Surely we can do better than knit the longest scarf in Europe?
I need hardly say I defended the charge stoutly. And yet, and yet...
I was home recently, proud of the fact that Cork was European City of Culture, and looking forward to the craic.
There was not much on - a very decent exhibition of Cork gold and silver at my old alma mater, and someone pointed me in the direction of Ballincollig where some decent people were knitting the largest scarf in Europe. Grand, but nothing that would make you race for your bike.
Where, I wondered, was the big and proud Cork element in this Year of Culture? I work in stained glass and was in Glasgow when they hosted their Year. They took pride in showing off their city. There were Glasgow artists, architects, painters, actors, films, writers, theatre shows, ballets, sportsmen, etc. Anything cultural or sporting in Glasgow... well frankly, they flaunted it with honest pride in a big way.
And what happened? They created such a fantastic buzz that they turned a grubby, rundown city into a place Europe took notice of and Glasgow has never been the same since. It’s a major player. Why have we kept Cork’s light under a bushel? Where are the pageants and tributes to Cork sports stars - Sonia O’Sullivan, the late, great Christy Ring, Jack Doyle, Roy Keane, Denis Irwin, Harold Cudmore, the world-class sailing skipper, Jack Lynch, great hurlers galore, past and present, soccer and Gaelic football players, Mick Barry and other famous bowl players, other great sports people too numerous to mention?
It’s the local the tourists are interested in. For the price of seeing an Italian singer in Collins Barracks (€150), you can get a cheap flight to London, a nice seat at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, trip over as many Italian opera singers as you wish, and still have enough for fish and chips and a saveloy.
Couldn’t we think any bigger? Getting the massed choirs of Cork city and county to some venue like Millstreet with all the city’s amateur orchestras and brass ensembles to sing Cork, Irish and European songs, songs from the shows, etc. A huge sound that, to imagine, thrills the blood and fills you with civic pride. A bit of forward planning lads, that’s all.
And why are we so timid about our musicians? Over here in Britain, they are envied and admired. Surely an ongoing Cork music festival would be easy for a city that can organise international jazz and film festivals? To bring back the wonderful Cork musicians scattered through Europe and America, to act as the living heartbeat of the whole enterprise?
And where are the Cork plays? Was not this the year to revive Cork plays by local writers like Lennox Robinson and others? And ask famous Cork actors in Dublin, Britain and America to come and be in them? And shows about local writers, Sean Ó Faoláin, Dan Corkery and many others.
I met an old friend, a local actress, who was in a very decent production about Frank O’Connor which I saw a year or so ago at the Everyman, Mammy’s Boy, written by a local.
She told me the Everyman had no intention of bringing it back for this Year of Culture. This, despite the fact it was full to the rafters the night I was there, with standing ovations, and she swore the run continued like that.
She told me the large local cast were understandably hurt and disappointed they were stopped from doing their bit in this special year for their city and to rub salt into their wounds, she tells me a Dublin company is coming down to mount their tribute to our local writer, Frank O’Connor - and the writer of that is a Dublin man! Ah, lads, lads... have ye all gone stark raving mad?
Another commissioned play for the year of culture about Cork is being written by a Dublin writer living in London! And they rejected I Keano as well, a musical about our own Roy Keane which is closing tonight at the Olympia in Dublin having done sell-out business.
The right to fail is implicit in any artistic endeavour, but the right to kick success out the door is a new one for the arts - and especially local successes which you should be encouraging, not kicking in the teeth.
A two-year old child would not have turned down a musical about Roy Keane in this particular year. The Arts Council should cast a cold eye on the workings of our Cork theatres. Unlike Gary Hynes in Galway, who turned a bunch of local lads and lasses into a world-famous, hugely respected theatre company, the Cork lot, according to my disappointed friend, seem to be sitting back waiting for the arts grant and the panto. No wonder Dublin calls Cork ‘Amateurland’.
Anyway, like my old art teacher opined, are we so dull we can’t give our Cork sporting, musical and performing community a fair crack of the whip? Or will we, in this Cork European Year of Culture, just send them all off to join the decent people in Ballincollig to help knit the longest scarf in Europe?
Tony O’Connor
Rectory Hill
East Bergholt
Suffolk
England
