CORK:THE VISIT by Queen Elizabeth to Cork represents a unique opportunity to showcase the city, the Lord Mayor of Cork has said.
Councillor Michael O’Connell said Cork’s “rich history, and our recognition as the food capital of Ireland, will be a story well told by the tour of the English Market”.
He said the Queen’s visit to the Tyndall Institute on Friday would deliver “a message of Ireland at the forefront of science and technological innovation in the 21st century”.
The institute was created in 2004 to bring together complementary activities in photonics, electronics and networking research at the National Microelectronics Research Centre, several UCC academic departments and Cork Institute of Technology.
The English Market will be closed to the public for the duration of the Queen’s visit.
She will meet 10 of the 50 or so stallholders who trade there. Locals can watch the proceedings on large TV screens in St Patrick’s Street.
On Saturday, one of two websites about the English Market was used to highlight a rally protesting against the Queen’s visit.
The corkenglishmarket.ie site was set up a number of years ago by former stallholder Jonathan McKee, before Cork City Council set up its own website on the market.
The site featured a large headline proclaiming “Rebel Cork not Royal Cork” for a short time on Saturday morning, and gave details of a rally taking place next Friday at 12.30pm to protest against the visit.
The notice said the rally was “an alternative event to the royal visit, celebrating Irish republicanism, resistance, history, culture and Rebel Cork”.
The notice was taken down a short time later and the site returned to normal.
Mr McKee told The Irish Times he used the site to draw attention to the planned rally.