Michael Moynihan: Cork's status as a Unesco learning city — twice — is unmatched anywhere

The Lifelong Learning Festival has been a boost to Cork’s reputation around the world, writes Michael Moynihan

(Left to right) Noelle O’Regan and Cormac Mohally of UpDown Circus at the launch of the Cork Life Long Learning Festival which runs from Wednesday, April 22, to Wednesday, April 29. Photo: Darragh Kane

You can see the distinctive yellow brochure everywhere. The Cork Lifelong Learning Festival is on this week and the usual dizzying array of events is on offer — there are workshops, talks, walks, classes, performances, and other happenings available across the city.

My nose was at me about the festival so I got in touch with Seamus Ó Tuama, whose various areas of expertise range from adult education in UCC to his road bowls column for this title. He gave me the starting point, which is Cork’s unique status as a Learning City.

“Cork is the only city on the planet to have been a Unesco Learning City two times,” he said. "Nowhere else has been recognised twice. In time another city may get the nod a second time, but as of now Cork is unique.”

Unesco describes its global network of learning cities as an “international policy-oriented network providing inspiration, know-how and best practice”, and that means . . .

“That means hard work,” said Seamus.

“There are certain standards that have to be met for the classification — dealing with the public, providing learning activities which are appropriate — and those standards are high. 

Meeting those standards once is great, but being recognised twice is unprecedented.

“And the learning festival is probably one of the main reasons for the recognition.”

Back in 2001, city councils were asked by the government to come up with strategic plans for education, which they did. In Cork the plan expanded.

“Dick Lankford, chief executive of what was then Cork VEC, and Aine Hyland of the Department of Education in UCC contacted Cork City Council and said Cork should aspire to be a city of learning, which was the term used then.

“In the Irish context local authorities don’t have a function in education but Cork City Council went out on a limb and said ‘let’s do this’. They came up with a complex plan for collaboration about learning, and how that would be done across the city, and the lifelong learning festival was part of that — almost as a footnote at the time.

“A small group of people including Willie McAuliffe, Denis Barrett, Ciaran Lynch, and others decided to try to organise it, and over time it grew.”

Florist Elaine O’Sullivan teaching Margaret Harty from Glanmire at a summer flower arranging demonstration in Cork City Partnership, Mayfield, for the first day of this year's Cork Life Long Learning Festival. Photo: Darragh Kane

Because there were so few resources, the learning festival organisers were very collaborative from the start, he says.

“If you went to a meeting the idea was ‘what can you bring?’ If you could distribute leaflets or put up posters or get funding, then you did that, everyone brought something to the table.

“That creates a culture of collaboration and co-operation, with everyone of equal status, and that was the model for how the festival worked. It wasn’t about one organisation being the big partner — whether it was a knitting club in the city or UCC, they were all together in the learning city.”

He salutes the local authority for their input.

“Not only did they go out on a limb, they adopted a motion for a learning city day, in September, and that has become the country’s national learning city day, more or less.

“They also facilitated the signing of an MOU (memorandum of understanding) between CCC, UCC, MTU, and Cork ETB, which was the first time those organisations all signed up to a partnership (like this).

“You’d have to give Cork City Council a lot of credit for their work. If you asked what their most outstanding achievement was, in my view it would be up near the top.

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“The city library is part of that, too. It has always been very important in relation to the Learning City, and they’ve always been very important actors in that whole story.”

The festival has been a boost to Cork’s reputation. Seamus has the receipts.

“When I was chair of the festival a couple of years back I was in South Korea and was trying to get a meeting but was being fobbed off, in all honesty. But when I said I was from Cork — a Learning City — then everything changed, and I got the meeting straight away. 

They immediately knew about Cork and the doors were opened straight away. In the learning and education world Cork is known globally because of that, it has that cachet.

“We had a conference last year and one of the speakers was a lady from Singapore. She’d been in Cork city centre, chatting to a random person, and she said when she mentioned the conference, the local told her Cork was a Learning City.

“A chap from the States had a similar experience: he was sitting on a bench in the Lough going over his notes, and a man who sat next to him on the bench got chatting. As soon as the American said he was a professor in town for the conference the man told him the same, that Cork was a Learning City.

“So there’s probably more awareness of that status than we realise.”

This is the week that the festival buttresses that reputation, of course.

Seamus was keen to pay tribute to the many people who have worked on the festival over the years.

“Tina Neylon was the original co-ordinator of the festival and ran it for years, and she was followed by Siobhan McCarthy, who helped it grow and prosper in turn. Now James Leonard has taken over, so this is his first festival.

“Catherine Sheehan is involved, Denis Barrett is the learning city co-ordinator, Willie McAuliffe has been the chair since the beginning, Norma Browne is the learning neighbourhoods co-ordinator and Ciarán Lynch is also deeply involved and deserves huge credit for his work over the years.”

There are festival events in UCC and MTU, he points out, but there’s plenty going on in communities around the city. “They’re all equally important in the programme. Some of the events are small, some are big, but that doesn’t matter - they’re all equal.

“Roughly 15,000 people participated last year, so it’s quite big as it is. It also draws a lot of people from around the world — America, Asia, Europe, everywhere really — so it raises the profile of the city.

(Left to right) Noelle O’Regan and Cormac Mohally of UpDown Circus at the launch of the Cork Life Long Learning Festival. Photo: Darragh Kane

“I enjoy seeing people go around with a festival brochure and planning out what they’re going to go to next, a bit like the way people go to the various shows in the film festival. There are people who ‘do’ the festival every year and look out for specific events that appeal to them, there’s bound to be something of interest to them.

“The fact that there are events going on all over the city is great because it means people don’t have to trek out to UCC or MTU from the city centre. And they’re all free, too.”

Anything else?

“There’s bowl-playing in it this year as well.”

Got to educate those visitors.

The Cork Lifelong Learning Festival 2026 runs from Wednesday, April 22, to Wednesday, April 29, featuring over 370 free events across the city and county.