Faded grandeur

Yes! I made it to Cork. An unexpectedly free day so I rang up to see if any microfilm thingies were available and  was very impressed with the warm welcome I recieved, Richard remembered all the details and promised to have everything ready. I sped off, parked in the park and ride and sauntered off to the City Hall where I had been told the library was. Oh dear - there are three libraries in Cork and the one I wanted was the County Library. A woman pointed me in the right direction. To cut a long story short, a brisk walk and a bus ride later I eventually arrived - a good two miles out of the city centre.
Anyway, Richard, who looked uncannily like Ken Dodd,  did indeed have everything ready and I spent a blissful couple of hours scrolling through microfilm and reading the entries for the folklore commission. Fascinating. Each school in the country was contacted and all children between the ages of 11 and 16 were aked to interview someone about their area. Subjects were fairly specific and universal- homes, townlands, field names, food, birds, customs, supersitions etc. Entries were then sent in and collated centrally. Luckily the handwriting was clear and everything , apart from one entry, was in English. Even better, if I liked a page I could just print it so no endless note taking. I will give some examples (Ceridwen!) but am now rushing off to ArtHouse - something dark and German tonight.

This beautiful Georgian window has had scaffolding around it for at least the last 10 years - the facade of this building has been saved but the rear has been demolished. Nothing further seems to be happening and it looks a pretty dismal sight as you approach the city centre. The other dismal sight is on the river - the Julia, the Swansea Cork ferry, is now berthed and redundant as no-one can afford to do anything with her.  This will be a heavy loss to tourism.
OK, will catch up tomorrow.