County Mayor's Diary Cllr Mary Linehan Foley

January is all about moving forwards, and Cork County Council has spent the last month looking to the future through various projects designed to stand the test of time.

As Mayor of the County of Cork, I was directly involved in a number of these programmes and their launches. This included the opening of a state-of-the-art fire station in Clonakilty, alongside Christopher O'Sullivan, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Chief Executive of Cork County Council, Moira Murrell.

The new facility replaces the original station that was on Kent Street, and it will operate with a local crew of 12 that includes a station officer, sub-station officer, two driver mechanics and eight firefighters.These facilities are so important, especially in Clonakilty, where the local fire service responds to approximately 150 incidents per year. They are now more equipped than ever, with the station built with an appliance bay which accommodates two fire brigade appliances and a domestic bay to house the watch room, muster bay, kitchenette, lecture/training room and ancillary spaces.

This week also saw the launch of the From the Well short story competition for 2026, and Cork County Council is now accepting entries from people from all ages. We are looking for short compositions that are no longer than 2,000 words, and twenty stories will be selected for this year’s anthology.

Selection will be based on the quality of writing, structure, and suitability to the anthology, and the judge will read the stories without knowledge of who the writer is in order to ensure a fair process.

This year, entries will be selected once again by Patrick Holloway, one of the most exciting names in Irish literature. The Cork native is the winner of The Bath Short Story Prize, The Allingham Fiction Contest, The Molly Keane Creative Writing Prize, and his debut novel, ‘The Language of Remembering’, was published in 2025 to critical acclaim. Patrick Holloway is also a regular contributor to ‘The Stinging Fly’, ‘The Moth’, ‘The London Magazine’, ‘Carve’, and ‘Southword’, among others, all while editing the literary journal, ‘The Four Faced Liar’.

The winning story and two others will feature in the 2026 West Cork Literary Festival as part of the anthology launch event in Bantry Library. The winning writer will also be offered a place on a short story workshop at the West Cork Literary Festival in July and will receive a €300 contribution towards accommodation. They will also have the opportunity for a one-to-one with the editor.

Conditions of entry and details for online applications can be found at corkcoco.ie. The competition opened at 9am on Friday 16 January and will close at 5pm on Friday 27 February.

For further information about the competition, contact Cork County Council Library and Arts Service by emailing corkcountylibrary@corkcoco.ie.