Today, the Irish Examiner article told of the Lord Mayor Chain of Office passing on and it help explain matters.

The invitations arrived Wednesday with an RSVP of Thursday, for a formal opening of Friday – the last day that the title Lord Mayor would be associated with the then incumbent; the last day that she would have the entitlement to open the curtain and unveil the plaque – the plaque with her name on it.

The buildings had been occupied for 13 months but it had to be that day for the opening – not the next day when the a different politician would have been written in stone – a former Green Party; former Independent; but now Sinn Féin, so steeped and ‘proud’ to reference previous Sinn Féin Lord Mayors

During the speeches, the listeners were advised that the Lord Mayor and others had come from an earlier formal opening and unveiling.

Did this politician stand to serve her community or to see her name in stone?

My ‘cynical’ fuse is not as long as it once was…..

My own preference would be for all derelict sites to be compulsorily acquired under the Derelict Sites Act by the local authority who could then sell on. The market will then determine the value of the property. The purchaser will not be waiting for an upturn in the market and, hopefully, will have available funds to develop the site.

Derelict sites do drag down adjacent properties and the city in general. It is unfortunate that Cork City Council allows so many derelict sites to exist and continue to deteriorate in the city.

If they are afraid to use the power to compulsorily purchase the sites, they could take lessons from Limerick City Council on how to transform derelict sites on a temporary basis.

It was only when I was reading a book about Cork’s past that I first recall coming across the word ‘Foundling’ – a Foundling Hospital previously occupied the site of Murphy’s Brewery.

Some time after, I came across this sign in Clonakilty and was introduced to another word that was new to me – ‘Hireling’.

It is a bad day when I do not learn something new.

I always assumed that Emmet Place was named after Robert Emmet but I now have doubts as all references have been to ‘Emmet’ not ‘Emmett’.

Or, on the assumption that the sign on the Academy St/Faulkner’s Lane site is the most recent, maybe Cork City Council have realised their error and have correcting the spelling.

Or maybe, it is just a further example of streetsigns not being consistent and adding a bit of variety, spice and debate to life.

I am more and more convinced that there is enough anomalies and inconsistencies to warrant a separate section on the website.

There are a number of different views one could take on work being carried out by someone.

One could say that it the work that he is being paid to do and is that not reward enough – no further recognition is required.

But one says thank you to a shop teller – most of the time.

I found this plaque refreshing that enough local people thought highly enough of Fran Cleary’s work that they wished to record a ‘thank you’.

The enhancement of self-worth in just hearing these two words may them so valuable.

Last Saturday morning, I got a very enlightening and enjoyable guided tour of part of the City Centre which was conducted by Tom Spalding. His walk as part of the heritage Day was overbooked and so an additional walk in conjunction with Liam Russell’s was organised for Saturday.

 It dealt substantially with street signage but other nuggets of information were also found.

Towards the end we arrived at Tuckey Street and Tom stopped to talk about this sign that I had photographed some months ago.

He understands that the sign was originally on the building on the corner of Grand Parade and Tuckey St which, I understand burnt down, and now forms part of Bishop Lucey Park. This is consistent with the current siting of
the sign – both in terms of height on building (at shopfront height is rather low) and also in respect of position within the street (signs were generally at the beginning and end of streets and not in the middle).

He pointed out details, some of which I had not observed, which indicates that the sign-writer may not have been very experienced:
 -         For each of the three lines of text, there are three lightly scored lines, similar to what I recall from primary school to get our proportions for letters correct
-         The first row appears reasonably well set out but an ability to appropriately set out the second row was beyond the writer,
-         The gap between ‘E’ and ‘T’ in ‘STREET’,
-         The fancy tail to the ‘U’, and
-         The odd ‘6’.

Reading this back, it does make it look like an uninteresting walk and talk. That is so far from the truth.