Scant sign of brighter future on city streets

IT’S hard not to despair. Plumes of choking bonfire smoke waft across council estates. Scorched black patches have consumed the green parks where children once played.

The half-burnt remains of kitchen appliances and household furniture protrude from the charred remains of some of the dozens of fires left smouldering the morning after Cork’s traditional bonfire night celebrations.

It’s mid-morning and the good and decent people of Knocknaheeny, and nearby Farranree, go about their daily lives. Retired men take dogs for a walk. Old ladies chat over garden fences. Mothers push children in buggies to the corner shop, avoiding shards of broken beer bottles. Children on school holidays stoke some of the fires.