It's a whole other world on this rooftop overlooking Cork City
When Joe Curtin began working in the Gurranabraher Churchfield Youth and Community Resource Centre, he was delighted to discover that he could see his home in Turner’s Cross from the rooftop. Sure enough, as we stand on the roof beneath windy, overcast skies, the Church of the Ascension, Gurranabraher, looming behind us, there, away to the south-east, tiny in the distance, is the Church of Christ the King, marking Turner’s Cross on the horizon.
Joe is a youth worker based in the resource centre — popularly known as The Hut — on Gurranabraher Rd, and he’s one of the people who, just over a year ago, helped establish a rooftop garden on the terrace of a building distinctive for its glorious stained glass windows and the metallic kite sculpture adorning its exterior.
Up on the rooftop, to quote the Paul Brady song, it’s a whole other world and, since last May, a group known as Growing Places for Wellbeing has been working to build a sustainable garden here. Today, as bees buzz around the raised flowerbeds, Joe is joined by Micheál O’Connor and Emma Woodhouse. Micheál is a community health worker, and Emma is a horticulturalist who co-leads the group.
Arrayed across the rooftop are various planters and beds containing herbs, strawberries, vegetables, and flowers. Micheál says the herb bed grows fennel, oregano, chives, marjoram, and, of course, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
The view from the roof of The Hut is spectacular, the panorama stretching from the North Cathedral and St Anne’s Shandon, down across the chimneys and cranes of the harbour, Páirc Uí Chaoimh away to the east, the north channel gleaming silver, past City Hall and the Elysian, the gothic spire of Father Mathew’s Holy Trinity Church, St Nicholas’ steeple, the green domes of St Francis’ Church, and the grey-white block of the Courthouse, past Callanan’s Tower, and Elizabeth Fort, and the three spires of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral — obscured by a mighty eucalyptus tree growing below us — and across to the onion dome of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Dennehy’s Cross and, away to the west, beneath patchwork hills, Cork University Hospital.
“It’s an incredible sight,” says Joe, “and a reminder of the beautiful city we have, and how lucky we are to live here. Hopefully, the work we do here helps people to appreciate our home town.”
As a community health worker, Micheál O’Connor works with an established network of community gardens across the northside, not least the well-established community garden in The Glen Resource Centre. Micheál’s work with Health Action Zone (HAZ) is supported by Cork City Council’s Community Culture and Placemaking Directorate, and the HSE’s Cork/Kerry Community Healthcare Cork North Community Development Department.
“HAZ is a collective response to community health and wellbeing,” Micheál says.
The Hut, a Cork City Council-built youth and community resource centre, has been used as a centre for community health engagement for many years, hosting the monthly Sunday Tea dances, walking groups, Dance Explosion, Taekwando, and the Friday social club.
It is also home to various groups which facilitate young people and offer them opportunities to develop their skills and promote positive wellbeing. Joe says the youth work carried out here is funded through Cork Education Training Board Youth Services, and he notes that the work is not exclusive to The Hut.
Micheál is enthusiastic about Growing Places for Wellbeing’s focus on creating new, open biodiversity spaces in the community.
“One of the seeds sown on the rooftop that is coming into fruition over the summer is the Gurranabraher Green Spine Project. Our aim is to facilitate youth and community activities in Gurranabraher and Churchfield, activities that will contribute to local wellbeing.”
This project has a special focus on community enhancement through art and biodiversity projects, using The Hut as a hub for its activities.
“Last year, we had a pilot bulb-planting programme, dividing bulbs across Fairfield Meadows, the Glen, Gurranabraher, and two locations in Farranree, and that really served to involve local people with their environment, and with each other.”
Emma Woodhouse, who shares a name with the heroine of Jane Austen’s novel, , and is equally at home in a garden, says her involvement as a volunteer is at least partially personal.
“This is a place that really fosters a sense of belonging. I live locally, and one of my kids comes here for music. And I have an allotment, so I suppose the least I can do is try to give something back.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the Hut just as it’s affected all aspects of Irish life and, as visitors enter the building, their temperature is taken and they are asked to sanitise their hands. As a result of lockdown, and social distancing, several planned events have been put on the back burner.
“We had hoped to have some rooftop concerts and barbecues over the summer, but they’ve had to be put on hold,” Micheál says. “Which is a shame, because it’s a fantastic venue, and the rappers have had some great gigs up here in the past. Hopefully, we can have the Shandon HAZ band singing out across the city very soon.
“It’s a community space, so we need to be sure to abide by legislation and guidelines. We would be hoping to get some micro-community health events going again, soon enough, but of course, we are guided first and foremost by concerns about public safety.”
In February, 20 people attended a workshop on composting, prior to the introduction of a wormery, which is housed in a solid wooden box built by the Churchfield Community Trust. The wormery itself was sourced from Donal O’Leary’s Macroom-based company, wastedown.com. A look inside the box reveals layers of waste, topped off by straw. Happy in their work, the worms digest food waste, breaking everything down to compost.
Coffee grinds, tea bags, grass clippings, food waste — Emma says the worms can handle just about anything organic. “Having a wormery enables the centre to manage all of its organic waste.”
“Up on the rooftop, it’s a whole other world,” sang Paul Brady, “and who could see heaven, and not want to stay?”
For Joe, the work of The Hut is designed to give young people a sense of ownership of their area. Emma describes it as “place-making”. Joe says there’s an open invitation to locals to call in, and a kettle on the boil.
“What we’re doing here is playing the long game,” says Micheál O’Connor as we look down across the city from The Hut’s rooftop garden.
“We’re planting time as much as anything else here, and we’re giving young people an opportunity to dig in, and to think about what it means to be a part of their community’s health and wellbeing long-term.”
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