All About Cork: Blackpool Tidy Village is praised for its achievements

Anybody who has taken a walk around the Blackpool area in recent weeks will have noticed the fantastic work that is being done by the Blackpool Tidy Village Group.

Their work has brightened up the busy area with a growing population and now they can add more achievements to their already impressive list.

A spokesperson told The Echo: “We’ve installed (with Cork City Council permission) a ‘Friendship’ bench, birdfeeder, two planters and signage at the little square by Dublin Hill railway bridge, up from the Grotto.”

The bench was unveiled on Saturday morning with a big community effort behind it.

The spokesperson added: “Big thanks to all who helped us. Blackpool Credit Union for sponsorship of the bench. Blackpool Men’s Shed for bench assembly and securing it and the planters in place. John and Jonathan Tús/Cork City Partnership for transporting it. Fast Signz Ltd for the lovely signage. Unforgettable Flowers for sponsoring and planting the flowers and plants. Great work everyone, all coming together for the community.”

The Blackpool Tidy Village Group and its volunteers have been out and about every Saturday morning litter-picking, rubbish-collecting, and planting flowers and shrubs in the recent months.

The group’s aim is to make Blackpool “cleaner, greener, safer, better” and its work is very much visible in the area.

The streets the group has cleaned recently include Commons Rd, Thomas Davis St, Dublin St, Spring Lane, The Plaza, Watercourse Rd, O’Connell St, and Great William O’Brien St.

The group meets every Saturday morning at Blackpool Community Centre for a litter pick and other works that help keep Blackpool clean.

For details email blackpooltidyvillage@gmail.com or visit their Facebook page.

See next week’s Blackpool page for pictures of the bench launch.

Parish lotto pot at €20k

The parish lotto jackpot remains at the very tantalising sum of €20,000, with a €550 consolation prize also up for grabs.

You can watch the winners draw today on the Blackpool Facebook page at: facebook.com/bbgparish, or on the cathedral Facebook page at facebook.com/corkcathedral.

Tickets are available on the parish’s website and Facebook pages for the next four draws.

Tickets are also available after all mass services.

During the week, offline tickets are available at the parish offices at the cathedral and Blackpool, and a number of local outlets.

All proceeds from the lotto go back into running the parish.

Plans to pass through council

Plans for more than 500 homes in the Blackpool area that could be transformative for the locality are set to pass through city council this week.

The development on two council owned sites on the Old Mallow Road consists of 95 mixed tenure homes on the smaller of the two, a site measuring 3.6 hectares, and 430 on the larger site which extends to 8.9 hectares.

Details of the development were presented by council officials last week. Over €3m was secured from the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) and councillors voted in 2019 to put in place necessary infrastructure to enable the further development of the site in preparation for housing construction.

Local councillor Ken O’Flynn said: “This is a long time coming. I can remember being involved over seven years ago in securing €3m from the government for enabling works, which has now successfully paved the way for this project.”

Mother Jones documentary to be shown at Heritage Week

The Cork made documentary Mother Jones and Her Children will be shown as part of the forthcoming National Heritage Week.

Produced by Frameworks Films in 2014 in conjunction with the Cork Mother Jones committee, this documentary tells the story of Mary Harris from her birth in Cork in 1837, her baptism in the North Cathedral, her sad tragic personal life to her re-awakening as a union organiser Mother Jones, who has become the inspiration of the Labour movement. James Nolan, spokesperson for Cork Mother Jones Committee said: “This is the first time this documentary has been shown as part of National Heritage week.

“Emma Bowell of Frameworks Films will be present to introduce the documentary along with members of our committee.

“We are delighted that the Cultural Companions members of the Cork County Federation of Muintir na Tire selected this event as their event for August and we welcome their members to the film and discussion.”

The documentary, which is about 55 mins long, will be shown at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon at 11am on Tuesday morning, August 20, and there will be plenty of time for informal discussions and Q&A afterwards. All are welcome, no need to book.

Art Link workshops

Blackpool-based Cork Community Art Link has some exciting workshops coming up.

CCAL said: “We are delighted to announce a new series of adult workshops funded by Cork Education and Training Board Reach. Reach aims to fund programmes that help to improve access and supports for educationally disadvantaged learners. These workshops are open and free to anyone over 18, with an interest in practical creative skills on a larger scale.

“The first of these workshops will bring participants from initial design to the construction and animation of a small float for the Dragon of Shandon Parade 2024. Facilitated by our talented, lead technician Sam, these will run every Wednesday evening from 6pm-8pm in The Lido, Blackpool. Beginning Wednesday August 14. Spaces are limited so send us an email for more info or to sign up.”

Confidence while cycling

Would you like to learn how to cycle, or have more confidence cycling? Names are currently being taken for a cycle with confidence programme starting in September in the Blackpool area. This programme is for older adults.

Also happening in the area this autumn is ‘Healthy Food Made Easy’ — a community cooking programme which will help you to improve your cooking skills, eating behaviours and nutrition knowledge. Register now for a six week course running in autumn at Blackpool community centre.

In addition, ‘Minding your Wellbeing’ aims to help develop a positive outlook by looking after your mental health and wellbeing. It will begin this autumn in the Blackpool area.

All of the above health activities are free of charge.

To register or for more information contact Liz Madden, community health worker, on 087-6977942.

Have Blackpool, Shandon and Ballyvolane news to share? 

Contact robert.mcnamara@theecho.ie