Forthcoming bye laws for Cork city buskers may not be music to their ears

IT’s the two guys dressed as leprechauns, dancing with bells and whistles to hit songs by the likes of Michael Jackson opposite Brown Thomas on Patrick Street, that annoy me.

It’s not as if these guys are even doing covers. They just play the original artist and contribute zilch to the life of the street, other than hopping and bopping around to songs that everyone is familiar with. Where’s the artistry in that? (I haven’t seen them lately, so didn’t get to ask them how much money they make from the public.)

Shouldn’t buskers be a bit more original than the leprechauns? These guys, in my opinion, give the ‘little people’ a bad name. But who knows? Maybe they make a pot of gold on Pana and maybe some folk like to hear popular rock and pop music being blasted out as they go about their business?

You’d wonder how these guys will fare when Cork City Council introduces a new set of by-laws, regulating busking in the city.

 They are due for consultation in the coming weeks, says a spokesperson for Cork City Council.

In Killarney, new busking laws were introduced earlier this year. Kerry County Council enforcement officers are equipped with sound monitors to test sound levels of buskers.

Gardaí had asked the council what mechanism would be in place to measure sound levels, especially given that some businesses and residents had made complaints. Enforcement of the by-laws is being carried out by both the Gardaí and the council.

What irks people is constant repetition of songs and crude language.

Under the new Killarney by-laws, “a street performer must not use lewd, offensive or racist language or conduct (including song lyrics) as part of his/her act.”

All street performances are now limited in the tourist town to two hours in the one location. Buskers then have to move more than 50 metres in order to continue performing.

Also, a street performer who plays music and sings songs “must have a sufficient repertoire to avoid constant repetition”.

Fines of €75 are to be implemented on buskers that fail to comply with the by-laws, and performers who end up in the District Court can be fined up to €1,500.

That’s a lot of coins for your average busker.

Taking a break from singing his self-composed contemporary folk songs on Winthrop Street last week, Cork man Ted McCarthy (a brother of the singer/songwriter Jimmy McCarthy) says he rarely has to use one euro or two euro coins when it comes to spending his earnings at the end of a day of busking. Instead, he uses the five, ten, twenty and fifty cent coins to buy his groceries and an occasional pint.

“I end up feeling very well off because I have tonnes of coins,” he told me. But with cash on the way out, Ted will be availing of an offer of one of his fans to sort him out with a QR code and a Revolut account.

Since he closed down a 34-year old contract cleaning business in 2013, he has been busking virtually all the time. ‘Have guitar, will travel’ could be Ted’s motto. He has busked in France, Spain, Austria and other places and says he loves his self-created job.

As for the forthcoming busking by-laws in Cork city, Ted says nobody has approached him about them.

“Killarney was the first place (in Ireland) to bring out these laws but they haven’t been enforced. It’s the same in France. A gendarme will come up to you for one minute and ask if you’ve seen the mayor. You just walk in to the mayor. You give your name and ask for permission. They mayor says ‘oui’ but won’t write anything down.”

Ted busked for eight years “non-stop in France and I was never stopped”. However, he says that to busk in the Metro in Paris, you have to be formally interviewed.

How much money he made in France depended on where he was playing. After three or four days, he would be burnt out, but could make €700 or €800 during that time period in Paris. Not bad for a busker, but Ted says that after all that singing, he could hardly talk.

Now perched in his native city outside a phone shop, Ted admits that it’s easier not to have to move elsewhere when busking. He says he expects to make €100 a day busking locally.

He likes to see silver coins being dropped into his guitar case. 

" A lot of people give €2 which is a reasonable sum."

I spotted a busker on Patrick Street recently singing traditional ballads. He had CDs for sale and a sign saying he uses Revolut.

Now that fewer and fewer people carry cash, today’s busker has to keep up with the times.