Launch of Fleishmann centenary celebrations

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese visited Cork to launch the Aloys Fleishmann Centenary Celebrations at Cork City Hall and reopen the Lewis Glucksman Gallery at UCC.

Speaking at City Hall, President McAleese spoke of the late Dr Fleishmann’s “immeasurable contribution to the cultural life of the country”.

Dr Fleishmann, she said, had served as “a teacher, an activist and an advocate for the arts, and made himself one of the most pivotal figures of Irish music in the 20th century”.

Dr Fleishmann, the grandson of German immigrants, had, she added, been “a fluent Irish speaker with no Irish blood in his veins… he was fully European, but Cork was the place he loved the best”.

Dr Fleishmann, who died in 1992, was Professor of Music at University College Cork for 46 years, and encouraged music teaching in primary and secondary schools throughout the county.

Dr Fleishmann founded the Cork International Choral Festival and also worked with the lateJoan Denise Moriarty to foster ballet in Ireland.

Cork City Council has organised a year-long programme of events to mark the centenary of Dr Fleishmann’s birth. These will include concerts, recitals, exhibitions, dance performances, public lectures, conferences and special tributes.

The centenary will also be marked by events in Germany, Britain, America and China. A full programme is available at www.corkcity.ie/aloysfleischmann.

Later in the afternoon, President McAleese officially reopened the Lewis Glucksman Gallery at UCC. The gallery had been closed since it was damaged by flooding on November 19. On that occasion, most of its collection – which was stored in the basement – was submerged by the flood waters. A massive restoration programme has since ensured that almost all the work has been saved.

President McAleese praised the gallery’s director, Fiona Kearney, and the team of conservators who had come to the collection’s rescue. The President described the restoration of the damaged artworks as “a miracle, the kind of miracle you get when you work for the miracle. There was no precedent for what happened here”.

“2009 will be remembered as a horrible year, but it also be remembered as an extraordinary chapter in the gallery’s history. When you see what has been redeemed, your heart lifts,” she said.

The reopening also marked the gallery’s fifth anniversary, and President McAleese launched a new exhibition, Thingamajig: the Secret Life of Objects. The exhibition, curated by Claire Feeley and Matt Packer, runs until May 9.