No home for giant knitted map of city which cost taxpayers €259k

Cork’s city fathers have pulled the rug from under a proposal to use a giant knitted map of the city — which cost taxpayers €259,000 seven years ago — as a tourist attraction.

Councillors were told last night that the Knitted Map, commissioned for Cork’s European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2005, will not be part of the council’s tourism plans.

The 65m x 20m abstract map was the brainchild of the now defunct Half Angel theatre company to mark the city’s historic designation as European Capital of Culture.

More that 2,500 knitters from 22 countries helped knit the map in the crypt of St Luke’s Church that year. However, its €259,000 price tag became a subject of controversy.

The map was displayed in Cork’s Millennium Hall as part of the Cork 2005 celebrations, and during the 2006 Cork Midsummer Festival before going on show at Millersville University, Pennsylvania, in 2007.

It is now being stored in several large boxes at UCC.

Dr Jools Gilson, a former director of Half Angel, said she sees herself as a “custodian” of the piece.

She said plans to display it in a proposed new city library ended with the collapse of that project, and various attempts to find somewhere suitable for it over the years failed.

“No one in Cork City Council has ever approached me to find a home for it,” she said.

“It was always incredibly shocking to us that no one seemed to appreciate this project.

“It was essentially ladies knitting. It was incredibly democratic and it meant a great deal to them.

“Many had never been involved in an arts project before and they took ownership of this. They saw it as an act of civic duty.”

Ms Gilson is now in talks with a view to putting the map on display outside the country.

“It may have to leave this country before people here fully appreciate it,” she said.

Cllr Kieran McCarthy called on city officials to identify a venue in Cork where it could be put on permanent display.

However, in a written reply last night, city officials said the council had nothing to do with the commissioning of the map and it is up to the artists to sort out the display arrangements. This was all hammered out as part of the commissioning agreement, they said.

Mr McCarthy expressed his disappointment with the response, and criticised City Hall for its “lack of imagination”.

“Surely somewhere can be found to display this piece,” he said. “It is sitting in boxes at the moment, which is doing a disservice to the thousands of people, mostly women, who were involved in its creation.”