A SYMBOLICAL and physical presence was felt yesterday afternoon at Shalom Park in the heart of what was once a thriving Jewish quarter on the south side of Cork city.
In the shadow of the elegant but largely empty Elysian Tower development stood descendants of the 19th-century emigrants who once made the one-bedroom red-bricked houses in this corner of Cork their home.
They gathered to mark the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, and the Jewish community’s presence in Cork, through an art project entitled Evening Echo and conceived by New Zealand artist Maddie Leach. The project was overseen by the National Sculpture Factory and Cork City Council, and supported by Bord Gáis.
Yesterday marked the final day of Hanukkah, and at sunset a tall old-style lamp situated in the park blazed with light for a number of minutes, beginning a sequence for the other lamps in the park to light up.
They came on at different intervals, depending on the moment when their sensors picked up the dying light, and the anticipation is that this process will occur every year for the next 50 years on the final day of Hanukkah.
Those present included Fred Rosehill, one of the few remaining members of the Jewish community in Cork and chairman of the board of trustees of the Cork Hebrew Congregation.
He described the background to the work and how it interacted with Jewish custom. “The Festival of Light, called Hanukkah, is one in which we light eight lights. The art work is a very subtle way of interacting with that ceremony, but to us, it also
reminds us of all the people who lived in that part of Cork who have left, and how happy they were there.”
Also gathered were the Finn family, who live close to Shalom Park and remember when it first opened in 1989. “It was donated by Bord Gáis and extended over the years,” said Kieran Finn.
“When it opened first, I remember someone would always come and turn on and off the gas lights in the evening and morning. By that stage there was only one member of the Jewish community left in the area.”
Those present to mark the ceremony included writer Conal Creedon; Cork City Council arts officer Liz Meaney; Cork Midsummer Festival director Tom Creed; Prof Dermot Keogh, head of the department of history at University College Cork; the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Terry Shannon; director of the National Sculpture Factory Mary McCarthy; and Martin Murtagh, an engineer at Cork City Council.