Lord Mayor Community and Voluntary Awardees: Arts, Culture Recreation & Heritage
Some members of volunteer-run currach rowing club Naomhóga Chorcaí out on the water. Photo: Naomhóga Chorcaí.
Organisations making a difference in art, culture and heritage education and expression in Cork have been shortlisted under the Arts, Culture Recreation and Heritage category of the awards.
Those shortlisted include Cork LGBT Archive, Naomhóga Chorcaí, Cork Film Festival and Kalyna – Ukrainian Choir.
Cork LGBT Archive gathers, preserves and shares the rich history of Cork's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities, bringing this previously hidden history to light.
While focused on Cork, the work of the Cork LGBT Archive is of national relevance and importance.
Many of the firsts of Irish LGBT history happened in Cork, such as the first National Gay Conference (Cork 1981), the first motion passed by a Trade Union supporting LGBT workers' rights (Cork 1982), the first Irish AIDS leaflet (Cork 1984), the first LGBT Film Festival (Cork 1991), and the first LGBT float in a Patrick's Day Parade anywhere in the world (Cork 1992).
The Cork LGBT Archive makes a wide range of historical materials available and accessible for the general public, students, researchers and activists, through our digital archive, physical collection and through publications, exhibitions, film, walking tours and talks.
The physical collection is at the Cork Public Museum and the digital collection is at www.corklgbtarchive.com and has also been added to the Digital Repository of Ireland and Europeana.
Speaking to The Echo, Orla Egan of Cork LGBT Archive said: “The Cork LGBT Archive is committed to animating the archive, bringing history to life and making it more accessible and engaging for the community. We do this in a number of ways, including publications, exhibitions, theatre, walking tours and documentaries.
“Queer Republic of Cork, Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Communities 1970s-1990s was published in 2016, supported by a grant from Cork City Council’s Heritage Publication Grant. In 2016, the Cork LGBT Archive exhibition was displayed at Camden Palace Community Arts Centre. This exhibition was awarded a Hidden Heritage Award from the Heritage Council.
“This has been developed into a series of pull-up exhibition banners, funded by Cork City Council and these have been displayed widely throughout Cork city and county, in Belfast and in Berlin. A second exhibition, Cork Queeros, was displayed in Cork City Library in 2021, with an accompanying digital exhibition. Our short play, Leeside Lezzies was performed by LINC Drama Group in Cork Arts Theatre and at the Outing the Past LGBTQ+ History Festival.
The archive has produced two documentaries: I’m Here, I’m Home, I’m Happy (2022) and LOAFERS (2023). We also produced a series of postcards based on historical posters from the archive.
“The Cork LGBT Archive also provided materials for the INTO Unveiling the Past, LGBT Resource for teaching history in 2019. Cork LGBT Archive material featured in the Quare Exhibition as part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2022. Historical materials from the Cork LGBT Archive also fed into the 2022 publication Diary Of An Activist, an Irish social activism memoir, published by Cork City Library.”
Ms Egan said all at the LGBT Archive are “delighted” to be nominated for this award and to have the work of the archive highlighted and acknowledged alongside other fabulous Cork projects.
“We know that the Lord Mayor has a particular interest in Cork history and we would love to take him on one of our Cork LGBT history walking tours,” she said.
Naomhóga Chorcaí, a volunteer-run currach rowing club on the River Lee dedicated to encouraging the sport of rowing traditional wooden boats, was founded in 1992.
With a diverse membership, the club is inclusive and welcoming, training rowers of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.
Along with its sister organisation, Meitheal Mara, Naomhóga Chorcaí promotes a deep appreciation of the culture of traditional boats in Ireland, co-organising Ocean to City - An Rás Mór, an annual river race attended by traditional boat enthusiasts and clubs from all over Europe.
A not-for-profit club, Naomhóga Chorcaí funds all of its own activities and previous trips have included The Great River Race (UK); rowing trips along the south and west coasts of Ireland; river trips on the Blackwater, the Barrow, the Nore, the Shannon Estuary and the Lee; traditional regattas including Cruinniú na mBád in Kinvara; Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival; and cross-border trips to Enniskillen.
Speaking to The Echo, Maighread Kelly of Naomhóga Chorcaí said: “According to our current and past members we are one of the best clubs in the country and the comradery within the club is fabulous.
“The objectives of the club are to promote and preserve the use of traditional Irish rowing boats, naomhóg’s.
“All of our boats are from the West Kerry and would have been used in the past to transport people, animals, turf, everything to the Islands off the West Kerry coast.
“The Club was also initially designed to encourage the use of the Irish Language through rowing, this has probably fallen off a little bit primarily due to the international profile of our membership, we would say that we have up to 20 to 25 different nationalities rowing with the club at some stage and we encourage inclusivity.
Ms Kelly highlighted the activities that the Club takes part in during the summer months and said they look forward to upcoming events this year.
“During the summer we organise lots of trips to places like Roaring Water Bay, to the West of Ireland, and International Trips as well such as the Vogalonga Race in Italy, boating festivals in Galicia in Spain and the Great River Race in London,” she said.
“We have a particular connection with similar traditional boating clubs in Northern Spain whereby we will be invited to attend their festivals and similarly we invite them to the Ocean to City Race here in Cork.
“We provide our members with the opportunity to go out rowing up to 5 days in the week. With a diverse membership, the club is inclusive and welcoming, training rowers of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds.”
As Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival, Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) presents Ireland’s most exciting, diverse, and ambitious annual film festival, connecting and stimulating audiences and artists through a carefully curated selection of the best films, to create a unique shared cultural experience, rooted in Cork but open to the world.
Established in 1956, the Festival will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year.
In November 2023, the 68th edition of CIFF presented over 230 films and events at 14 venues across Cork City and County and welcomed more than 16,600 attendees (86% from Cork), a 40% increase on the 2022 Festival.
Together with its year-round education and outreach programmes, CIFF engages 70,000 each year to ‘discover film and reimagine the world’.
The Cork International Film Festival is a hub for engagement, education and opportunity, amplifying the city of Cork as a place of cultural creativity and community action.
Creating unique, inclusive cultural experiences for audiences throughout local communities to discover through the power of film, and for filmmakers to connect and learn, is at the core of the CIFF’s work.
Through its partnership with Cork Volunteer Centre, CIFF delivers the annual cultural event across Cork city with the support of its over 120 skilled volunteers.
Festival Director and CEO, Fiona Clark, said: “Volunteering at CIFF is a unique opportunity for anyone (over the age of 18) interested in film, arts, heritage and community action, offering the chance to actively participate and assist our small team in hosting a world-class festival in Cork City.
Speaking about how it feels to be nominated for an award, Ms Clark said: “We are thrilled to be nominated for this prestigious award and are very grateful to the Lord Mayor and Cork City Council for this acknowledgement.
“As Ireland’s longest-running and largest film festival, we are enormously proud to present Cork International Film Festival across Cork City every November, and can only achieve this with our community of volunteers, from our Board of Directors to our box office and front-of-house staff.
“As we approach our milestone 70th edition in 2025, we look forward to continuing to innovate and develop Ireland's premiere film festival, rooted in Cork, and to encourage audiences to discover film and reimagine the world.”
Cork’s first Ukrainian choir has also been nominated under the Arts Culture Recreation and Heritage category of the awards in recognition of its dedication to providing support through the art of music.
Kalyna Ukrainian Choir was set up to provide emotional and spiritual support to Ukrainians in Ireland.
Last October, the choir was involved in the 61st Lord Mayor’s Gala Christmas Concert at the Council Chamber of Cork City Hall which was hosted by Lord Mayor Councillor Kieran McCarthy.
The Ukrainian Kalyna Choir, led by Svetlana Deikun, also performed a special concert for Ukrainian families spending their first Christmas away from home in December 2022.
The Ukrainian choir Kalyna was set up over one year ago with the support of the Carraig Centre Ballincollig, Carrigrohane Union of Parishes.
The founder of the choir Victoria Tymoshchuk from Kherson in Ukraine, the choir’s conductor Svitlana Deikun from Mariupol in Ukraine and participants of the choir from all parts of Ukraine, are currently under temporary protection in Ireland.
Speaking to The Echo, founder of the choir Victoria Tymoshchuk said: “Our singers are amateur singers of all age groups, people who like to be active and sing songs.
Speaking about the mission of the choir, she said: “The cultural mission of our choir is to preserve Ukrainian traditions and national values, promote and introduce Ukrainian culture in Ireland and learn Irish culture ourselves, through integration and intercultural exchange.”
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