Kieran’s Comments in City Council Chamber in response to investment of E.1.2m in Blackrock Village Revamp, Autumn 2010:

This is a most welcome investment into one of the city’s earliest suburbs and also with a very rich heritage.

This area warrants a serious tidy up and the implementation of a public realm strategy that not also brings the community centre into focus but also the riverside and collapsed pier. The pier dates to around 1825, the stone of which it is said came from Beaumont Quarry. The pier at the moment is overrun with the invasive and unchecked species Japanese Knotweed.

The most welcome playground and small park with plaza and seating to be located in the Ursuline Convent and the adjoining demense will exist in a landscape first developed in the 1720s by the Tuckey family, who were the first to take down part of the town walls of the city in the early eighteenth century and build a new street and a quay on a site which later was culverted over to form the Grand Parade.

I would like that the heritage whether it be the history or the flora or fauna of the harbour area to be harnessed at this early stage – that the public realm is thought out and harnesses the pillars of the area’s identity, harnessing the essence of what makes Blackrock great and attractive to the many people who live and work within the area and also to the many people who walk the area frequently coming from other parts of the city.

Kieran’s comments- In response to Cork City Council licensing a new pontoon to the Lee Rowing Club:

This is most welcome news. The Lee Rowing Club celebrates 160 years in existence this year. Reputedly, it is the second oldest club in the country after Trinity College Rowing Club. Charles Stewart Parnell was one of the Lee Rowing Club’s honorary members.

The Club has also won the coveted Leander Trophy twice in the twentieth century and continues to hold regattas at his home in the most sacred haunts The Marina. An endorsement such as licencing a new pontoon to them not only endorses the important place the Club has in the history of Cork sport but also the continued legacy, the Club plays in actively taking part in international regattas and the importance of investing in our young people in providing them with as many opportunities as possible, so that they can make their mark.

Kieran’s Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 29 June 2010:

That the site which is a public toilet on Merchant’s Quay be converted to a tourist pod, viz-a vis partial demolition. The arts bodies in Cork have an interest in taking such a facility over to promote Cork’s heritage and festival assets (Cllr. K McCarthy)

“That part of the Sustainable Travel initiative grant arising from the Department of Transport’s Smarter Travel Project Fund be given towards the heritage and artistic bodies within Elizabeth Fort. That this be given to create Elizabeth Fort and its environs as a central hub for the area’s heritage. The aforementioned bodies within the fort are anxious to put history murals on the walls of Keyser’s Hill and to develop a community project called Cork Begins Here, which aims to work with Cork tourism bodies, local community groups and local schools to raise awareness of Cork’s earliest history” (Cllr K. McCarthy, Cllr. M. Shields).

Question to the City Manager:

To ask the manager, what is the plan for the re-structuring of Bishop Lucey Park in light of the Christ Church renovations? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy)