Sounds of Cork echo on our city streets

It was one of those perfect Cork afternoons — warm, bright, and buzzing with life. As soon as I stepped outside the Paul Street Shopping Centre, I could feel the sun on my skin, hear the seagulls calling in the distance and the bustle of the city streets.

I started off along Paul Street, walking towards the gate of the Cornmarket Square, weaving between people browsing shop windows or just soaking in the day. A familiar busker strums a guitar near the corner, and for a few moments, I just stood and listened, caught in the melody of singer Andy Wilson.

I continued my journey past the Grand Parade entrance of The English Market. The streets were alive but never overwhelming. There were families, couples, students in sunglasses, and tourists following maps and camera lenses. Laughter echoed from pub gardens at the top of Oliver Plunkett Street, and I could hear clinking glasses and soft chatter floating out through open doors of the coffee shop on the corner of the street.

I wandered down the long street, dodging the groups of tourists who slowly meandered with wide eyes at all that Cork had to offer.

Another familiar face had set up in the junction of Princes Street, a small audience gathered around Cialan O’Sullivan, who we spoke with last week.

Further down the main thoroughfare, I hear a unique voice echoed over the crowds.

Elisa Smith stood outside Here’s Health, with a guitar a gentle voice.

“My name is Elisa Smith, which is funny because my last name is English, but I’m from Italy originally. I moved here during covid basically, so it was strange because I started busking in the worst possible time.”

She explained: “It was a time when people only had that as their only source of joy. It was time where there was no entertainment besides hearing people busking on the street. I didn’t start like this, I started by just joining in for a few songs with other people who had their own gear. People would just gather around you, have a few drinks outside and dancing along with us and that is how I first started this.

“It is different now. Generally, people usually keep walking. People don’t seem to care as much just because now because there is life going on again and people are in a rush. Sometimes buskers annoy people too, or some don’t like the music but that is ok. You get everything when you play on the streets, you get little kids dancing, or little old people dancing as well.

“I think that getting to interact with the people around me is my favourite part, and they seem to enjoy the music. Especially when they are children because they are the purest form. When they are clapping or dancing, sometimes you have someone as tall as your knee clapping along and it is the most adorable thing in the world.”

She tells me how she came to call Cork home: “How I came to Cork was a long story. First, I came to Dublin to improve my English and worked as an au pair for a while and then I saw that there was a School of Music in Cork and I was perhaps interested in going there. I never got in, but I worked for a while as a childminder here and now I am in a different music school at the Tramore Road Campus. I am enrolled in my second year.

“There is no particular genre that you are limited to there. They teach lots of things, like music theory or anything related to music, like music business, sound engineering. They are very open in terms of what kind of music you play, you can turn up with a violin or as a band.

“My band is called Lethologica but we are still quite small and trying to get gigs. We have just started now and are trying to get on the gig scene so if anyone is interested, we are on Instagram
@lethologica_band.2024.

She tells me: “The meaning behind the word and why we named our band that is when you have a word at the tip of your tongue, and you just can’t remember it. In the band I am the guitarist, and we play mostly punk songs.

“When I sing on my own it is a very different kind of music. It is mostly covers and I really love Sinead O’Connor and The Cranberries. I try to blend a few of their properties and a few of the things that I would naturally do. I also really like Enya but being from Italy I also have inspiration from there too.”

Elisa also performs original songs and as I departed, she sang a song she wrote, Our Children, which she dedicated to the children of Palestine.

To hear more from her, you can follow Elisa on Instagram @la_suekla.

Continuing my ramble down the street, I stopped at one of the busy cafes for a cup of coffee, as I ordered I heard a beautiful voice singing an Adele number coming from near the GPO.

My search brought me to Northside natives Isabelle Cronin from Gurranabraher and Katelynn Burns from Farranree.

As the pair sang, they laughed along with each other and had an ease to them that meant that passersby couldn’t help but stop, linger and listen.

Armed with a mic, her voice and a love of a good time, Isabelle said: “It is so nice to come out when it is sunny and there is a good atmosphere around. We have a laugh, and people are just in good form.”

Katelynn agreed: “We have a laugh too, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We are such messers when we come out, we love it. We love grabbing the crowd, getting them to join in and dancing with them. We have often just sat on the floor, crossed our legs and sang and you would make more money that way then when we stood up and tried to be professional about it.”

The Gurranabraher local tells me: “When we first started, we were looking at other buskers and thinking oh what can we do like and tried to sing all their songs. It just wasn’t working and we went back to the kind of songs we love, Adele, a bit of ABBA and when we are enjoying it, you can see the crowd start to interact with us more.”

Much like Elisa, it was the interactions with the public that made the girls love busking so much. Isabelle said: “The interaction we make with people on the streets when we are singing is definitely our favourite part. Some days you could come out and make no money, but that is not the important thing, you are actually making a difference. We have had people come up to us crying and telling us they are going through a hard time and that our song really connected with the song. It is a therapy for us and for the people who hear us.

“I feel as though music is becoming a bit of a privilege. Like, not everyone can afford to go to a concert any more or there are people who are homeless, and they can’t just listen to music on their phone for free. Everything is being pulled away from these kinds of people left right and centre and if they can just sit on a corner and listen to music for free, that might be the only thing that made their day.”

She continued: “I think busking is such an important thing to keep going. Not that it is dying out, but you often see the same people out busking and what will happen if they stop one day? It might not be for everyone but for some people, singing on the street has such a deep meaning to them, music does that for people.”

For the pair, busking is especially meaningful to them as it not only helped them to grow their confidence, but it also helped them to grow their friendship, having met through the busking scene.

For Katelynn, her love of music began in her school choir, but was inspired to take to the streets with her singing by well-known Cork buskers Korey Power and Dylan Brickley.

It was Power and Brickley who introduced the two girls and suggested that they sing together.

“I was 16 when Katelynn first asked me to busk with her and I was really quiet in school so after a few times I was scared going into school, wondering what people would think of me but when lads came up and told me how good I was, it really helped me come out of my shell in school and have that confidence in myself.”

I could have stayed chatting to the pair for much longer, but I could feel the antsy crowd milling around me outside the GPO, waiting for the next song. As I left them, the pair launched into an ABBA mega mix, bringing their infectious energy to the busy Cork city street.