All About Cork: Locals Celebrate Diocesan Jubilee of Consecrated Life

On Sunday, February 2nd, the Diocese of Cork and Ross marked a special occasion as religious women and men joined Bishop Fintan Gavin at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Anne to celebrate the Diocesan Jubilee of Consecrated Life. 

Additionally, members of various religious communities, along with people from across the Diocese, participated in the event virtually through the Cathedral’s livestream. 

The jubilee year focuses on the theme of hope, a message central to the celebration.

Blackpool Yoga for Beginners

Yoga for Beginners takes place at Blackpool Community Centre every Monday at 10am with instructor Shelly O’Connor. Please bring your own mat. There is a €5 fee. Contact Liz Madden on 087-6977942 to book.

Natural Woman returns

After a sold-out run in 2024, Natural Woman returns to The Cork Arts Theatre on Saturday February 15. The show is about ordinary women who have done extraordinary things and was hugely popular with the audience who filled the house each night on its debut performance in its last run.

Tickets available from www.corkartstheatre.com and www.fionakennedy.ie.

Take Off dance festival

The Take Off Festival returns to Dance Cork Firkin Crane, Shandon for its third edition from this month, February 19 to 21.

Take Off Festival is an annual three-day dance event taking place at Dance Cork Firkin Crane. This year’s edition presents thrilling dance performances with flavours of contemporary dance, dabke and hip-hop alongside live music. The programme also features professional classes with festival artists and a free roundtable discussion facilitated by Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín at Maureen’s bar.

Festival highlights include Cork premieres of works by Aerowaves Europe supported artists Tú Hoàng (Netherlands/Vietnam) and Habib Ben Tanfous (Belgium/Tunisia), alongside Jessie Keenan (Ireland), Tobi Omoteso (Ireland/Nigeria), and a new work by Amir Sabra (Ireland/Palestine) commissioned by Luail — Ireland’s National Dance Company.

Tickets are available for individual performances (€15/€12) or as festival passes (€22/€25). For more information and booking visit www.dancecorkfirkincrane.ie.

Philadelphia comes calling

Philadelphia, Here I Come by Brian Friel opens at Cork Arts Theatre on March 19.

Frustrated with his humdrum smalltown life in 1960s rural Ireland, Gar O’Donnell has made up his mind to emigrate to Philadelphia. Or, at least, he thinks he has. On the eve of his departure, life goes on as usual for everyone else. His untalkative father hardly seems to acknowledge that they will never meet again. Gar’s memory keeps straying to his one missed chance at love. And in the ‘survival shelter’ of his bedroom, his only real company on this long last night is the voice inside his head: Gar’s one constant playfellow, the confident man he yearns to be, but also, above all, his stinging conscience.

See www.corkartstheatre.com for details.

Shandon history group talk

Shandon Area History Group present their first talk of the year tomorrow at 7.30pm, in Coffa House, Church St. The group said: “Author and historian Eamonn Duggan will tell us the story of an almost forgotten Cork revolutionary, Sean Moylan. Sean spent the revolutionary years in North/West Cork and the later years in government, becoming a minister in the Dáil.”

Have Blackpool, Shandon and Ballyvolane news to share? Contact robert.mcnamara@theecho.ie