Hello and welcome to the Friday View; let’s get to it!
Dreaming of a lido: It was perhaps no surprise, in a week when temperatures are soaring and clothes are being shed, that the Cork lido was on the mind of at least one TD. Pádraig Rice, Social Democrats TD, took to his inbox to issue a plea for central government to work with the City Council on the long-heralded plan for a lido on the Lee. As Rice pointed out, Cork also does not have a 50m pool (discounting the one in storage).
It’s been four years since we featured Niall Kenny and his efforts to get the lido going. Kenny is part of the Cork Lido CLG, which has a vision of how the Lee Lido should look, which they’ve presented to the City Council. How far off are we, though, before we join the ranks of European cities with an outdoor pool? How long is a piece of string? How long does it take to build an Event Centre?
No means go, again: Cork County Board are not for turning, even if, or especially when, they can’t get turning access on the public land near their stadium. A vote by City Councillors in May failed to get a large enough majority for the proposed development, which, if it goes ahead, would contravene a zoning objective of the Cork City Development Plan, which designated the land that leads up to public open space.
This week, Páirc Uí Chaoimh CTR lodged an appeal with An Coimisiún Pleanála. Notably, they have Council boss Valerie O’Sullivan’s backing. It is her contention that the proposal in principle would improve safety and traffic management in the area. Also notable is that her backing goes against the assessment of her own staff, who pointed out that, in the interest of protecting open public space in the Marina Park, and in the interest of the safety and convenience of pedestrians and other vulnerable users, planning should be refused.
Ballintemple Area Residents’ Association (BARA), which consists of local residents, contends that the access point would effectively end up as a “car park”. An Coimisiún Pleanála will make its judgement by 12 October.
Book of condolences: Born in 1918, the same year the First World War ended, Colette Hickey recently became Ireland’s oldest living person at 108. In her lifetime, the Waterford native and Good Shepherd nun went on to found Edel House, which has been providing emergency care and accommodation for homeless women and children in Cork since 1972. A book of condolences is now open to the public in the Atrium of the Civic Offices on Anglesea Street from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, for the next two weeks.
New mayor, same chain, pretty sound: Cllr Damian Boylan (FG) was installed - voted hardly describes the process - as the newest Lord Mayor of Cork. He takes the baton chain from Cllr Fergal Dennehy (FF).
His approach, as he set out in his inaugural speech, is one based on “soundness”. What does that mean? Well, it transcends policy for starters. “Be decent. Be kind. Be fair. Look out for one another. Give somebody a hand when they need it. Show patience when it would be easier to show anger. Treat people with respect even when you disagree with them.”
One suspects that the Lord Mayor’s philosophy will be (severely?) tested, less so much by the public, who, by and large, are blissfully unaware of the changing of the guard, but rather by his fellow councillors. One of his duties will be to chair the monthly council meetings and ensure smooth running and a collegiate atmosphere. Perhaps he might open such meetings with his philosophy on soundness to remind some of the more testy councillors.
Droning off: Here’s one for your lexicon of corporate jargon: strategic pause. That’s the next step for drone delivery firm Manna as they wind down operations across Ireland. It’s certainly a pivot from their move fast, annoy people strategy.
The Dublin firm came in all guns blazing, or drones buzzing, earlier this year when they set up shop in the Marina Market. Former Cork hurler Patrick Horgan even popped up to show his support for the nascent drone delivery firm. The drones were emblazoned with “Up Cork”. Mostly what they achieved was getting locals’ backsides up.
Last week, Manna’s boss Bobby Healy said that “in the absence of a clear national pathway to scale commercial drone delivery, we have to focus our investment in markets where that pathway is now clear.” Effectively, that means the drones will be grounded across Ireland as Manna goes in search of moolah elsewhere. One suspects they’ll be back, but it could be quite a long pause.
Clubbing: Odyssey, a new nightclub which opens tonight on Hanover Street, is bucking the trend. According to Labour Party data, more than 520 nightclubs have closed in the past 25 years.
Like the Savoy, which reopened earlier this year after a 10+ year absence, the Odyssey is opening in a former club and will open until 3am. Sean Walsh, the man behind Odyssey, said he’s looking to bring back the retro vibe of the Sir Henry’s days. CorkBeo reports there’ll be free tattoos tonight and a Formula One racing simulator as part of a tie-up with Monster Energy. Just like Sir Henry’s then
Submissions: The retendering process for the Event Centre closed this week and according to information passed to City Councillors there were…submissions. As The Examiner reports, the exact site for the Event Centre is still up in the air (unlike that sod first turned in 2016 which has long fallen to ground), but construction company BAM is “understood to be proposing South Main Street”, the site of its initial tender process from 2010. Time will tell; whether it will be time measured in decades remains to be seen?
Nighttime Co-op: Now that My Goodness has firmly installed itself in the Quay Co-Op cafe, they're opening up the cafe as a nighttime community-run events centre, hence the name the Nighttime Co-Op. They're hoping to secure at least 200 paying members to make the venture sustainable — and support the cafe. The venue is open to all, and each month there's a calendar meeting to pitch and plan for the month ahead. Kate Ryan in The Echo gets the lowdown from Virginia O'Gara:
“If you’ve signed up to be a member and you want to use the space, you have to go to the monthly Calendar Making Party,” says Virginia, because (as she puts it), “Even if you just want to do your kimchi making workshop, you are going to be in a room with the Marxist-Leninists who are having a quilting bee!” Each calendar party can only last two hours, so pitches to use the space must be brief.
Birdsong: Chef Brian Murray of Glass Curtain on MacCurtain Street is taking a punt on opening a second premises, this time on Washington Street. The new venture, to be called Birdsong, will open in Chambers, “an iconic former Cork City bar.” (Again with the iconic! Sigh.)
The Irish Examiner reports that grilling, roasting and cocktails will be the order of the day. Chef Murray aims to be up and grilling by the Jazz Festival in October, but, as he said himself, that might be ambitious.
Elsewhere, Son of a Bun, also on MacCurtain Street, is opening a second premises down the road from Birdsong on Lancaster Quay in the former Reidy’s Vault Bar. Likely the tourist and student trade were motivating factors.
The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, July 23-25, Shandon
DOSE Weekender, July 2-5, across the city
Live At The Marquee Cork 2026, June 10 - July 18, Cork
Another Love Story, July 17-18, Ballyvollane House
West Cork Chamber Music Festival: 26 June – 5 July. Various locations.
Cork on a Fork: August 12-16. Various locations.
Park runs: The free volunteer-led 5km parkruns (or walks) take place at 9:30 am every Saturday morning across three locations in the city: Ballincollig Regional Park, Tramore Valley Park and the Glen River Park (the nearest one in the county is Midleton Greenway).
On Sundays it’s over to the juniors (aged 4–14) for Junior parkrun, a 2km run at 9:30 am at Clashduv Park, St Mary’s Campus, Ballincollig Regional Park and Nursery Drive park run in Ballinlough. Full listing of all 16 park runs in Cork city and county here.
🎶Camille O’Sullivan will perform at the annual Bessborough commemoration this Sunday in honour of the 923 children that died in the former mother and child home on the Southside. Guest speaker on the day is Noelle Brown, a writer and actor who was born in Bessborough and now serves as a Dublin city councillor for the Social Democrats.
Time, date, place: 2pm, Sunday June 28, Bessborough folly
📽️What would a movie shot, directed and cut over two days in Cork city look like? Well, you’ll have your chance to find out this Sunday evening in The Everyman as part of The Cork City 48-Hour Film Challenge. From today, crews will be scoping out the city as they rush to get their plots on film. Organised by The People’s Picturehouse, the film crews and actors will have to adhere to a set of rules while filming. The results of the 48-hour marathon will be shown in The Everyman on Sunday before a panel picks the winner. All welcome. Tickets from €10. More information here.
Time, date, place: 5:30 pm, Sunday June 28, The Everyman, MacCurtain Street
🖼️Sometimes exhibitions work best when the scope is narrow. And it certainly is with “New Lens”, the latest group show at Laneway Gallery, which takes Harry Clarke’s Geneva Window as the jumping-off point. Clarke was commissioned by the Irish Government in 1926 to represent the country at the International Labour Building in Geneva. However, Clarke’s 15-panel window never made it to Geneva, owing to the mores and morals of the time. New Lens sees 16 artists create their own interpretation of the Geneva Window. More information here.
Time, date, place: Tuesday to Saturday (closed Weds), June 25-July 18, Laneway Gallery, 120A Shandon St
🤔Love the Lee, do the quiz: Quiz maestro and collector of archaica and bad jokes Ronan Leonard will be behind the bar for the monthly Love the Lee Quiz in Callanan’s bar. All proceeds go to the Love the Lee group, and the questions run from the erudite to local bus timetables.
Time, date, place: 8pm, Tuesday June 30, Callanan’s, George’s Quay
🤣Laughing at Kerry men: The good people and publisher of The Book of Kerryman Jokes will be celebrating the book’s 50 years in print with laughs, drinks and eye rolls at The Kerryman’s bar near Dillon’s Cross this coming Wednesday. The milestone event also serves as a launch for Langers and Lashes: A Compendium of Cork Slang by Des McHale, with Shane Casey from The Young Offenders along for the launch. What more could you ask for? Well, the Langer song sung by Tim O’Riordan. All this evening, in short, is tripe and drisheen.
Time, date, place: 5:45pm, Wednesday July 1, The Kerryman’s, 140 Ballyhooly Road
👘Cork Clothes Swap is back at Rebel Reads on Wednesday July 1. You can swap up to five items of good quality clothes (men's or women's clothes that are in good condition; no kids' clothes, underwear, swimwear, etc.). It's a fiver in, pay on the door or buy tickets here, and you can pick up a few books as well while you're in Rebel Reads.
Time, date, place: 6-8pm, Wednesday 1 July, Rebel Reads, Marina Commercial Park
That’s it for this week’s Friday View. As always, any tips, comments, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact us at tripeanddrisheen@substack.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. Have a lovely weekend!
🔔If you know about something to do in Cork that you’d like us to share in the Out+About sections of our Friday View newsletter (published every Friday morning), please fill in the form below. It could be an art exhibition, a film, music to go see, theatre, comedy, something delicious to go eat, a clothes swap, public lecture, a community clean-up, community gardening - anything readers could get out and do.
We’d be delighted if you could share your listings of events with us via this form and we’ll include them in the Out +About section of the Friday View.
Nicki ffrench Davis went to the Triskel for Cork Midsummer
Reviews
Fingerprints review: Tech's heavy touch
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Jun 25
Fingerprints played at Triskel Christchurch as part of Cork Midsummer Festival, having premiered in Belfast’s The MAC. Supported by the Arts Council Northern Ireland, it was conceived as part of “ongoing collaborative research that explores drawing as a responsive system shaped by sound,…
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