"European Capital of Culture" was the challenging title given to Cork for 2005. It was a chance for us Corconians to prove to the rest of Ireland, Europe and even ourselves that we weren't the chart-topping langers we made ourselves out to be, and why not?

We started the year with a bang - literally. After throwing up a few sparkly lights in the air, we were so deafened by the sounds of complimenting "oohs" and "aahs" that we didn't hear the sound of money going down the drain.

When the sparkly lights dimmed, there was something else on the horizon - and it wasn't another million-euro project (we haven't seen one of those on the banks of the Lee since last January) but a problem: there was no money to fund the already planned events!

What events, I hear you asking - and they were the thoughts of the city as well. Simply put: nobody knew of the events that were being held because of the lack of advertising. As well as that, quite frankly, loads of the "cultural experiences" were really boring. One hundred per cent of students agreed that there weren't enough events for teenagers, let alone ones that might have interested us.

So, for 2005, our easy-going attitude got the better of us - and now we are complaining nothing was done. I'm certainly not going to be visiting the Greek city of Patras, European Capital of Culture for 2006, but, at least for their own citizens, I hope a better job is done.

So we really did experience our own culture and, sure, were only a great shoal of langers.

... Fiona Finn

... Da Bomb,

... Coláiste an Piarsaigh, Cork

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