"Culture

Music, theatre, dance, film and poetry all play a prominent role in Cork city life. The Cork School of Music and the Crawford College of Art and Design provide a constant throughput of new blood, as do the active theatre components of many courses at University College Cork (UCC). Highlights include: Corcadorca Theatre Company, of which Cillian Murphy was a troupe member prior to Hollywood fame; Cork Film Festival, a major supporter of the art of the short film;[citation needed] The Institute for Choreography and Dance, a national contemporary dance resource; the Triskel Arts Centre; Cork Jazz Festival; the Cork Academy of Dramatic Art (CADA). The Everyman Palace Theatre and the Granary Theatre both play host to large amounts of dramatic plays throughout the year. Cork is home to the RTÉ Vanbrugh String Quartet, and to many musical acts, including John Spillane, The Frank And Walters, Sultans Of Ping, and the late Rory Gallagher. Singer songwriter Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan of The High Llamas also both hail from Cork. The opera singers Cara O'Sullivan, Mary Hegarty, Brendan Collins, and Sam McElroy are also Cork born. The short story writers Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faoláin hailed from Cork. Contemporary writers of national and international status include Thomas McCarthy, Gerry Murphy (poet), and novelist and poet William Wall. There is a thriving literary community centring on The Munster Literature Centre and the Triskel Arts Centre.

Cork has been gaining cultural diversity for many years as a result of immigration, from Western Europe (particularly France and Spain) in the mid to late nineties, and more recently from Eastern European countries such Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and various African and Asian nations.[citation needed] This is reflected in the recent growth of multi-cultural restaurants and shops, including specialist shops for East-European or Middle-Eastern food, Chinese and Thai restaurants, French patisseries, Indian buffets, and Middle Eastern kebab houses. Cork saw significant Jewish immigration from Lithuania and Russia in the late 19th century. Jewish citizens such as Gerald Goldberg (several times Lord Mayor), David Marcus (novelist) and Louis Marcus (documentary maker) played important roles in 20th century Cork. Today, the Jewish community is relatively small in population, although the city still has a Jewish quarter and local synagogue. Cork also features various Christian churches, as well as a mosque. Some Catholic masses around the city are said in Polish, Filipino, Lithuanian, Romanian and other languages, in addition to the traditional Latin and local Irish[citation needed] and English languages.

Recent additions to the arts infrastructure include modern additions to Cork Opera House and the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery. The new Lewis Glucksman Gallery opened in the Autumn of 2004 at UCC, was nominated for the prestigious Stirling Prize in the United Kingdom, and the building of a new €60 million School of Music was completed in September 2007. Construction of the €50 million Brookfield UCC Medical School complex was completed in 2005.

Cork was the European Capital of Culture for 2005.

There is a rivalry between Cork and Dublin[citation needed], similar to the rivalry between London and Manchester, but Corkonians will sometimes view themselves as different from much the rest of Ireland, and refer to themselves as "rebels" (The county is known as the Rebel County). This distinctly Corkonian view has in recent years manifested itself in humorous references to the region as The People's Republic of Cork. Citizens of the True Capital adorn themselves with t-shirts and other items which celebrate The People's Republic of Cork, printed in various languages such as English, Irish, Polish, Spanish and Italian. The Cork bicolour is flown at public and civic buildings (including city's main courthouse, bus station, railway station and major department stores). It is flown along with the Irish tricolour, or on its own.

Traditions

The city has many local traditions in food and customs. Traditional Cork foods include Crubeens and Tripe and Drisheen."