All About Cork: Mayfield Library announces series of festive events

There will be numerous festive events taking place at Mayfield library over the coming weeks, starting with A Christmas Music Box on Wednesday, December 17, at 11am, featuring a recital from the St Joseph’s Gramophone Society.

A Christmas Storytime will be held in the library on Friday, December 19, at 11am, with stories and songs and an artificial snowball fight, followed by a visit from Santa himself.

The library’s junior book club will give their monthly meeting a seasonal twist at the Pageturners Christmas Special, also on Friday, December 19, at 3pm.

New members are welcome at the club, which suits ages 8 to 12.

Finally, a children’s inter-library chess tournament, Festival of Chess, will take place on Saturday December 20 at 11am. Pre-entry is essential and can be done by phone at 021 492 4942 or email: mayfield_library@corkcity.ie. Christmas jumpers must be worn (to distract your opponent).

Meanwhile, the December exhibition in Mayfield library is “From Mayo to Mayfield: An Archaeology of Faces, Places and Traces” by artist Paula Lowry, which will officially open on Tuesday, December 2, and be available to view all month.

The work is executed in charcoal, pastels, acrylic and oil paints.

Ms Lowry is a graduate of UCC and the MTU Crawford College of Art and Design. Originally from Midleton, she lives and works as an artist between Cork city and Mayo, engaging with a wide range of media including paint, drawing, sculpture, print, collage, batik, foundry, poetry, and the Irish language.

Her work has been exhibited in Cork, Galway and Mayo; in private collections in Ireland, Scotland, France, and America, and her sculpture and poetry were presented to the then president of Ireland, Mary Robinson.

She has given workshops in schools, resource centres, to children, women’s groups, men’s groups, traveller, and special needs communities, in Irish and in English. She also accepts private commissions.

Road resurfacing works

The North East local area committee has approved the first set of roads to be resurfaced in 2026.

The following roads are now confirmed for resurfacing in 2026: Hazelwood Way, Hazelwood Court; Springmount Close; Bawnleigh Court; Ashgrove Estate, Ballyvolane; Merrion Court, Montenotte; Merrion Court – Main Spine Road; Audley Place, Patrick’s Hill; Mourne Avenue car park; Harrington Square, Ballyhooley Road, and Brooklodge Drive/Grove Junction.

Independent Ireland councillor Noel O’Flynn said: “I’ll be pushing over the coming months to have additional roads added to the programme so that more communities benefit from improved infrastructure across the electoral area.”

Tree of Remembrance launch

The 2025 Mayfield Tree of Remembrance will be officially launched at an event on Monday, December 8, at 7pm on Iona Road.

Mayfield’s Men’s Shed Choir will perform at the annual event, organised by Lotamore Family Resource Centre Cork CLG, where a candle-lighting ceremony will take place at the Christmas Tree on Iona Road.

The tree will provide an opportunity for family and friends to place messages of remembrance for their loved one.

Trees of remembrance are a special way of honouring friends and family members who cannot be with you during the festive season, a time when people will miss their presence most.

All are welcome to attend the event next Monday, and are invited to place a note of remembrance in memory of their loved one on the tree itself, as a tribute to them, either at the event or any time throughout the pre-Christmas period.

Magical fun at fairyhouse workshops

Healthcare in Glanmire and Mayfield

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North-Central Thomas Gould has called for the Glanmire elective hospital, and primary care centres in Mayfield and Glanmire, to be progressed.

He raised the issue in the Dáil, saying that almost 800 people waited on trolleys in Cork’s CUH and the Mercy Hospital this month, and that 30,000 people are on waiting lists in both those hospitals, with 3,000 people waiting more than a year.

“Where is the elective hospital that was promised for Cork? If that elective hospital was there, those 3,000 people would be in and out of it within the year, and those 30,000 people could be treated.

“There is a cost-of-living crisis and at the same time, if you do not have private health insurance, your family will not get the treatment on time.”

It comes as the Oireachtas health committee were recently told that plans for the elective surgical hospital on the old St Stephens Hospital site in Glanmire may be delayed due to road infrastructure issues.

The HSE is currently working to progress detailed design to support the statutory planning submission for the new facility. However, existing road infrastructure may not be sufficient to support the construction phase or the development itself.

Brian O’Connor, the HSE’s head of strategic health infrastructure and capital, said that “the biggest single issue” with the new facility was getting access to it, and that they were “working with the council to see if there is a solution”, and the planning application was “subject to that item being resolved”.

The HSE told committee members that it is considering the introduction of a new slip road to service the hospital, and it is currently in discussions with several landowners about facilitating this.

TDs have expressed concern that this will mean delays if the HSE need to look into land acquisition or compulsory purchase orders.

Mr Gould also raised plans for primary healthcare centres, as a planned centre in Glanmire has recently begun construction after a long planning process. It is expected to be complete by late 2027, but plans for a Mayfield centre are even further behind.

“The findings of the OECD in 2022 ranked Ireland among the worst countries to access healthcare and for waiting times and found that we were the only Western European state that does not offer universal coverage of primary care,” said Mr Gould.

“We have no primary care centre in Glanmire. We have no primary care centre in Mayfield.”

Mr Gould told The Echo: “I am beyond frustrated that we are still without primary care centres in Mayfield and Glanmire. The OECD found, in 2022, that we are the only Western European country without universal primary care cover.

“The reality is that in the last three years, nothing has improved for the people of Glanmire and Mayfield. While the PCC in Glanmire is currently under construction, Mayfield’s centre is no closer than it was in September 2023 when initial approval for the contract was given.”