Category Archives: Improve Your Life

McCarthy’s Forthcoming Community Events

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

 

Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’ 2014

Cllr Kieran McCarthy invites all Cork young people to participate in the fourth year of McCarthy’s ‘Make a Model Boat Project’. All interested must make a model boat at home from recycled materials and bring it along for judging to Cork’s Lough on Sunday afternoon, 1 June 2014, 2pm. The theme is ‘legends’ and is open to interpretation. The event is being run in association with Meitheal Mara’s Ocean to City, Cork’s Maritime Festival and the Lifetime Lab. There are three categories, two for primary and one for secondary students. There are prizes for best models and the event is free to enter. Cllr McCarthy, who is heading up the event, noted “I am encouraging creation, innovation and imagination amongst our young people, which are important traits for all of us to develop”. See www.kieranmccarthy.ie under community programme for more details.

 

 

 

McCarthy’s Historical Walking Tour of Mahon, Sunday 11 May

 

On Sunday 11 May, Cllr Kieran McCarthy is conducting a historical walking tour of Mahon (free, meet 2pm, Blackrock Garda Station, Ringmahon Road, approx two hours). Cllr McCarthy noted; “Within the story of Mahon and its environs, one can write about a myriad of topics from its connection to the river and the harbour to its former mini demesne type landscape in the nineteenth century to its heart of hard working labourers and fishermen”. The tour starts by exploring the development of Dunlocha Cottages. They were developed by the Cork Rural District Council, which existed through Public Health Acts of the late 1800s, giving them authority to improve public health in the areas they represented and Labourers Acts of the late 1800s, which gave them authority to clear slum like areas and build new houses for those that needed them most.

 

 

McCarthy’s Historical Walking Tour of Ballinlough, Sunday 18 May

 

Cllr Kieran McCarthy will lead a historical walking tour through Ballinlough on Sunday 18 May starting at 2pm at Beaumont National Schools. The event is free and is open to all. Cllr. McCarthy noted: “Ballinlough is full of historical gems; the walk not only talks about the history of Ballinlough as an important suburb in the city’s development but also its identity and place within the historical evolution of our city. It is also a forum for people to talk about their own knowledge of local history in the area.”  Ballinlough has a rich variety of heritage sites. With 360 acres, it is the second largest of the seven townlands forming the Mahon Peninsula.

Ballinlough has a deep history dating back to Bronze Age Ireland. In fact it is probably the only urban area in the country to still have a standing stone still standing in it for over 5,000 years. Kieran’s walk will highlight this heritage along with tales of landlords, big houses, rural life in nineteenth century Ballinlough and the rise of its twentieth century settlement history.

McCarthy’s Forthcoming Community Events

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Events

 

 

Cllr McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2014

 

Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the sixth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 27 April 2014 between 10am-5pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held over one week later on Saturday 10 May. There are two categories, one for primary school children and one for secondary school students. Winners will be awarded a perpetual trophy and prize money of €150 (two by €150). The project is being organised and funded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in association with Red Sandstone Varied Productions (RSVP). Further details can be got from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, 085 1798695 or email rsvpireland@gmail.com.

 

 

Kieran’s Gramophone Recital

Kieran will present this month’s Ballinlough Gramophone Recital this Thursday evening, 24th April, 7.30pm at Balinlough Pastoral Centre next to the church. He will play and sing songs from the musicals. All welcome.

 

 

Kieran’s Historical Walking Tour of Balintemple

The first of three walking tours Kieran will present in early summer takes place on Sunday, 4 May and is of Ballintemple (2pm, meet inside Ballintemple graveyard, opp. O’Connor’s Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road, two hours, free). Ballintemple as a settlement hub is one of the earliest in the city that came into being. Urban legend and writers such as Samuel Lewis in 1837 describe how the Knight’s Templar had a church here, the first parish church of Blackrock: “At the village of Ballintemple, situated on this peninsula, the Knights Templars erected a large and handsome church in 1392, which, after the dissolution of that order, was granted, with its possessions, to Gill abbey. At what period it fell into decay is uncertain; the burial ground is still used”.

 

Forthcoming

–          Mahon Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 11 May, 2pm meet Blackrock Garda Station, top of Avenue De Rennes (two hours).

–          Ballinlough Historical Walking Tour, Sunday 18 May, 2pm, meet Beaumont National Schools, (two hours)

–          McCarthy’s Make a Model Boat Project, 2pm, Sunday 1 June, The Lough, in association with the Ocean to City Maritime Festival.

Draft Cork City Heritage Plan 2014-2018

Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

The draft Cork City Heritage Plan 2014-2018 is now available for public comment. 

 
The Cork City Heritage Plan is an action plan and sets out a series of realistic and practical actions to protect conserve and manage our heritage over the next five years and a methodology on the implementation of these actions.  The formulation of what is the second Heritage Plan for Cork City presents an opportunity to build on the achievements of the previous plan and to renew the efforts to protect, manage and promote Cork City’s heritage. The aim of the draft Cork City Heritage Plan 2014-2018 is “To protect and promote the heritage of Cork City and to place the care of our heritage at the heart of the community”
 
Organisations and individuals are invited to make submissions and express their views and opinions on what they believe are key heritage issues in the city and what they would like to see in the new Heritage Plan.
 
The draft Cork City Heritage Plan is available to download from www.corkcityheritage.ie/newsandevents  or by contacting the Heritage Officer at heritage@corkcity.ie or tel 021 4924086
 
The closing date for comments is Friday 25th of April 2014.  Please forward all submissions in writing to
Niamh Twomey, Heritage Officer, Cork City Council, City Hall, Cork, Or email to heritage@corkcity.ie

First Call: Cllr Kieran McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition 2014

Arts, Cork City Events, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized, Ward Events

Cork’s young people are invited to participate in the sixth year of Cllr Kieran’s McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition’. The auditions will take place on Sunday 27 April 2014 between 10am-6pm in the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road. There are no entry fees and all talents are valid for consideration. The final will be held over one week later. There are two categories, one for primary school children and one for secondary school students. Winners will be awarded a perpetual trophy and prize money of €150 (two by €150). The project is being organised and funded by Cllr Kieran McCarthy in association with Red Sandstone Varied Productions (RSVP). 

Cllr. McCarthy noted: “The talent competition is a community initiative. It encourages all young people to develop their talents and creative skills, to push forward with their lives and to embrace their community positively”. Further details can be attained from the talent show producer (RSVP), Yvonne Coughlan, 085 1798695 or email rsvpireland@gmail.com.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, 3 October 2013

Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Uncategorized

711a. Project model from Derryclough NS, Drinagh, Co Cork, 2013

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article, Cork Independent

Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project 2013-14

3 October 2013

 

Founded in the school year 2002/ 2003, the year 2013-14 coincides with the 11th year of the Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project. Now launched for the new school term, The Project is open to schools in Cork; at primary level to the pupils of fourth, fifth and sixth class and at post-primary from first to sixth years. There are two sub categories within the post primary section, Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate. A student may enter as an individual or as part of a group or a part of a class entry.

 

One of the key aims of the project is to allow students to explore, investigate and debate their local heritage (built, archaeological, cultural and natural) in a constructive, active and fun way. Projects on any aspect of Cork’s rich heritage can be submitted to an adjudication panel. Prizes are awarded for best projects and certificates are given to each participant. A cross-section of projects submitted from the last school season can be gleamed from www.corkheritage.ie plus there are other resources and entry information as well on this website.

 

 Students produce a project on their local area using primary and secondary sources. Each participating student within their class receives a visit and workshop from the co-ordinator in October 2013. The workshop comprises a guide to how to put a project together. Project material must be gathered in an A4/ A3 size project book. The project may be as large as the student wishes but minimum 20 pages (text + pictures + sketches).  Projects must also meet five elements. Projects must be colourful, creative, have personal opinion, imagination and gain publicity before submission. These elements form the basis of a student friendly narrative analysis approach where the student explores their project topic in an interactive and task oriented way. In particular students are encouraged to attain primary material generating primary material through engaging with fieldwork, interviews with local people, making models, photographing, cartoon creating, making DVDs of their area. Re-enacting is also a feature of several projects.

 

 Since 2003, the project has evolved in how students actually pursue local history. The project attempts to provide the student with a hands-on and interactive activity that is all about learning not only about heritage in your local area (in all its forms) but also about the process of learning by participating students. The project is about thinking about, understanding, appreciating and making relevant in today’s society the role of our heritage- our landmarks, our oral histories, our scenery in our modern world for upcoming citizens. So the project is about splicing together activity on issues of local history and heritage such as thinking, exploring, observing, discovering, researching, uncovering, revealing, interpreting and resolving.

 

The importance of doing a project in local history is also reflected in the educational aims of the history curricula of primary and post-primary schools. Local heritage is a mould, which helps the student to become familiar with their local environment and to learn the value of it in their lives. Learning to appreciate the elements of a locality, can also give students a sense of place in their locality or a sense of identity. Hence the Project can also become a youth forum for students to do research and offer their opinions on important decisions being made on their heritage in their locality and how they affect the lives of people locally. Over the years, I know a number of students that have been involved in the project in schools over the years who have took their interest further and have gone on to become professional tour guides, and into other related college work.

 

The project is open to many directions of delivery. Students are pressed to engage with their topic -in order to make sense of it, understand and work with it. Students continue to experiment with the overall design and plan of their work. For example in general, students who have entered before might engage with the attaining of primary information through oral histories. The methodologies that the students create provide interesting ways to approach the study of local heritage. Students are asked to choose one of two extra methods (apart from a booklet) to represent their work. The first option is making a model whilst the second option is making a DVD. It is great to see students using modern up todate technology to present their findings. This works in broadening their view of approaching their project.

 

This project is kindly funded by Cork Civic Trust (viz the help of John X. Miller), Cork City Council (viz the help of Niamh Twomey), and the Heritage Council. Prizes are also provided by the Lifetime Lab, Lee Road and Sean Kelly of Lucky Meadows Equestrian Centre, Watergrasshill (www.seankellyhorse.com). Overall, the Schools’ Heritage Project for the last ten years has attempted to build a new concerned generation of Cork people, pushing them forward, growing their self-development empowering them to connect to their world and their local heritage. Spread the word please. See www.corkheritage.ie for more details.

 

 

Caption:

711a. Project model from Derryclough NS, Drinagh, Co Cork, 2013 on multiple heritages in the local area from vernacular houses to stone arched bridges (picture: Kieran McCarthy)