Seán Óg has really made it now!
Street art is undergoing a boom in Cork with the recent Ardú project showcasing how our streets can be brightened up through public art.
Someone else has been at it since 2014, however. The People’s Republic of Cork (PROC) began its irreverent street art projects six years ago while the website celebrates its twentieth birthday this year.
PROC has been behind 40 street art installations across the city and the latest one is of Cork GAA legend Seán Óg Ó hAilpín. Other iconic Corkonians to be featured include Christy Ring, Sonia O’Sullivan, Roy Keane and Rena Buckley.
PROC has used the initiative to deliver a positive, welcoming message to visitors and residents of the city.
“We couldn't help noticing that much of the city centre's electrical boxes that appear at every traffic light junction were dirty and covered in graffiti and we saw it as an opportunity to do something positive by turning them into a canvas for artists,” said a spokesperson from PROC.
“Rather than just create art for the sake of it that looks nice, we see it as an opportunity to also get a positive message out or to put a smile on people's faces whether they are locals or visitors. In most cases we try to 'Corkify' a recognisable cultural symbol of the country from which we are welcoming people from.
“The Welcome to Cork art was partly inspired by the increase in racism and anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK and the USA along with a desire to add colour and vibrancy to the city. A lot of the focus on making the city a better place to live tends to be on building and creating new things when sometimes we should really be taking care of what we have already.”
Recently PROC has added scannable QR codes to each traffic box that allows visitors to get more information on each piece, and in its own inimitable way, declares it being “part of the strategy to gain independence from the oppressive Dublin state”.
The work by artists Garreth Joyce and Tom Doig have been collated on the PROC website, peoplesrepublicofcork.com/street.