Short radio piece on Cork City Gaol, Cork, Ireland

The RTÉ (Irish state broadcaster) radio programme, Drivetime, introduced a new slot during the Coronavirus outbreak. It's called the 'Drivetime 2km Local History Challenge' and entails people recording a short piece of audio on a historic building in their neighbourhood. It's supposed to be 2 km from their home (that is the area that people are supposed to stick to while exercising during the government restrictions to limit the spread of the disease).

Gatehouse of Cork City Gaol and outer wall.

I recorded a short piece about Cork City Gaol, which is situated close to where I live. You can listen to it here (from around 1.02 mins). Located on the  northside of the city, it's about 2 km from the center. As you can see from the photograph above, it is an impressive looking stone-built building with enormous outer walls at the perimeter.

The history of the building is fascinating. It opened in 1824 and housed different kinds of prisoners over the years. In the beginning, it held convicts before they were transported to Australia. Young Irelanders and Fenians were imprisoned there in the 1840s and 1860s. From the 1880s, it was designated as a Female Gaol and held women and children.

Aerial view of Cork City Gaol. Image source.

One of its famous residents was Constance Markievicz, who spent four months there in 1919. She praised the people of Cork who were kind to her during her imprisonment and sent her flowers and fruit. See here for more information about this. During the Irish Civil War (June 1922 - May 1923), it held anti-Treaty prisoners, including the Cork-born short story writer, Frank O'Connor. You can find out more here on some of the famous people who were incarcerated in the prison.

The prison closed in 1923 and later housed a radio station which broadcast from there until the 1950s. It then fell into disrepair, until it was renovated in the 1990s. It is now open to the public and is well worth a visit. Check out their website here: https://corkcitygaol.com/your-visit/

Thousands of artworks to view online

The 14 museums that make up Les Musées de la Ville de Paris have placed hundreds of thousands of artworks online. You can view them here: http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr

The museums range from the Musée Carnavalet, Maison de Victor Hugo, Maison de Balzac, Musée Bourdelle, Musée Zadkine, Musée d'Art moderne de Paris, and the Petit Palais among others.

It includes works by well known artists such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Rembrandt, and Anthony van Dyck, as well as work by lesser known artists, creators and writers.

'Deux oiseaux verts sur un magnolia' (1847), Feian Yu. Image source

This piece is from the Musée Cernuschi which is an Asian art museum based in Paris. It contains works from China, Japan and Korea and is well worth a visit (virtually or in person).