My Weekend: I work every Saturday performing butter making demonstrations at Cork museum

Tell us a little bit about yourself;

My name is Dominic Moore and I am a digital officer with the Butter Museum in Shandon, Cork. My digital work started when the Museum closed during the pandemic and I went back to UCC to study Digital Humanities. I graduated with a First in my Postgraduate Diploma, and I’m currently writing a dissertation for my MA which is due in September.

I’m also the Convenor of the Cork Humanists and I’m training to be a Humanist Celebrant: I graduate at the end of the year.

So, having being born in the 1960s, I’m living proof that you’re never too old to go back to education!

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

I love going to one of the fine theatres we have in the city: the Everyman or the CAT Club are close to where I live on Patrick’s Hill.

Lie-ins or up with the lark... which is it for you?

I wake before 7am every morning and I totally lack the ability to ‘sleep in’… I wish I could sometimes, but that’s life!

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

Very much so, as I work every Saturday. I perform butter-making demonstrations in the museum at noon in the summer, which gather big crowds. It’s a great opportunity for the museum to connect and engage with visitors.

If money was no object, where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

I’d go to Paris, I went with my partner about 10 years ago and it was wonderful. You don’t realise, until you actually come out of the airport Metro in the city and first breathe the air, just how special it is.

People express surprise at this, but everyone in Paris was so friendly to us, helping us with directions, giving us metro tickets, and making our stay very special.

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

Allihies is lovely, as we all know, and I have special memories of staying there over many years.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

There’s nothing like a meal at a friend’s house. I prefer it to going to a pub, where sometimes I strain to hear what the other person is saying. I suppose that fact that I don’t drink doesn’t help either!

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

Over the last few years I’ve begun to attend Munster rugby and Cork City football games more than I used to. I love having the time to enjoy these events in the heart of my city, revelling in the closeness of it all and the bonds and excitement these games bring.

Entertain or be entertained? If it’s the latter, do you have a signature dish?

I’ll contend that my Spag Bol continues to be to die for, no matter what they say about it.

We have so many places to eat out in Cork — where are your go- to spots for coffee/lunch/special meal?

Issac’s is a great family restaurant on MacCurtain Street. Myo’s on Pope’s Quay is super for lunch when you can sit out and enjoy the chat and the river.

Sunday night comes around too fast... how do you normally spend it?

Usually, I do some prep for the week ahead. It might be some desk work, correspondence, or arranging future tasks into days that might suit. Physical things like ironing a few shirts also help, to get me into my stride during the week. I feel good knowing the ‘Sunday Dominic’ did a bit to help the ‘Week Dominic’ and make his load a little lighter.

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

7 bells and its ‘up and at ’em’…

Anything else you are up to right now...

My training for the Humanist Celebrancy is occupying my thoughts at the moment. It’s a beautiful, giving, warm profession that celebrates meaning in people’s lives, and a perfect outward expression of how I have come to feel about myself as a thinking, perceptive person on the planet today. Aldous Huxley put it perfectly when he said: “It’s embarrassing that after 45 years of research and study, the best advice I can give to people is to be a little kinder to each other.”

Culture Night at the Butter Museum.

For Culture Night tonight, the museum opens its doors beyond closing time and has had a policy of free admission for the last few years. Families make their way through a route of various Shandon attractions like the Firkin Crane, the Buttera Brass band and ourselves. My own highlight last year was sneaking off to stand in the band room listening to that beautiful brass sound.