Madam, - Emboldened by the many references in The Irish Times last week - especially Thursday's The Ticket which gave all the exhibition opening times - I decided to join the many other holiday visitors to our second city to enjoy the celebratory activities marking the triumphant conclusion of Cork's year as Europe's Capital of Culture.
I travelled on Friday, December 30th to see three major attractions the Glucksman Gallery (Cork's finest modern building), the exhibition at the City Museum of the 1860s architectural drawings of St Finne Barr's Cathedral, and the Crawford Gallery's exhibition of the work of James Barry, Cork's finest 18th-century artist. These promised to be superb cultural treats.
However, there was a small problem. Both the tourist office and the Cultural Capital Office on Patrick's Street were open, but all they could do was to confirm what I and other rather confused visitors had already discovered at the venues themselves: that all these exhibitions were firmly closed from December 23rd to January 3rd - "because it's Christmas"! Those two offices were open between Christmas and New Year, like all the shops, stores and restaurants that were crammed with locals and visitors so why not the exhibitions? Could this have been a co-ordinated decision between them all?
All I can say, having taken several days to calm down, is to ask those who sponsored and grant-aided to those exhibitions whether they now feel as short-changed as I do. They might like to ask those responsible for some financial refund to take account of this closure period, especially as it was not mentioned in any of the publicity material, or the official cultural capital programme.
Everyone has the right to enjoy Christmas and New Year at home with their families, but surely those presenting our culture to the public have a special duty to do so when the public is best able to see and enjoy it during their leisure time. And surely that includes the last few days of of the Culture Capital year. - Yours, etc,
JOHN R. REDMILL, Royal Canal Bank, Broadstone, Dublin 7.