WE DROPPED INTO the centre of Cork for some shopping and a family meal. The big feature I noticed was the lively conversations in Cork-speak and busking by young Irish--two facets of Cork we missed while locked down by COVID.
I take photos every day and save them into Flickr so I have a running record of life. According to my Flickr photostream, the last time I was in the middle of Cork was Valentine's Day 2020.
Within a month of that visit to see Sean O'Grady in Teamwork, Ireland was locked down due to COVID-19. It has taken us 20 months to return to the real capital of Ireland to hear the sing-song cadence of "Echo Echo" on Oliver Plunkett Street and to meander around the Glucksman Gallery and the Grand Parade.
I launched a session with Happs.tv While watching musicians in front of Brown Thomas.
It's always important to rewind life and listen to the ambience surroundings you often miss while immersed in the moment. I get to discover gems in ambient moments when I make short audio and video clips with my silent camera. I'm teaching 10yo Dylan how to do that now. I think it's a form of sentient digital literacy.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus for the Technological University of the Shannon.]
