The Soulful City:

This week’s set of Lord Mayoral duties involved the launch of many activities on the flat of the city, and it has been great to grab some fresh air walking to many of them.

Some wise person once articulated that the best way to get to know a city is to walk it. In Cork you can get lost in narrow streets, marvel at old cobbled lane ways, photograph old street corners, look up beyond the modern shopfronts, gaze at clues from the past, be enthused and at the same time disgusted by a view, smile at interested locals, engage in the forgotten and the remembered, search and connect for something of oneself, thirst in the sense of story-telling – in essence feel the DNA of the place.

Cork has a soul, which is packed full of ambition and heart. Giving walking tours for 30 years has allowed me to bring people on a journey into that soul but also receive feedback on the wider contexts of what visitors and locals have seen elsewhere. Cork is a city packed with historic gems all waiting to be discovered at every street corner.  The upcoming and annual Cork Heritage Open Day and National Heritage week will even showcase such gems even more.

Cork Heritage Open Day 2023 Edition:

The 2023 Cork Heritage Open Day edition will take place on Saturday 12 August. For one day only, over 40 buildings open their doors free of charge for this special event.  Members of the public are allowed a glimpse of some of Cork’s most fascinating buildings ranging from the medieval to the military, the civic to the commercial and the educational to the ecclesiastical. This event was greeted with great enthusiasm by building owners and members of the public alike in 2022 with an estimated 23,000 people participating on the day.

Cork Heritage Open Day is eighteen years in the making and with over 35 buildings it is almost impossible to visit them all in one day. It takes a few goes to get to them all and spend time appreciating their physical presence in our city but also the often hidden context of why such buildings and their communities came together and their contribution to the modern day picture of the city.

The team behind the Open Day, Cork City Council, do group the buildings into general themes, Steps and Steeples, Customs and Commerce, Medieval to Modern, Saints and Scholars and Life and Learning – one can walk the five trails to discover a number of buildings within these general themes. These themes remind the participant to remember how our city spreads from the marsh to the undulating hills surrounding it, how layered and storied the city’s past is, how the city has been blessed to have many scholars contributing to its development in a variety of ways and how the way of life in Cork is intertwined with a strong sense of place and ambition. For a small city, it packs a punch in its approaches to national and international interests. See www.corkheritageopenday.com for more.

Meeting Notes from the Lord Mayor’s Desk:

My social media at present is filled with short interviews with people I am meeting. It is a personal pet project I call #VoicesofCork, which over the next few weeks and months will build into not only a mapping of the diversity of the work of the Lord Mayor but most importantly also to give a voice to a cross-section of those I meet.

27 July 2023, I was delighted to launch the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival at Shandon’s Maldron Hotel. The 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival took place from Thursday 27 July to Saturday 29 July.The festival celebrates the life and achievements of Cork woman, Mary Harris. She was born in the Shandon area in 1837 and went on to become Mother Jones, known as the “most dangerous woman in America” due to her activism on behalf of the miners, and exploited workers.

27 July 2023, A meeting with Rosemary McDonald of Cork City Council & William Walsh of Billy’s Rent a Goat who explained the use of goats to stem back an invasive species in Beaumont Quarry. Many thanks to Cork Nature Network as well for their championing of this project.

28 July 2023, I was delighted to launch Cork Craft Month. Cork Craft & Design (CCD) runs Cork Craft Month annually to encourage greater awareness of craft and increase sales of locally made products for their members. CCD is a social enterprise supporting and promoting professional craft makers working in a variety of disciplines all living and working in Cork city and county. Their aim is to promote Cork Craft, increase the range of supports available to our members and engage as many people as possible in the story of Craft in Cork.

29 July 2023, My Lord Mayor’s Walking Tours continue. The Tramore Valley Park tour continues to explore the development of the area from being a swamp through to being a landfill and then onto being an artificial mound to enable the development of a park. What is also great is the rich historical archive of documents and maps, which reveal not only historical development of the immediate area but also the surrounds of the southern suburbs. I will be hosting more tours of other parts of the city in August. The listing can be viewed on my website www.corkheritage.ie under walking tours.

31 July 2023, It was an inspiring morning in Knocknaheeny celebrating the amazing Denise O’Sullivan and her part in the Irish World Cup soccer team. I was very honoured to meet very proud family & friends as well as Cllr Tony Fitzgerald. Many thanks Denise for everything you do.

30-31 July 2023, It was the start of Cork Pride 2023 with Cork City & County LGBT + Pride on Tour bus with Cork City Council and Garda Traffic. www.corkpride.com has all the details and it is one of the over 25 fab annual Cork City festivals. I was also proud to raise the Pride Progress flag at Cork City Hall.