Cork City Council spent over €130k to buy and store music exhibition which never opened to the public

A council meeting on Monday night heard that the electrical equipment and computers from the exhibition were 'obsolete and/or unsalvageable'

Cork City Council bought the collection in 2007 for €75,000, in the hope that it might be housed or exhibited in the Shandon area, but despite efforts, a permanent home was never secured. File picture: Denis Minihane

Cork City Council spent more than €136,000 to buy and store a traditional Irish music collection almost 20 years ago, but it has now been deemed obsolete.

The details emerged during the council’s May meeting on Monday night in response to questions from Independent Cllr Ken O’Flynn about the prestigious Ceol traditional music and culture exhibition, which was bought by the city in 2007.

The collection opened in Dublin in 1999 as the anchor project of the multi-million Smithfield Village development in the capital’s north inner city.

Designed by an award-winning London-based company, it was, for its time, an ultramodern audio-visual crash course in traditional music, from its regional styles and instrumentation to its history and contexts.

It featured a lifelike virtual session, touch-screen consoles, a set-dancing room, and sensitive floor panels, each with its own note, that played and lit up as you jumped on them, with visitors invited to follow the lighting pattern to dance out a tune.

Reports at the time said it was delivered in "an accessible and fun way, aimed as much at Irish people as at tourists" but European visitors found the audio tour, which was delivered via a personal CD player, was not available in their own languages.

Despite critical acclaim, the centre in which it was housed struggled to attract visitors and by 2001, Ceol's future was under review.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Cork City Council bought the collection in 2007 for €75,000, in the hope that it might be housed or exhibited in the Shandon area, but despite efforts, a permanent home was never secured.

Mr O’Flynn sought an update on where the collection is now, how it is being stored, its condition, and what, if any, were the council's plans for it.

In response, Fearghal Reidy, the councils’ director of services in the strategic and economic development directorate, confirmed that after the city bought the collection, it was archived until a suitable location, permissions and the resources needed to stage it could be identified.

But he added: 

Following a review in 2019 it was determined that elements of the exhibition (electrical equipment, computers etc) were obsolete and/or unsalvageable.

“These were subsequently decommissioned and those physical elements capable of re-use — largely visual staging elements — were archived in council property, with no further storage costs to be incurred. The audio-visual files on which the exhibition was based are retained by Cork City Council.

“The agreed cost of acquiring the exhibition was €75,000. Archive costs are circa €61,568. No additional costs have been incurred since January 2020. The contents of the storage unit were in good condition when last inspected.

“When acquired by Cork City Council, the contents were eight years old. Any installation based around the use of technology quickly becomes obsolete. Ceol is now 25 years old and significant investment would be required to re-stage the exhibition.

“Cork City Council is open to consideration of proposals for suitable uses for Ceol subject to permission of the intellectual property and copyright owners, and suitable funding sources for same.”