Special event to reflect on life after dark in Cork city 

Night is a time of transformation. Under cover of darkness, the familiar becomes strange and exotic.

This is particularly true of the urban landscape, where nocturnal invisibility paradoxically allows the city’s true nature to be revealed.

The strangeness of the urban night was recently amplified during the covid pandemic: as humans stayed at home, the natural world came to the fore. Foxes roamed at ease in the deserted city streets after dark. Cork after dark seemed almost apocalyptic.

Night has long been a contested space in urban history. Questions of public order, criminality and safety have traditionally been associated with the city after sundown.

But the last few years have witnessed a growing awareness of the nocturnal experience in the city. The urban nights of today are concerned with questions of sustainability and inclusivity.

Technological advancements in artificial lighting have led to concerns regarding nocturnal light pollution and ecology; 24-hour cities exact a considerable toll on the environment and there is a need for regulation and responsible lighting design in urban spaces.

Groups such as Dark Sky Ireland seek to highlight these questions.

Night’s economic value, its role in urban regeneration and gentrification, and the disappearance of beloved cultural and entertainment venues have drawn attention to urban nightlife.

This is evidenced by the recent emergence in Ireland of the Give Us The Night campaign group and the appointment last year of Fiona Collins as Night Time Economy Advisor to Cork City Council.

There is also more awareness of night as a time of vulnerability: Irish policymakers are increasingly preoccupied by the challenges of nocturnal public safety, while social activist movements are highlighting the experience of precarious nightworkers.

At University College Cork, for instance, ‘All Right, All Night’ is a new initiative providing training on bystander intervention for 16-24 year olds, while ‘PRECNIGHTS’, a recent Marie Sklowdowska-Curie Actions project led by anthropologist Julius-Cezar MacQuarie, explored the hidden experiences of women migrant nightworkers in Ireland.

Enter ‘Dark Futures, Night Spaces’, a nocturnal experience which aims to reflect on life after dark and what the nights of tomorrow might look like.

This event will combine discussion and reflection with nightwalking, stargazing, and immersion in the nocturnal cityscape.

Starting at 6pm on Wednesday, April 30, the evening opens with a panel discussion in the Banking Hall of the UCC Centre for Executive Education on Lapps Quay, moderated by Silvia Ross (UCC Head of School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures).

Nick Dunn (Professor of Urban Design at Lancaster University and Director of the Dark Design Lab) will join Fiona Collins (Night Time Economy Advisor to Cork City Council), Julius-Cezar MacQuarie (Lecturer in Sociology at UCC), Niall Smith (Head of Research at Munster Technological University and Director of Blackrock Castle Observatory) and Charlotte Berkery (Lecturer in French at UCC) to share their diverse perspectives on the nights of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Thinking of night as a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon, the speakers will explore changes in our relationship with the nocturnal space (whether in terms of work or pleasure), and the future directions and challenges which face policy-makers.

The discussion will set the scene for what is to follow: a night walk starting in Lapps Quay in Cork city centre and along the Marina towards Blackrock Castle Observatory where the evening will end with a tour and some star-gazing (weather permitting!).

Led by Nick Dunn (an expert in urban design), the walk will include literary readings from Cork poet Mary Noonan and Maureen O’Connor (UCC English), as well as social, historical and anthropological contributions.

Our own personal experience and sensuous impressions of the Cork night will intersect with the contributors’ knowledge of the city.

The excursion will also provide an opportunity to reflect on the different kinds of night: from nights of pleasure, to nights of terror, threat or danger.

An evening of urban exploration, reflection and discovery, ‘Dark Futures, Night Spaces’ is aimed at a wide public and will include a wide range of speakers and contributors, from literary and cultural experts, to scientists, anthropologists and policy-makers.

The event is organised by myself, Dr Charlotte Berkery and the ‘Rethinking Spatial Humanities’ research cluster. We are grateful to the Departments of Geography and French at University College Cork, Cork University Business School and the Blackrock Castle Observatory for their generous support.

To join us on Wednesday, April 30, register at https://www.ucc.ie/en/french/news/dark-futures-night-spaces-a-night-of-urban-exploration-and-discovery--wed-30th-april-2025.html

Dr Charlotte Berkery is lecturer in French and co-convenor of the ‘Rethinking Spatial Humanities’ research cluster at University College Cork. Her book Bourgeois Nights: Representing Nocturnal Paris In July Monarchy Culture (1830-1848) is forthcoming with Liverpool University Press.