William Murphy | THE HEADLESS PHOTO BLOG

THE REPAIRED AND RESTORED SHAKEY BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER LEE

In some of the photographs in this series you will see a small teddy bear. A charity and a man whose son died by suicide have teamed up to place teddy bears with messages of hope on every major bridge in Cork city. The project aims to raise awareness of help that is available.

Volunteers from Cork Penny Dinners placed the bears, solar lights and messages of hope on 30 bridges spanning the north and south channels of the River Lee and on trees along the Marina, downstream of the city. Caitriona Twomey of Cork Penny Dinners explained that the initiative was the brainchild of Pieta House volunteer Mick Ryan, from Bunclody in Co Wexford, who lost his son Sean Paul (22) to suicide.

“Basically it involved putting up a teddy bear on each of the bridges, together with a solar light that shines in the darkness and a message, ‘Your family and friends love you’ along with a helpline number from the HSE and another from Pieta House that people can text,” she said.

Even though my A7RIV camera was delivered at the end of 2019 I had little opportunity to use until late in 2020. This camera has been replaced by the A7RV which is a lot more expensive and it is supposed to be much better but I decided that I will not get one as I am more than happy with my current camera.

The repaired and restored Daly’s Bridge in Cork, known locally as the shakey bridge, reopened in December 2020 its shake intact. However, I did not get to photograph it until August 2021.

Experts who oversaw the work on the last remaining suspension pedestrian bridge of its age and type in Ireland were very pleased to announce that they had been able to retain the heritage structure’s famous shake.

They used accelerometers to measure the frequency of the shake before work on the structure started in late 2019 and measured the shake of the restored bridge, which includes new cables made in Italy, to ensure it vibrates at exactly the same rate.

The refurbishment and conservation works, which cost over €1.7m, were deemed necessary to address serious corrosion and extensive damage to the 1927 suspension pedestrian bridge which links the Mardyke to Sunday’s Well and Shanakiel in Cork City.

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RANDOM IMAGES FROM SEPTEMBER 2023 VISITS

Cherrywood SDZ is the single largest undeveloped land-bank in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, and is approximately 360 hectares in size, nestled at the foot of the Dublin Mountains, is strategically located between the M50 and N11 transport corridors approximately 1km north of where they fork from the M11 and approximately 8km south of Dún Laoghaire town centre. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in recognising the area’s strategic importance, applied to the Government for Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) status and the Government designated it as an SDZ in May, 2010.

Cherrywood is being formed around the business park, in a deliberate process under a Cherrywood-Carrickmines Local Area Plan, the 2004 and later County Development Plans, and a related Cherrywood-Rathmichael Area Plan. Cherrywood is designated as a District Centre, and limits apply to certain forms of development there. In total the business park has an area of approximately 400 acres with. When I visited in 2018, much of it still undeveloped.

In 1998 the first office buildings were developed in what was then branded “Cherrywood Business Park”. Development proceeded slowly and, as with other planned developments in Ireland, the property crash in 2008 affected Cherrywood. In 2015, when several buildings were still empty while other planned developments were incomplete, some reports described parts of the development as a “ghost town”.

In 2012, investors created a new management company to market the area again after the collapse of Liam Carroll’s development company. This was backed by AIB Bank and Danske Bank (parent company of National Irish Bank). Parts of the area received a facelift, and the “facilities building”, which had previously only housed a food outlet, was expanded to include a gym. Most of the main office buildings are owned by the same company.

A new master plan was made and approved by the local authority, including plans for over 1,200 apartments and over 500,000 square feet of commercial space, including a hotel.

Following a €145m acquisition by Spear Street Capital of the eight office blocks comprising the development in January 2018, the business park was rebranded as “The Campus Cherrywood”. Proceeds from the deal were later used to develop the surrounding area.

Plans to open a new life-sciences incubation and acceleration facility in the area were announced in October 2021. The new facility was planned to provide 18 labs and 9 offices over 30,000 square feet of space, and create 100 jobs in the sector.