Rebel Volunteers Taking Back the City

17th Jun 2015

Last Friday morning as the golden sunlight peeped around the low corners of buildings on Cornmarket Street there was hardly a sound to be heard in the Cork dawn.

The dull clatter of a bread van thudding over the bumps on North Main Street in the distance echoed down an otherwise deathly quiet Kyle Street. Speed-walking pumps tapped out an urgent rhythm on Dalton’s Avenue as a bleary eyed Corkonian silently as battled the uncomfortable intentions of an unruly shoulder bag unable to keep pace with her. And her employer’s clock.  

Even the Coal Quay’s seagulls looked groggy – the light had yet to reveal the location of this morning’s breakfast – also known as last night’s deep fried discard.

Cork was still asleep.

A car with two young Cork men inside slid into the empty row of spaces outside the Bridewell. The early morning sun catching the glittering spokes on a perfect row of Cork Bikes - no cyclists up this early – as the boys jumped out and quickly unload the boot. This would have to be quick.
 

The Ladder Fitz and Roller Ryan

These are busy people who could have come up with plenty of valid reasons to curl back into the clean comfort of their quilts after clattering their bleeping alarm clocks at 5.15am. ‘Comrade Ladders’ needs to graduate as a medical doctor in UCC at midday and ‘Comrade Roller’ has to be in Dublin for a meeting for 2pm.

But their love for the city is too strong to allow them to roll over for more sleep. This is a quiet revolution all about action. 

By the time the first red-eye flight to Amsterdam roars in the skies across Shandon at 6.10am and the the brewers on Leitrim Street start filling barrells of Murphy's the volunteers have already put down the first layer of anti-graffiti paint on the gable-end of Peg Twomey’s shop….

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In last Saturday’s Evening Echo Pat Dawson of Dawson Travel and chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association said that “unsightly and filthy buildings” around the city centre were a major problem in trying to sell the city as a tourist destination. He called the condition of many of them as ‘embarrassing and disgraceful’.
 

Pat Dawson joins the long line of Corkonians people giving out about Cork city centre landlords

Few would disagree but like most people weighing in with the truth Mr. Dawson had no solution to offer other than hoping to mortify the city’s ‘merchant princes’ into doing something about their dilapidated properties. To be fair to City Council they have made some effort. Their painting grant scheme will swallow 75% of the expense of dolling up a building for tenants and landlords. It has worked well on Barrack Street.

But thanks to weak local government the council however have few powers to legally force slumlords into removing graffiti or painting up their premises unlike other European cities. Lazy landlords and tenants who couldn’t give a fiddlers about the condition of their premises use the perpetual ‘but sure we pay enough in rates’ argument and the resultant stalemate leaves the city no better off.

But there is another way.
 

CODAC volunteers transformed this manky corner for less than 100 euro

Over the last ten months a little-known group calling themselves the Cork Oldtown District Action Committee (CODAC) have been quietly reversing the well-documented dilapidation in the North Main Street area. They have painted doorways, removed graffiti, cleaned public signage and posted art on buildings and are now setting their sights on expansion.

“We love our city and it pained us to watch it fall into disrepair during the recession”, says the group’s founder ‘Roller Ryan’ who prefers to remain anonymous, “so we set about trying to change it with hard work on the ground rather than setting up another talking shop on social media”.
 

If you're interested in donating to or joining CODAC email corkodac@gmail.com  and follow them on Twitter @CorkODAC

The group says it cost them less than a hundred euro to remove graffiti and paint the side of Peg Twomey’s last week and while they need funding it is man-hours that really make a difference.

“We can’t keep putting our own money into it so we’ve applied for funding to schemes like KBC Bright Ideas but we would appeal to business people in town, artist and citizen who love a bit of DIY to get involved physically - especially with the long bright mornings and evenings”.

By the time shops and cafés open up on Kyle Street their work is done – a 25ft long depressing-looking wall covered in graffiti has been transformed and the CODAC boys are back in the real world after a well-earned fry-up in Tony’s Bistro.

Roller and Ladder’s colleagues are mostly unaware of their double-lives as Rebel volunteers – except for the mysterious lick of pink paint on Roller’s left ear.

“At the end of the day this is about claiming our city back”, says Ladders, “but it’s going to be a quiet revolution where citizens put their shoulders to the wheel to fix things rather than shouting about it and getting nothing done.”

H'on the Rebels. 

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CODAC plan on guerrilla painting another large abandoned building in the North Main Street area soon but the group do not reveal their plans publically. To get in touch with the group email corkodac@gmail.com or follow them on Twitter @CorkODAC

See Pat Dawson's rant about Cork here
http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/tourism-leader-says-cork-lacks-a-wow-factor/