A shop above the rest shuts its doors

Cork 2005: Culture is more than song and dance and sport. There is a sense of communal shock in Cork at the news that O'Donovan's city-centre ham, bacon and pork shop is to close.

A family enterprise noted for its traditional style and products, the company is widely seen as yet another victim of the supremacy of the supermarket and of the size and proliferation of out-of-town shopping complexes - and of that same main drainage scheme which closed the city streets for months on end and which was formally concluded last week, too late for O'Donovan's.

Perhaps this loss will be reflected in the deliberations on landscape and urban policies, programmes and social concerns examined through international experience at the meeting of the European Landscape Convention at the Millennium Hall in Cork on June 16th and 17th. In tandem with an exhibition, a series of workshops will include Terry O'Regan of Landscape Alliance Ireland among its participants. It will examine issues of management and sustainability in such diverse environments as Finland, Spain, Canada, Russia, Turkey, Iceland, Greece and the UK.

[ www.landscape-forum-ireland.com ]