Take a walk through Cork city on Saturday - and take a second look at derelict buildings
A derelict building on Marlboro Street, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan
It's hard not to go into the city centre these days and see what could be, rather than what is.
While outdoor dining and pedestrianisation of side streets have created conversations on what's next for the city as an experience, there are still a lot of questions about how we use our city-centre properties.
By the time the dust settles, Brexit will have profoundly affected shopping streets and centres built largely on the inferred prestige of departing UK chains, to the detriment of homegrown retail and services struggling to keep up with higher overheads and make the most of dwindling footfall.
Meanwhile, it's impossible not to look up and wonder why so many empty floors over retail premises aren't being properly used as apartments and other accommodation - to say nothing of the questions of seemingly abandoned houses, and what's to be done at all with large-scale properties currently lying idle, like the Debenham's building on Patrick Street.
If it's all made you think in recent times, there's a walking tour happening on Saturday afternoon that will provide further food for thought - a 'Walking Festival to End Dereliction', organised by the Cork chapter of tenants' union CATU, and Frank O'Connor and Jude Sherry from sustainable design agency Anois.
Another day of @judesherry & me preparing guided protest tour & festival of #DerelictCork on the 25th in collaboration with @CatuCork [1pm to 4pm; more details to follow]
— Frank O'Connor (@frank_oconnor) September 17, 2021
Delighted to confirm tour will include poetry by @JenniferHorgan5 & myself on route
This is #DerelictIreland pic.twitter.com/csI8tgJWvp
The three-hour walk through town starts at Blarney Street, as per O'Connor's thread on Twitter, and ends at the former Odlum's factory on the docks - raising questions of the use of property of all types and sizes in the post-pandemic picture.
"This is a protest idea we came up with to march through Cork City while educating ourselves on dereliction in Cork, the history of the buildings that have been forced into disrepair, and what could be done with these buildings if the council had any interest in tackling it", says CATU Cork's Ruadh MacCárthaigh.
The walk follows the organisation's postering of derelict buildings in Cork to highlight the waste of space and potential use of same - a sore point for many over the course of the housing crisis, and amid a need for more public spaces like community and arts centres.
Live poetry throughout the route will be performed by Frank O'Connor and columnist, Jennifer Horgan - and there's an open invitation for musicians, poets and other writers to perform at spots on the route as well, in response to the issues created by dereliction.
- The tour meets up at 1pm on Saturday, outside the (vacant) 4 Nicholas Well Lane, Blarney St, Gurranabraher, T23 E0XK, and continues into the city until 4pm.
- For more information and to answer the callout for performers, follow @catucork across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
