CORK CITY Council is to spend €250,000 on a facelift for the city’s English Market in advance of Queen Elizabeth’s visit there next month as part of her first official State visit to Ireland.
Lord Mayor of Cork Michael O’Connell said council officials had spoken to traders in the English Market and identified a number of areas in need of a makeover before Queen Elizabeth pays a short visit on May 20th.
“She will be visiting particular stalls on the day that we have already identified and we have agreement with the owners – it’s going to be money well spent because it will really promote the market, because it is estimated up to two billion people could be watching it worldwide.”
Mr O’Connell said he was hoping schools in Cork would give their pupils a half day on the day of the visit and expressed confidence that a festival in Cork city centre to mark the visit would draw thousands for the day.
However, Sinn Féin Cork North Central TD Jonathan O’Brien said the visit was “premature” and called on people opposed to the Queen’s visit to join them in an event on the plaza near the National Monument to celebrate the city’s republican tradition.
“We believe the lives of people like Terence MacSwiney and Tomás Mac Curtain, and the ideals they fought for, are far more worthy of celebration than the arrival of a foreign monarch who is head of state only because her ancestors before her were.
“I believe the most fitting way of marking the arrival of this feudal relic in our city is to celebrate all those, in Cork and elsewhere, who have struggled for freedom, justice and equality, values which are the polar opposite of those represented by hereditary monarchy.”
The Cork School of Music will be used as a media and broadcast centre for the Queen’s visit to the city, with hundreds of foreign journalists expected for the event.
Gardaí have been in contact with the Courts Service to see whether they can obtain access to car parks at nearby Anglesea Street Courthouse to accommodate satellite transmission trucks belonging to the various foreign media expected in Cork.