Cork Views: Festival shows Cork is a great place to learn

Sometimes, to really see your city you need to see it through the eyes of others – strangers, visitors, people who are new to the city.

Over the past two weeks, Cork has had a wide range of visitors from all over the world, here for the annual Lifelong Learning Festival

This annual celebration of our city as a Learning City has been an ever-present feature of Cork life since 2004, an event that everyone involved can certainly be proud of.

With over 420 separate events this year, all free and open to all, 2025 marked our 20th Festival (allowing for the break for covid). The occasion, and our visitors, provided us with an opportunity to look back, to assess the legacy of the festival, to appreciate those who made and make it happen, and to look forward to future further developments.

As I was one of nine people involved in the very first festival committee honoured by the Lord Mayor Councillor Dan Boyle at a ceremony in City Hall, this was also an opportunity to reconnect with old friends.

When Ciarán Lynch stood up in the City Hall Council Chambers in 2003 and said there was a proposal to hold a Lifelong Learning Festival in Cork, I wasn’t convinced the idea would even work. Cork has a rich tradition of festivals of all shapes and sizes, from ‘The Jazz’, to the Choral Festival to the two film festivals to Cork Harbour Festival. We know how to do festivals. They all provide a range of entertainment options, some late night socialising, and a party atmosphere.

I didn’t see then that Lifelong Learning would be a good match for this formula, but despite my reservations, I decided to get on board this train. It could benefit community education groups I worked with and, at the very least, I thought it would be interesting to go along for the ride.

I am happy to say any doubts I had were blown away by the interest showed in the first festival, and how much the partners, who hosted events, and the participants enjoyed the experience. The Festival motto of ‘Investigate, Participate, Celebrate’ was born!

Little did I know that 21 years and 20 festivals later, I would be the one driving the train, proud and honoured to be given the opportunity to do so, and lucky to work with so many in Cork that are passionate about bringing Lifelong Learning opportunities to people of all ages, interests and abilities.

Thank you... for proving that Cork organisation is efficient, flexible, and fun.

As a sign that what happens during the Lifelong Learning Festival is special, the Director of the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning Isabell Kempf joined us for a visit.

Isabell had worked for many years for the UN in a variety of roles, including as member of former President Mary Robinson’s team as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. When she met the city and county mayor and over 120 people in attendance at the reception, she presented Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Dan Boyle with a UNESCO Learning City Award, making Cork the first city in the world to receive this prestigious award on two occasions.

She said: “When I came into the role of director, I asked which city was the best example of a city supporting lifelong learning for its citizens - the answer was Cork. When I asked where is an example of a Festival of Lifelong Learning that has been sustained over many years, not just a one-off event, the answer was Cork. It serves as an inspiring example of how lifelong learning empowers citizens of all ages and backgrounds.”

Isabell went on to say she spoke to a young man on the flight to Cork who told her all about the Echo boys, and about the last remaining Echo boy who calls out each day outside the General Post Office in the centre of the city to sell the local city paper.

When Isabell saw The Echo was a media partner in the festival, she was further intrigued and insisted on taking time to get a photograph with Dave Hogan. When she bought the paper, on the first page was a photograph of an event in the festival, taken by Darragh Kane.

Darragh, a long time festival photographer, had his very first exhibition of his work this year, entitled 20/20 Visions, featuring 20 images that told the story of 20 festivals.

A small group of people can change the world. The original festival committee of 2004 were all volunteers from different backgrounds who worked to deliver on an idea. The vision was for Cork to be a city:

Where access to learning is available for all levels and to all ages in the city.

Where the city is recognised nationally and internationally as a centre of learning and research.

Involving all stakeholders in lifelong learning: Formal, non formal, and informal.

It was focused on inclusion even then, with additional equipment and a ramp being built to enable students in wheelchairs who had additional needs to be able to perform on the main stage in City Hall in the ‘Gala Concert’.

The first festival was small, just 64 events, but it planted a seed and proved it could be done. All these years later, visitors from the USA, France, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, Spain, Slovakia, Malta, Finland, England, across the island of Ireland, and even Singapore travel to Cork to experience the festival, learn from it and get inspired to try something similar themselves.

One of those visitors, Professor Mary Mahoney from Wolverhampton sent a note afterwards: “WOW – the queue that I got caught up in at the City Hall to get into the reception was amazing and showed the city’s support for the festival.

Is Cork the best Learning City in the world? Who knows. But we are certainly working hard to be the best Learning City we can be.

The final words are those of our Chair Willie McAuliffe: “It is the people that make the festival. We could have all the plans but if people didn’t turn up and support them we would have nothing. It is your festival, well done.”