will turn up at your doorstep and perform for free. The full events schedule is online at CMF’s website.
Contact us: If you would like to respond to one of our stories, or just highlight a matter of local concern, please write to us at jj.odonoghue@gmail.com or emailellieobyrne@gmail.com with further details.
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