Cork street art: 'This is definitely beneficial to people... you can’t close the streets'
Shane O’Driscoll, of the Ardú Street Art Initiative in Cork. Picture: Clare Keogh
One hundred years ago, in early December, Cork went up in flames. The burning of Cork by British forces destroyed 40 business premises, 300 homes and Cork City Hall. 2,000 job losses resulted and many were made homeless. Now, the city faces new challenges in the form of the Covid crisis, but artist and printmaker Shane O’Driscoll says there’s no better time to commemorate the challenges the city has faced and overcome in the past.
“Cork was on its knees after the fire and I really felt like, we’re at that stage again but in a totally different sense,” O’Driscoll says. “We need to rally people together and lift people up and help to support each other. You saw that in the lockdown: massive support for local shops and that human spirit.
