A very well done to all the girls involved in the WOT project in Mahon who created a don’t drink and drive campaign through beer mats. They gave talks in local schools to raise awareness of drinking and driving and also designed special beer mats highlighting the dangers of the latter. The beer mats are now in Lakelands Pub and the Red Cove Inn on Avenue De Rennes. I was delighted to offer my support to this valuable initiative through my ward funds.
Well done to the Cork Summer Show organisers! I snapped the following over the last weekend!
Launch of the Munster Chapter of the Ireland India Council (IIC) on Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown Campus
Kieran’s Speech
On behalf of the Lord Mayor, many thanks for the invitation here this evening.
As a geographer by trade, I study Cork as my living, what makes its tick, what gives it a sense of place. I’m always intrigued by the idea that Cork is a place of coming and going. As a port in Western Europe, the essence of Cork has inspired many entrepreneurs and artisan families to settle in the region through the ages.
Some peoples’ stories began in Cork; others brought their talents and ambition abroad and never returned to their native city whilst others from abroad spent their entire life in the rebel city. So the concept of social inclusion for individuals and families not born of Cork should not be a new factor.
However, the struggle to fit in has always been a factor, much written about and debated. But it’s not just the migrant who has found himself or herself working hard to fit in, it is also the Cork citizens who are also searching to find a niche to carve for himself or herself. However, perhaps this case cannot just be applied to Cork but also to every settlement in the world where new groups arrive to add to the settlementscape mix.
As someone who gives talks and walks on Cork’s past to the wider Cork Community and someone who teaches in Cork schools the value of history to students, I am very conscious of the importance of identity to people in forging a sense of belonging and a feeling of fitting in, being wanted, being respected, being trusted, being cared for.
Co-production and Core Values:
In the United States in recent years, advocates of the Social Inclusion agenda have harnessed ideas of Co-production as Core Values. These own values have also formed part of my own work over the last few years.
Firstly, I firmly believe that every human being has something to give and can be a builder or a contributor
Secondly that core individuality values also include whatever it takes to raise healthy children, support families, make neighbourhoods safe and vibrant, care for frail and vulnerable people, redress justice, and make democracy work.
Thirdly social networks are important to all of us. All of us require a social infrastucture. These social networks require ongoing investment of social capital generated by trust, reciprocity and civic engagement.
Fourthly, I embrace the idea of reciprocity; The impulse to give something back to society. That wherever possible, we must replace one way with two-way transactions, both between individuals and between people and institutions. That there must be a sort of exchange.
Challenges:
During the boom times in Ireland, net inward immigration is estimated to have accounted for 80% of the demographic increase with the number of immigrants living in Ireland rising from 220,000 to 400,000. Non-nationals in 2007 comprised some 8% of the workforce – one of the highest in the EU.
Attempts have been made by our government and City Council to make sure that certain social inclusion did take place. It was successful at some levels through social partnership agreements which sought integration and embracement of cultural diversity. However, perhaps for the Irish citizen the advent of new citizens came very quickly, the migrant wove their way into a conservative Ireland putting a spotlight on social inclusion for migrants more than ever before.
The Ireland-India Council is a very progressive establishment. It visualises greater economic, educational, scientific, cultural and tourism opportunities between Ireland and India. Council explore new areas by supporting to develop communication, dialogue, mutual trust, leadership and improved understanding between leaders in business, education and government in Ireland and India.
The Council recognises that there are 30,000 Indians in Ireland (figure from Indian embassy)
I admire what the Council has tried to achieve with regard to inclusion.
With the aims of this launch in mind, I would like to offer a few notes. Recent studies in the Ireland and UK argue a number of key messages with regard to inclusion:
1. No challenge to exclusion can succeed without a co-productive and partnership approach, working with excluded people is essential at every level of development and delivery.
2. Inclusion is about wider participation. All people have a right to access those social, economic, educational, recreational and cultural opportunities, and physical health services, that most citizens take for granted. It is also about participation in the community, as employees, employers, students, volunteers, teachers, carers, parents, advisors, residents; as active citizens.
3. We need to work across traditional boundaries. Reducing barriers to inclusion requires integrated effort across government and non-government agencies at all levels, horizontally and vertically, influencing policy and practice through direct links to individual experience.
4. A sense of personal identity supports recovery and inclusion. People are more than just a category or a diagnosis and have valuable contributions to make, not just needs to be met. Services should support people to access the opportunities available within the many communities to which they belong and to make valued contributions as active citizens.
So in essence I feel we need to focus on developing effective multidimensional social inclusion strategies focused on addressing the multidimensional nature of inclusion.
So overall there is much to reflect on and much to do – They are just a couple of questions perhaps think about as the ball is set rolling. Thanks again for the invitation. I am honoured to be at this event.
Kieran’s Speech, Launch of Southern Screen Guild Profession
Bodega Bar, 9 June 2011
Ladies and gentlemen,
Launching the Southern Screen Guild Profession tonight marks another milestone for the discipline of film in our region and creates a much needed forum. The story of producing film makers in Cork has been inspired by many threads.
I’m always amazed at the number of students that study film at colleges such as St. John’s and Colaiste Stiofain Naofa, the impact of festivals such as the Cork Film Festival and further festivals afield and festivals such as the Cork French Film Festival. The updated Cork City Arts Plan, developed by Cork City Council also has a section on film. The overall plan aims to explore and debate the value of the arts to a city, both in terms of the economic value they deliver via tourism, but also the benefits delivered in respect of artistic, cultural, educational or social gains in a city.
However there is one thing saying those terms, it’s another thing to deliver on them. I think it is the personal commitment to the arts by artists and actors in this region that ultimately make Cork: A City of festivals and a City of the Arts.
Last week I saw a film Water for Elephants…I was taken by the imagery and the reconstruction of times on a travelling circus in 1930s America. It was this more so than the plot that enlightened me and challenged me –it was how life was lived, the backdrops and frames to everyday life was presented, that process of envisaging and embodying life between maybe the ideal and actual.
But I’m a geographer by trade plus have a huge interest in landscapes and the human life within them, so not only the shapes and contours but also how ways of life weave their way into the physicality of landscapes creating a sense of place and memory. Indeed, there are many pieces of life depicted in such as film.
What should film do?
An online discussion two years ago on the film critique website Mubi Europe, a blogger Stewart Adams asked the questions…What should film do? should it leave the viewer to find the answers or should the film point in one direction?
What should film do?
Some of his colleague bloggers relied Film is a response to the world. Another replied it is a template for imagining the world, another film is about the capturing of images through a viable mode of recording. Others wrote about photography’s specific attributes – its materiality, ease of access that it is an affective and driven view of the world that is thought to bypass the intellect and communicate directly with the emotions. Another wrote about cleansing the doors of perception and the creation of memorable scenes through a director’s perspective.
Another wrote that film should allow the viewers to see the infinite possibilities of life as in a kaleidoscope. It should raise interesting questions but allow the viewers to enter the “dialogue” and reach their own conclusions. A film can achieve this by reflecting the shifting boundaries out there or challenging certain boundaries, collapsing and reconstructing them.
Another blogger penned that a film can immerse you very deeply into situations in a way that can enlighten your understanding of humanity, because it mimics how you experience something in reality. That the illusion is so powerful that one feels like it can have a greater depth of feeling and connection with humankind because of that.
The list went on for pages on the Mubi blog….
Film and motivation:
So the process of film making seemingly cannot be pinned down – It involves so many threads. And perhaps that is why the value and processes of film making are so very apt today especially if we connect it into Ireland’s story. Once again Ireland has come to a cross-roads where it must now once again be creative and think outside of the box, so the nation can move forward.
The medium of film power has the power to grasp, encourage wonder, inspire confidence, motivate a self-purpose, provoke questions and the imagination and even draw in the viewer and even disturb and so much more – lessons of life can be presented and debated.
Ladies and gentlemen perhaps there is so much to learn through the medium of film – Actors and directors all bring their own talents, confidence self pride, self belief and a desire to perform their medium. Those are all very important traits.
Ladies and gentlemen, in this world, we need more of such confidence, pride and belief – we need to mass produce these qualities. This is where film gives hope and have no doubt has saved souls. I wish to congratulate all involved in this screen guild of professionals and wish you all the best for the future.
To conclude, I would just like to read one more quote from the Adams Blog of what film should do. It was written by a blogger called scooter:
“Film should grab us by the shoulders, shake us violently, and proclaim: “You are alive!”. Film should be an alarm clock, whose jarring pulses should penetrate our dreamless slumber with the urgency of a full bladder. Film should be a goddamned rocketship that jets us away from the humdrum and hurls us into the sublime surf of the cosmos. Film shouldn’t say a single word or eat at a single McDonald’s; it should simply wrap itself around your tiny little head like a plaster mold and suffocate you. …. Film should stretch itself thinner than the value of the dollar and then collapse into a black hole. Film should teach you how to dream and dream to make you feel.”
Thank you.
Gateway Innovation Fund and Cork Docklands Project
Lord Mayor, every now and again, we check the pulse of docklands and see how it’s doing.
This is indeed an interesting report that reveals what we all knew in our hearts all along- that there is no money there to kick-start the real development of docklands.
But in addition, there was no real attempt by the last government to really engage with the future potential of such as a site and to harness its opportunities for Ireland’s long term future. Much of the analysis of its potential has really only being pushed by ourselves and outside agencies in the region.
The national potential of Cork Docklands, I feel, was never really appreciated at National level over the last number of years and the idea of actually creating proper gateway cities was never really pursued by the last government either.
And even the proposed policies of the general election candidates never really bit into the actual potential of Docklands for this region and the country at large.
I would like to commend yourself Lord Mayor for taking the various party leaders to task on their perspectives and question their commitment to Docklands.
I fear for the nature and form of the current plan. There were comments by general election candidates on how is the city going to attract the bones of 22,000 people to live in that area over the space of 20 years. I also share those concerns. The last time the population of the city itself jumped that high was during the creation of the local authority houses in places such as Ballyphehane and Churchfield in the 1950s and 1960s. To build momentum, to attract such a population demands a City that is reaching out not in its own region but reaching out deeply into other regions as well.
I have to say as well I heard during the debates and which I agree with – that the current docklands plan is just about apartments and mixed business units. I feel that the plan in Ireland’s current economic problems does nothing to bring Cork forward or even Ireland forward, economically, socially and culturally. If Docklands was given money for the bridge in the morning, we would end up with vast quantities of empty apartments and business units. Sure there would be a short term benefit in terms of construction jobs and so on, which would be very welcome. But we should question what we want the future of Cork and its Docklands to be.
The current plan is still bound up with the mythic prosperity of the Celtic Tiger at its heights especially in the property bubble. It is still bound up with a kind of invisible money that we are hoping will appear in today’s world out of mid air like something in a magic show.
Economic momentum, which was there in 2007, has completely dissipated- we are learning now that much of it was based on borrowing money from international bondholders – there is also the issue of a principal developer in the docklands, who is now in NAMA. Certainly we now have a large jigsaw piece of docklands missing and even if found, the piece probably won’t fit into Cork’s economic landscape.
Plus there is the burning question what is going to happen to all these properties that have been NAMA’d.
There needs to be a hard and deep rethink about the docklands plan- the plan was conceived in an economic boom –the current plan has not reacted in any way to the downturn – we will continue to go to the new government saying we need money but we have not factored in the enormous changes in outlook of Ireland’s economic fortunes and the future needs of Irish society; the Cork docklands should feed into the new international outlook and the realistic strategies that Ireland needs to move forward in the longterm.
Docklands has certainly brought Cork to an international way of thinking; it is a very positive project; but economically the docklands as a space is not creative enough to be a sustainable place that connects into the city centre and moves with the rest of the city’s economic momentum.
I reckon that the docklands plan will have to be reconfigured in line with the economic realities of the next 15-20 years, which won’t I hope be bound up with another property bubble – the future of Ireland is going to be all about rebuilding and rebranding Ireland and implementing new ideas for jobs that are not all construction based. The young generation coming up will demand jobs that compliment their technological worlds.
I have no doubt that new plans will have to be considered for the Docklands Project. I welcome the move in the business community to consider a new university in the docklands with an Asian connection. That is about thinking outside of the box.
Cork City Enterprise Board is running a “Cost Effective Marketing Business Programme”. It is a full day workshop on Wednesday 23rd March, followed by a one to one session for each participant two weeks later. Cllr Kieran McCarthy, through his ward funds, is offering to fund five places on this programme for interested persons with a business up and running and provided for, in general, for those living in the south east ward of Cork City.
The programme is designed for anyone who wishes to harness more marketing tools in order to keep their business alive or to push their business forward. During the programme participants will: (1) identify their target customers, differentiate their offering from the competition and determine the most appropriate marketing technique to reach these target customers; (2) build a tool kit of effective marketing tools to use in their own business and (3) work on a sales and marketing plan for their business for the next 12-24 months. Areas covered include consumer and market research, how to reach your customers and grow sales, branding, cost-effective marketing techniques such as web, e-marketing, social networking, exhibitions, sponsorship of events, endorsements, PR and targeted advertising.
For further information about Cllr McCarthy’s offer, please contact Kieran at 0876553389 or email info@kieranmccarthy.ie (first come, first serve). Further details of this course and others are online at www.corkceb.ie
Bere Island off west Cork celebrated its first official presidential visit recently when President Mary McAleese opened a heritage centre which was built last year after years of campaigning for funding by locals. President McAleese congratulated the 200-strong community at Bere Island for its determination in obtaining funding for the project, saying the building was a monument to their initiative. Since the centre opened last year it has become an important reference, meeting and information point for islanders and visitors to the island. The centre has a craft shop and cafe with internet access, as well as an exhibition space, meeting room and conference facilities.
Cllr Kieran McCarthy is calling for suggestions from the general public for a similar initiative to be carried out in Cork City’s south east. He notes: “The Bere Island Heritage Centre is a blueprint for celebrating and and preserving the rich stories that are inherent in our communities. There is an opportunity for a team of people to research the rich heritage and identity of the area and present it to the general public. The south east ward has enormous potential with a myriad of fascinating histories such as the industrial heritage of the docklands, to the former market gardens of Ballinlough to the rich architectural heritage of Ballintemple to the story of the fishing village in Blackrock, to the story of the big estates that once existed in Mahon to the story of Douglas, its woollen mills and community – and all the various community stories inbetween and much more. Our heritage is an aspect that is not only important to the aesthetics of our community but also to our sense of identity. We need to mind it”.
Cork FM Community Radio is one of the best community projects to appear in Cork in the last two years. Spearheaded by Ballinlough resident, Donal Quinlan, he has done trojan work with his loyal team to get the project off the ground.
They are fundraising this Friday evening and really need people’s support. Please come and support their pub quiz in aid of community radio 19 November at 8.00pm at the Silver Key Bar, Ballinlough, check them out at www.corkfm.ie and be part of ‘bring back Cork FM community radio’ a non for profit community organisation table of 4 is 40euro lots of fun see you there.
I get to MC the event. The questions won’t be that hard except the local history round!
On last Monday morning (19 Oct), I had the pleasure of seeing the role out of the third ecar charging post in Cork City. It is on the South Mall. In an age of no money being around, one can be cynical and question how this project is to be rolled out. However, I was quite taken by the science of the whole project and the reasons behind such a roll-out. Great to see new ideas being investigated and built upon in reality. Below is some material sourced from www.esb.ie
What is an Ecar?
An ecar has an electric motor and can be summarised into one of two broad categories:
There are a wide range of ecars available and car manufacturers plan to commence mass production in the coming months. To cater for everyone’s taste, there is something to suit everybody, ranging from a compact city car or a family saloon to a sleek, racy, sports car. View a selection of cars opposite.
Charging Methods:
Home charging – Ecars will be charged overnight from their normal domestic electricity supply, taking approximately 6-8 hours.
Destination charging – Charging posts will be available in a wide variety of convenient public places such as on-street, car parks and shopping centres. A full charge will take approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.
Fast charging – Fast charging posts will be available to charge an ecars in 20-25 minutes. These will be located in petrol stations or roadside cafes.
Other advantages include an improvement in air quality and reduction in noise pollution.
More efficient and economical driving – The electric motor in an ecars is much more efficient than a combustion engine. This means that the running costs are significantly lower. Running costs of an ecar is typically in the order of 2 to 3 cent per km and compared to 12 cent per km for an equivalent petrol vehicle, this represents a huge saving in fuel consumption.
More efficient energy usage – It is envisaged that the majority of charging will be carried out overnight when the demand for electricity is off peak. Electricity suppliers will promote off peak times to consumers and ensure demand and capacity is balanced.
In the future vehicle batteries will be able to store energy at times of low demand and then feed this back to the grid at peak times. This is known as vehicle to grid (V2G) and will further support the development of renewables as a steady source of energy.
Enterprise opportunities – Any new market offers opportunities for the development of new products, technologies and services. The ecars market is no different with a variety of new charging post companies emerging, battery technology developments as well as new software and infrastructure products.
Financial incentives!:
The government fully supports the introduction of ecars. There has been a number of incentives introduced by the Government to stimulate demand, they include:
Car manufacturers will also incentivise the consumer with special schemes and attractive introductory offers.
http://www.esb.ie/main/sustainability/ESB-ecars-animation.jsp
