On next Saturday 15 August 2020 Cllr Kieran McCarthy will take part in the virtual Cork Heritage Open Day. Due to Covid-19 Cork Heritage Open Day, which has always had up to this year had 40 buildings opened to the public,  will now go online with a mixture of virtual tours, interviews, history quizzes and completions. Cllr McCarthy has contributed to the virtual City Hall tour and the Chamber of Commerce Fitzgerald House tour.

To mark the start of Heritage Week the Cork Heritage Open Day website will go live on Saturday 15 August and members of the public will be able to explore virtually some of Cork’s finest historic and most beautiful buildings including Cork City Hall, Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills, the Custom House Port of Cork, Blarney Castle, the National Sculpture Factory, Cork Savings Bank, the Unitarian Church, Fitzgerald House and lots more.

Cork Heritage Open Day is organised by Cork City Council. Cork’s 96FM and the Echo are the media sponsors of Cork Heritage Open Day which is supported by Cork City Council and the Heritage Council.

On Heritage Open Day at 1pm Cllr McCarthy will also present a free webinar in collaboration with Meitheal Mara entitled “The River Lee and Cork City: Stories from the Past”. The link to the webinar is under Kieran’s Heritage Events at www.corkheritage.ie.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Covid 19 has brought my heritage work online more and more this year. I have had to put my walking tours to one side for the moment, due to the social distancing requirements but they will be back in time. My Cork Heritage Open Day online talk looks at the Cork City’s amazing development on a swamp. The city possesses a unique character derived from a combination of its plan, topography, built fabric and its location on the lowest crossing point of the river Lee as it meets the tidal estuary and the second largest natural harbour in the world”.

In addition, on Saturday, 22 August, Cllr McCarthy in collaboration with Meitheal Mara, will host a Heritage Treasure Hunt along the City’s bridges. Meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, Cork, between 1pm and 1.30pm (for social distancing reasons). No booking is required. Just bring a pen. The treasure hunt is suitable for all ages and is approximately a two-hour walk. On meeting Kieran, he will give you a self-guided walking and heritage treasure hunt trail to follow around the historic bridges of Cork City Centre island. Discover the city’s unique relationship with the River Lee.  

On the way your task is to explore the built heritage around the bridges and unlock the answers to the heritage treasure hunt. Those who get all the answers right will be in with a chance to win a copy of Kieran’s new book, Witness to Murder, The Tomás MacCurtain Inquest (with John O’Mahony, Irish Examiner, 2020).