All About Cork: Transport corridor to city centre benefits Ballyvolane

Funding has been secured to progress a long awaited piece of infrastructure that is seen by local representatives as vital to providing support for the building of thousands of homes, a growing community, and linking the northside of Cork city with the city centre.

Cork city councillor John Maher has welcomed the news of €2m funding allocated by the National Transport Authority (NTA) to progress the works on the Ballyvolane Strategic Transport Corridor.

Mr Maher said: “This is great news after years of waiting for this project to commence, we finally have the funding to push it forward. These works will improve and upgrade the junctions at the Fox and Hounds, North Ring Road, and Clonard/ Riverview. Ballyvolane is seeing more than 1,500 new homes being built, and this is to be welcomed but the infrastructure must also be delivered. It’s great that after five years, we now have the funding to get the project delivered.

“This project will deliver new cycle paths, the upgrade of signalised junctions, provision of new surface water drainage system, more footpaths, bus lanes and change of traffic priority at Banduff Road/ Rathcooney Road junction.

“This development is very welcome and I’m delighted that after years of representations and championing this project, we will now see it delivered in 2025”.

The Ballyvolane Strategic Transport Corridor Scheme — North Ring Road to Mervue was approved by councillors in early 2022, following public consultation in 2021. It is aimed at delivering enhanced facilities for all road users with particular benefits for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport users.

This project entails improving and upgrading Ballyhooly Rd from North Ring Rd junction to Fox & Hounds junction and onwards to Mervue Lawn and also along Ballyvolane Rd from North Ring Rd to Banduff Rd. This new infrastructure, when completed, will form part of a sustainable transport corridor between Ballyvolane and Cork city centre.

Having a ball at Rebel Óg awards banquet

Dance festival returns to Cork

The Take Off Festival returns to Dance Cork Firkin Crane from February 19-21, with performances from established and emerging choreographers, and flavours of contemporary dance, dabke, and hip hop.

Now in its third year, Take Off celebrates thrilling dance artists from Ireland and Europe. Highlights include works by Aerowaves artists Tú Hoàng (Netherlands/Vietnam) and Habib Ben Tanfous (Belgium/Tunisia), alongside Jessie Keenan (Ireland), Tobi Omoteso (Ireland/Nigeria) and Amir Sabra (Ireland/Palestine).

Professional classes and a roundtable discussion complete the festival schedule. As well as tickets to individual programmes, you can purchase a festival pass.

See dancecorkfirkincrane.ie/news/take-off-festival-2025/

New players for Delanys

A historic club on the city’s northside is looking to bolster their underage teams with new players and everyone is welcome to try out.

Delanys GAA on Dublin Hill are recruiting players for the new year.

The club said: “With the growth of our underage over the years we are delighted to be recruiting boys and girls from nursery up to U18s as this year we have a girls and boys minor team. If you played before and would like to get back playing GAA, lgfa or camogie then please get in touch. If you never played before and would like to give it a try then please get in touch.

“Everyone is welcome so spread the word and let’s make the underage even stronger.”

See the Delanys Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/delanys.rovers

Blackpool Tidy Village group back on the job for 2025

The Blackpool Tidy Village Group has wasted no time getting into the swing of things for 2025. The group were back at it on Saturday giving the area around Blackpool some attention and covered a huge amount of ground.

The group said on its Facebook page: “Here’s to a great year ahead, Happy New Year 2025.

“Our volunteers were out [on Saturday] doing a great clean up of Blackpool.

“Thanks Tony, Louise, Kevin, Sandra, Chris, Happy, Teresa, and Jim.

“Areas done include Spring Lane, Dublin St, Thomas Davis St,The Plaza, Watercourse Rd, Maddens Buildings, Gt William O’Brien St, Sunday School Lane, and Commons Road. Wow, well done all.”

Arts Theatre submissions

Carroll’s Quay-based Cork Arts Theatre has put a call out for submissions for its short play event ‘Views From A Couch’. The submission deadline is Monday, March 31.

A spokesperson for the theatre said: “We are looking for submissions for our annual ‘Views from...’ short play event. The theme this year is ‘Views from a Couch’. 

“Ask yourself, where is the couch situated... a living room, psychiatrist’s office, a derelict house, by a roadside, in a forest, student dorm, retail store, office, waiting room, etc? There are a myriad of situations and countless plots that can be explored. The more imaginative the better.

“We are looking for 10-minute-plays that are character driven and are complete stories in their own right. All entrants should bear the following in mind... the setting (the couch) must be integral to the plot. Preference will be given to plays that achieve this. Don’t just shoehorn in a couch to an existing script.

“As always, in our short play events, please follow these few guidelines.

“Plays should be no more than 10 minutes in duration. Other than that, we are open to plays of all genres — comedy, tragedy, farce, fantasy, horror, period pieces, etc.

“As per previous years, all submissions will be read by our panel of readers, a shortlist compiled, and 10 plays selected by our directors. Those 10 plays will then be staged during our performance week which will take place from Tuesday May 27 to Saturday, May 31.

“The 10 minute maximum duration is important, so, if you’re unsure of how long your play runs, the easiest way to gauge it is to do a live reading. This is always a useful exercise as it can also bring to light any issues with dialogue or plot. A rough guide is seven or eight pages of double-spaced dialogue.” The ‘Views from...’ series is a fund-raising event for the Cork Arts Theatre and, as such, we are not in a position to pay royalties should your play be chosen for performance.

“If you have any other questions please email theatre@corkartstheatre.com. We look forward to receiving your entries in due course. Happy writing.”

Plays must be submitted by Monday, March 31 and should be sent as a Word document or PDF to: theatre@corkartstheatre.com with the subject line ‘Views from a Couch Submission 2025’. The venue has asked those interested to not submit plays to any other Cork Arts Theatre email address.

Have news to share? Contact robert.mcnamara@theecho.ie