Cork City And County

MONAHAN ROAD IN THE DOCKLANDS AREA OF CORK CITY

June 17, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED 12 MAY 2022 PUBLISHED 17 JUNE 2023

I decided to reprocess this and other photographs from my 2022 visit to Cork using three AI apps that I am currently beta testing.

When I visited Cork City in May 2022 it had not fully recovered from Covid-19 restrictions and the weather was not the best (as is always the case when I visit).

Because of transport problems I did a lot of walking and got to see places that I had not intended to visit. I had no intention of photographing Monahan Road but I got lost when I got off a bus at the wrong stop. Also, my iPhone froze and I could not get it to reboot and had to wait for the battery to exhaust.

Monahan Road is an established commercial location with a mixture of warehousing, industrial and office uses in the area. The South City Link Road (N27) is 1Km to the west and provides access to all main arterial routes via the South Ring Road (N40). Cork City centre is within c.1.3 kms. Nearby occupiers include Cleve Quarter & Business Park, Monahan Road Business Park, Tellengana House, Lawley House and the CORE building.

In June 2017 demolition work has begun on the former Munster Agricultural Society buildings in the Cork Showgrounds to make way for the new Marina Park.

The Munster Agricultural Society Showgrounds was based Monahans Road. The detached nine-bay double-height viewing stand was an interesting survivor from the early years. Cork Corporation provided the land as a permanent home for the showground and the Society spent £5,300 laying out the grounds and building the necessary structures. The showground opened in 1892 and this building probably dated to that time. Its well proportioned late Victorian pavilion style contrasted with the later buildings on the site, as did its generous proportions and carefully designed and executed timber detailing.

The Marina Park will surround the redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium and all-weather pitch stretching from Monahan Road and Centre Park road towards Blackrock village.

The first phase of the new park cost €7m and cover the area west of the stadium between Monahan Road and the Atlantic Pond.

This was my first time to use GEO-Tagging and I also more-or-less limited myself to using a Sigma 24-105 lens as it was weather resistant.

Note: On 31 March 2022 the Health (Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 ended. This gave the Minister for Health the power to make regulations and introduce measures to slow down the spread of the virus.

THE BELLA VITA SAILING FROM KENNEDY QUAY IN CORK

June 16, 2023 by infomatique

THIS IS NOT MY YACHT

These images date from May 2022 but I decided to reprocess them using two different AI applications that I am beta testing.

The Bella Vita arrived in Cork on the 12th. May 2022 and departed on Friday 13th.

Built by German manufacturer Lürssen in 2010, the vessel was first owned by Paul Fireman, the founder of Reebok sportswear. Its original name was Solemates.

The current owner is Dwight Schar in 2021 who obtained it in a swap sometime in 2021.

The Bella Vita can sleep up to 12 guests in its six-cabin rooms across three decks, and comes equipped with a number of bars, a jacuzzi bathtub, sit-in shower, flat-screen televisions, a grand piano and a gym.

Dwight Schar is an American businessman. He is the founder of NVR, Inc., a Fortune 500 company that is the third-largest home builder (by revenue) in the United States. He currently serves as the company’s Executive chairman and Chairman of Executive Committee. Schar was also a minority owner of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League from 2003 to 2021, as well as the former financial chairman for the Republican National Committee.

Lürssen is a German shipyard with headquarters in Bremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in Lemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf. Lürssen designs and constructs yachts, naval ships and special vessels. The company described the vessel as follows:

“A spacious luxury yacht delivered in 2010, Bella Vita features sleek, curved lines throughout. The 60-meter vessel, originally christened Solemates, was designed by Espen Øino International. Her interior by Glade Johnson uses clean right angles and strong horizontal lines, balanced by contrasting soft and sensuous natural materials like stone and wood in fluid textural patterns. Guests can enjoy warm and bright areas with ornate classical details and modern elements. Creative solutions include a partially covered gym that doubles as a discotheque at sea after sundown.”

R&H COMPLEX ON KENNEDY QUAY

June 16, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED MAY 2022

These images date from May 2022 but I decided to reprocess them using two different AI applications that I am beta testing

R & H Hall has been the leading supplier to the Irish feed industry of grain and non-grain feed ingredients since 1839.

The tall structure in my photographs has a visual significance beyond its intrinsic utilitarian design as a result of its visibility from many parts of the city. It serves through its height and scale to define the remaining commercial docks area of the city from some distance.

Grain store building, c. 1945, part of R. & H. Hall complex. Mass concrete walls with pilaster detail and flat roof. Metal windows to ground and first floor and to all floors on east elevation.

I visited Cork City in may 2022 and the city had not fully recovered from Covid-19 restrictions and the weather was not the best. When I visited the docklands the general are was bleak and somewhat lonely and much of what to see was in poor condition.

This was my first time to use GEO-Tagging and I also more-or-less limited myself to using a Sigma 24-105 lens as it was weather resistant.

EXAMPLE OF RED METAL SCULPTURE ON THE CORK UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

June 16, 2023 by infomatique

A RED METAL YOKE

Is it my imagination or is there a certain ‘sameness’ about much college campus sculptures.

About twenty years ago I heard a young child refer to a red metal sculpture as a “red metal yoke” and I decided to use the term myself. In Irish slang, the word ‘yoke’ doesn’t have anything to do with eggs. Instead, it’s another way of saying ‘thing’. So if someone in Ireland sees an object that they’ve never seen before, they might ask, ‘What’s that yoke there?

In 2015 I spent three days in Cork and it rained most of the time and I had to abandon my plans to photograph the University campus because the rain got so heavy that I ended up photographing raindrops.

In 2016 I decided to spend five days in the city assuming that that it was unlikely that it would rain for five days without stop. As you may have guessed, it did rain every day but as there were many extended dry spells the weather did not impact on my photography. I did, however, have a problem with dust on my sensor. I discovered that there was a large object attached to the sensor and I was unable to remove it but it only obvious under certain conditions. Further investigation leads me to believe that the debris was there since my 2016 visit to Belfast.

Previous years I walked from location I walked from location but 2016 was the year that I began to use the bus service which I found to be good. I got a lot advice from the bus drivers as to what I should photograph and how best to get to the locations in question.

My most recent visit was May 2023 and it did rain every day but there were many extended periods of really pleasant weather which allowed my to explore and photograph parts of the city that I had never visited before.

GEOWAVE VOYAGER LATER RENAMED EAGLE EXPLORER IMO 9381299

June 16, 2023 by infomatique

AT CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY IN CORK JULY 2016

I photographed this in July 2016 but in November 2018 Oslo-listed seismic acquisition specialist SeaBird took took delivery of the Geowave Voyager seismic vessel, fully rigged with 40 kilometers streamer and dual source. SeaBird had agreed to buy the vessel and equipment from $17 million from CGG.

Geowave Voyager is a 2009-built seismic survey vessel. It has a length of 90 m, a beam of 24 m and a dwt of 2,879 tonnes. It has capacity to tow up to 10 streamers and can undertake 2D, source and niche 3D, and node-laying work.