GUINNESS confirmed last night they will sponsor next year’s Cork jazz festival after a bumper event over the weekend.

I CALLED into the European Capital of Culture 2005 offices on Patrick Street in Cork on several occasions, looking for something of actual European culture.

CORK’S tenure as European Capital of Culture may be over but the good news stories from the year were in abundance at a conference yesterday on the Culture and Health strand of the Cork 2005 programme of events.

THE ‘city of festivals’ has just received a cash injection for two high-profile events in Cork’s cultural calendar.

FOUR tonnes of fireworks will explode over Cork in a 15-minute burst of colour, marking the end of the city’s 2005 European Capital of Culture celebrations.

I WOULD like to draw your attention to a number of inaccuracies in an article titled “There’s your culture: the arts in 2005” (Irish Examiner, December 27) that Cork 2005 would ask you to correct at your earliest convenience.

ON Sunday last, it was obvious from early morning that some event would be taking place later in the day in Cork city.

CORK’S designation as Europe’s cultural capital will be vital in attracting tourists to Ireland this year, an industry meeting was told yesterday.

JAZZ reigns in Cork this bank holiday weekend with a powerful blast coming last night from the organisers, who are promising the city’s best-ever Guinness international festival.

AN exhibition match, featuring old style hurleys, is to be played at half-time in Monday’s Oireachtas final, between Cork and Galway in Páirc Uí Rinn.

AS A postgraduate research student, I wish to appeal to any of your readers who may have information on Cork playwrights Geraldine Cummins (1890-1968) and Susanne Day (b.1890).

Cork is in line for a €20m windfall on the forthcoming bank holiday weekend — thanks to the Guinness sponsored Cork Jazz festival.

I WONDER if anybody at Cork City Hall or at Garda HQ in Anglesea Street cycles to work.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese officially unveiled Cork as European Capital of Culture on Saturday as 85,000 people poured into the city to mark the historic year.

Luck shone upon Cork on Saturday as a one-day window in the weather opened up to allow the city celebrate the start of its reign as European Capital of Culture.

Over 730,000 people have made a trip to Cork to enjoy the city’s reign as European Capital of Culture, it emerged today.

CORK’S Lord Mayor danced a jig on the banks of the Lee yesterday to invite Irish dancers from all over the country to the city next month for a world record-breaking attempt.

Michael Moynihan

SOME of the biggest names in literature are competing for the inaugural €50,000 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, it emerged yesterday.

HAVING read the article headlined ‘Cork 2005’s exclusion of sculptor’s legacy condemned’ (Irish Examiner, April 19), I agree with Colm Murphy about the omission of his father’s work and I wish to point out that my father, MC Hutson, RHA, another Cork artist, has also been excluded.

THE TAOISEACH refused to commit further Government money to the European Capital of Culture in the Dáil yesterday, following criticisms that Cork 2005 had failed to raise adequate commercial sponsorship.

POET Theo Dorgan criticised corporate Cork last night for its failure to financially back the city’s Capital of Culture project.

THE organisers of Cork 2005, European Capital of Culture, have been criticised for their failure to raise adequate commercial sponsorship to fund the year’s programme of events.

“RISIBLE” is how artist Colm Murphy describes the exclusion of his late father, the sculptor, Seamus Murphy’s legacy from the Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture programme.

I WISH to express my thanks for the coverage given by the Irish Examiner to the Cork 2005 inaugural European Union Chess Championship and indeed to the annual Cork Chess Congress which followed it.

WORLD-RENOWNED Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform a major outdoor concert on an historic army square in Cork this summer, it was confirmed yesterday after months of speculation.

THE international kings and queens of chess arrived in Cork yesterday ahead of the largest chess competition ever held in Ireland.

GOD'S own people - as your letter writer Adrian Mulcahy classes us (Irish Examiner, February 28) - should rejoice that Cork is built on a marsh - marais in French.

WRITING is hard work, Doris Lessing told the 500 people who gathered to hear her read on Saturday. “And keeping writing is even harder.”

CASH-STRAPPED Cork Opera House passed up the opportunity to stage the hit musical, I, Keano in the soccer star’s home town, the show’s producer has claimed.

A MAJOR row erupted yesterday after suggestions that the Tricolour was deliberately hidden and a copy of the Proclamation of Independence removed from Cork’s City Hall for a twinning ceremony with Belfast City Council.

A CHURCH of Ireland clergyman, who was driven from his Northern home, has said Orange zealots should be banned from taking part in Cork’s St Patrick’s Day parade.

CORK’S image as Europe’s cultural capital took another bashing yesterday as the city’s waste row entered its second week.

IT COULD be a case of NYPD black and blue after a novel boxing tournament in Cork next month.

UP to 80,000 people are expected to go on the streets of Cork today as the city officially celebrates its designation as European Capital of Culture.

NOW that Cork is about to assume the mantle of European Capital of Culture, perhaps the city fathers might turn their attention to what’s going on in the city centre at night time, especially at weekends.

CONTINUING dissatisfaction with Cork’s progress towards its tenure as European Capital Of Culture in 2005 has led to the establishment of a group promising an alternative platform.

U2 last night said it will not perform as part of Cork’s European Capital of Culture - dashing hopes the super-group would be one of the highlights of the year-long celebrations.

WITH only three weeks left before Cork dons its crown as European Capital of Culture, the lack of public information about the prestigious event is, to put it mildly, disturbing.

Awakening, the dramatic opening event on the River Lee on Saturday, January 8, 2005, marking the start of Cork’s year as European Capital of Culture, will be sponsored by An Post National Lottery Company.

NEW technology allowing video conference-style international link-ups for court cases is being incorporated into Cork’s Washington Street Courthouse, which will be back in business by the end of January 2005. It is five-and-a-half years since the doors of the historic building closed for renovations.

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue today announced a further €1.5m in funding for plans for the Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture.

ARTS Minister John O’Donoghue has allocated an additional €1.5 million towards the artistic programme for Cork 2005’s European Capital of Culture year.

IRISH EXAMINER owners Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd (TCH) yesterday announced its official partnership with Cork 2005: European Capital of Culture.