County Mayor's Diary Cllr Joe Carroll

I want to start off this week’s column by talking about my upcoming charity gala. This year I have chosen two charities to benefit from the proceeds of the event. These are Cancer Connect and Co Action West Cork.

Cancer Connect provides complimentary, flexible, and confidential transportation for cancer treatments at hospitals in Cork and CoAction was founded by a group of parents in West Cork in 1974 to enable their children with disabilities to be supported within their local community. Tickets are now on sale which includes a drinks reception, three-course dinner, special guests including comedian Chris Kent, music, dancing, and a charity raffle with fantastic prizes.

Moving on to the environment, I’m thrilled to announce the return of Cork County Council’s Anti-Litter Challenge. The competition has become a fixture for towns and villages in the county and is now open for applications. The Anti-Litter Challenge was introduced in the 1990s to tackle litter in Cork’s towns and villages. Communities compete and are scored by judges based on the presence or absence of litter on their roads. The challenge is hugely popular with Tidy Towns groups, community organisations and environmentally conscious volunteers who work to keep their communities’ litter free. I’m encouraging you to take part this year to make your area a better place to live.

It was great news for several groups in county Cork recently as 10 arts initiatives have been awarded funding through the Creative Communities Scheme 2025. The successful applicants include a youth film project, festivals, creative hubs, a craft collective and a therapeutic community. This funding will come as a welcome support to community groups and creative practitioners. It will see communities work on exciting projects, events and festivals that will bring people together. We are incredibly grateful to be able to offer this support with thanks to Creative Ireland.

Finally, there is an exciting exhibition that has recently opened in our Library Headquarters that I’m encouraging you to check out. The Sea and Stone exhibition displays a selection of works from the past two years of the Creative Places West Cork Islands project, presented alongside creative artefacts that are unique to the islands, including painted plaques, knots and ropes, Irish knitting, leatherwork, books, paintings, and films. Creative Places has enabled many artistic projects over its three-year period, some of which are presented in Sea and Stone. As part of a series of workshops, Sherkin islander Nigel Towse taught residents on Sherkin and Heir Islands the Carrick Bend Knot, the results will be presented at the gallery.