Disappointing Capital of Culture experience
Some of our best ever holidays have been spent in Ireland, but I have to say that we were thoroughly underwhelmed by what wasn't happening during our recent trip to sample the delights of this year's European Capital of Culture.
Perhaps naively, we expected to be drowned in a sea of publicity, endlessly being handed leaflets and brochures, and entertained by the street performers who normally feature as part of the razzmatazz of such events.
None of it instead, there were a few tatty flags and little else.
An internet search threw up a graffiti display which was shoved disdainfully away to a car park in a depressing and rundown area of the city.
There was a gold and silver exhibition at the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery nice enough, but hardly a flagship event.
At the Cork Opera House, there was Swedish jazz and a musical about Dublin, but no trace of the literary, musical and artistic heritage of Cork, which seemed to have been consigned to a skip on one of the city's countless building sites.
It makes you wonder what the city's authorities understand by the term 'culture' (new shops, hotels and corporate offices, it seems) and where the money is going.
What a shame.
Colin & Anne Hutchinson
Whitley Bay
Tyne & Wear
