County Mayor's Diary
Cllr Danny Collins
We have just celebrated our 1st St Brigid’s public holiday and I thought the short film in honour of St Brigid commissioned by Cork County Council’s Women’s Caucus as a symbol of representing women in government was very fitting.
It really is worth viewing at Corkcoco.ie. Creativity is at the centre of that video and also leads me into encouraging applications for Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 from arts facilitators, arts organisations and community groups.
Taking place on Saturday 10 June, Cruinniú na nÓg is Ireland’s national day of free creative activity for children and young people. While there must be a key event that will take place on the Saturday, applicants are encouraged to make proposals that will offer a longer period of engagement beyond that one day.
It provides an opportunity for children to explore new avenues of creativity, previous programmes have included circus skills, animation, live music gigs, contemporary dance, youth theatre and so much more.
Maybe one or more of the children attending will go on to become Oscar nominees either in front of or behind the camera, much like our 14 nominees for this years Oscars. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 26 February. Further details are available by emailing CreativeIreland@corkcoco.ie.
About our youth and our future, I am pleased with the initiative funded by Cork County Council and delivered by Education for Sustainability which is a 10 week climate literacy course for 8 secondary schools in the county.
The participating schools are Bandon Grammar, Carrigaline Community School, CBS Middleton, Edmund Rice College Carrigaline, Scoil Mhuire Béal Átha'n Ghaorthaidh, St Mary’s Charleville, St Mary’s Middleton and Kinsale Community School.
I firmly believe education is the key to change and our youth are passionate and very serious about the environment. Topics covered will include climate change, sustainable development, climate justice, plastic pollution, fast fashion, biodiversity loss, sustainable transport, food, soil and acting.
I expect this will cause a ripple effect throughout the county. The students will share the knowledge with their peers and their families and as we all know from little acorns grow mighty oaks.
The environment is all our responsibility and I am very proud of Cork County Council’s commitment to biodiversity.
As members of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, we want to protect plants and areas that are good for bees which led to the recent transplanting of the Bee Orchid to a safe location on the Midleton – Youghal greenway.
It was a wonderful example of large-scale development supporting pollinator friendly practices.
It reminds me of the song ‘A Place in the Choir’. Our bees need bee orchids so all can flourish and with the support of BAM, the Midleton population of the rare Bee Orchid were transplanted to new location, getting a new but very important place in the choir.