Music to their ears!

The latest Cork Person of the Month award has gone to not one but two people for keeping music alive!

The creators of the Blackpool Sentinel blog, Colm O’Callaghan and Martin O’Connor, have been named as February Cork Persons of the Month. Their online music and social history resource covers both music and society, primarily from the 1980s and 1990s, with an emphasis on music and musicians from Cork during that period.

Over the last six years, The Blackpool Sentinel, incorporating Voices From The Glen, has become a regular go-to for fans and musicians. There are currently some 120 researched, long form pieces on the site, many of which feature bands and characters from Cork. They are available on theblackpoolsentinel.wordpress.com.

Colm O’Callaghan, from Blackpool, was educated by the Christian Brothers at the North Monastery and later at UCC. He is Head of Specialist Factual Content at RTÉ and oversees all the broadcaster’s history, science, education and diversity output. Colm has won numerous awards for his work but is most proud of his Feile Na Gael medal, won with his local club Glen Rovers back in 1982. Martin O’Connor of UCC Library, was one of the UCC curators of the Sir Henrys Music Venue Exhibition at the library. It was a way to turn the story of a music venue into cultural heritage and an opportunity to show its historical, geographical and social importance.

It was this exhibition which spawned The Blackpool Sentinel, when Martin coerced Colm into starting The Blackpool Sentinel with him. He is originally from Moyross in Limerick but has lived in Cork for the past thirty years. Awards organiser Manus O’Callaghan said: “This is all about the soundtrack of our life, the singers, musicians and music that influenced us over the years, and I thank Colm and Martin for preserving that social history.”