St Peter’s Church to be hub of Cork’s 1916 celebrations

The historic St Peter’s Church has been returned to public use as Cork City’s hub for its 1916 commemorations.

Lord Mayor Chris O’Leary said the former Vision Centre, on North Main St, will, in its new capacity, act as an information centre and host venue for a range of commemorative events scheduled for the year.

It is a new lease of life for a building that, last year, was at the centre of a row between its owners, Cork City Council, and its then operators, Cork Civic Trust.

City Hall has resumed management of the building and has now handed it over to LeisureWorld to oversee.

Mr O’Leary officially launched the centre’s inaugural 1916 exhibitions — ‘Rebellion!’, by Rachel Abrahams, which focuses on less well-known participants as much as on the obvious ones, and the ‘Taispeántas le Chlúdaigh Ceirníní’ exhibit of Gael Linn Record Sleeves, from 1957 to 2016.

He said he was delighted to see the former Vision Centre returned to public use again.

“I am particularly pleased that this beautiful building is being used to commemorate 1916, and to act as a focal point for Cork City’s 2016 programme,” said Mr O’Leary.

“These exhibitions give the citizens of, and visitors to, Cork an opportunity to engage with the background to the Rising.”

The Commemoration Centre will be open to the public from 11am to 7pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays, with details on events available at www.corkcity1916.ie.

The events at the centre will be aligned with the National Centenary Programme’s central themes of remembering, reconciling, presenting, imagining and celebrating.

Meanwhile, the organisers of Cork’s St Patrick’s Day Parade have issued a final call for community, voluntary, music, arts, and performance groups to submit applications to participate in this year’s event.

The theme of this year’s parade is ‘1916: The Legacy’, in line with the centenary commemorations of the 1916 Rising. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is this Friday.

corkstpatricksfestival.ie; email stpatricksfestival @corkcity.ie, or telephone Elena on 021 4924 736 or Rob on 021 4924 276