It is known as the rebel city, wants independence from the rest of Ireland, and nurtures a nagging underdog complex. Now Cork, Ireland’s second city, will make history next year as the smallest place to be European capital of culture — on the smallest budget.
Branded the ”People’s Republic of Cork” and proud of its revolutionary heroes Michael Collins and Che Guevara — the latter’s maternal grandparents were locals — Cork was never expected to present a conventional programme of events.
It will kick off with an attempt to break the world record in that classless pastime: knitting.
Every day next year, a satellite above the city will record the weather, traffic and movement of people and translate it via computer into a giant knitting pattern. Thousands of knitters will work each day, to turn the pattern into the biggest piece of knitted cartography in history.
A marriage of Aran jumper and ordnance survey, it could grow large enough to blanket the city of 140 000 people.
The only challenge is finding the knitters. Irish knitters are currently training at monthly ”knit-ins”. But with 50 people a day clicking in relay for 365 days, organisers are looking for at least 5 000 knitters and are appealing for international knitters to head for Cork.
Highlights of Cork’s programme launched on Thursday include an exhibition of the 18th-century Cork painter James Barry, the only artist to be expelled from the Royal Academy, and a piece of ”urban choreography” in which 10 000 rings will be dispersed around the city with instructions for people who find them.
John Kennedy, Cork 2005 director, said he wanted to appeal to local residents, ”not leave them standing on the sidelines”.
With a budget of around £13-million, Cork 2005 does not have the pretensions of Liverpool’s 2008 programme to transform the infrastructure of the city.
However, the city council has pumped £131-million into regeneration. – Guardian Unlimited Â