New pedestrian crossing marked with iconic Beatles reenactment in Cork town

FOUR local characters marked the new pedestrian crossing in Bridge Street, Skibbereen with a humorous reenactment of the famous Beatles album cover Abbey Road.

The new pedestrian crossing was recently installed directly outside Brian Hennessy’s convenience store. The local businessman said the new zebra crossing was badly required in the busy market town.

“The Skibbereen Business Committee met with the council regularly and they emphasised our urgent need for a pedestrian crossing. It can be troublesome for people trying to cross the street as cars can often come around that corner at a good speed. 

"This can prove very problematic for elderly people as they can often be waiting a few minutes to cross the street,” he said.

The shop owner who is a well-known musician decided to mark the new pedestrian crossing in a humorous fashion. 

“My music head kicked in and the Beatles immediately came to mind. There are two very iconic Beatle album covers. One is Sgt Pepper’s flowery one where the four members are wearing colourful jackets. The other one is Abbey Road where the four members are walking across a pedestrian crossing.

“I thought it would be good fun to reenact this iconic image."

"When the crossing was completed my mission was to source local characters for the shoot. I got Billy Flaherty who is big into his music, Bryan Harris a great character, and Romans Kreicbergs. They were all thrilled to get involved. We did a wedding function a few years ago in our Beatles gear so we still had all the costumes,” he added.

Mr Hennessy said their reenactment as the four Beatles received a great reception from locals who beeped their horns and voiced their approval of their good-natured idea. 

“It was good fun. The town was busy as Saturday morning is market day in the town. This ensured there were lots of people watching on and passing cars were beeping their horns in appreciation.” 

Following their fun reenactment as the legendary Beatles quartet, it was straight back to the grind for the businessman. 

“After we finished it was back to reality. We stopped being a Beatle and got on with our daily lives,” he said.