For Here, the Queer, Appear, Culture Night 2026: our 857 lights, each one representing a self-nominated member of the LGBTQI+ community of Cork, were installed on the Riverside facade of Cork City Hall around the existing green illumination. Commissioned by the Arts Office of the Council, this represented a move of the representation of part of the mass of our community to the centre of civic government.

Alongside this, as the sun set, in the early evening, Moss Russell (they); Jude O’Neill (they); and Abra Kedavre (they) activated Cork’s monument to 800 years since its Norman charter with our queer presence in the early evening by posing and holding banners. The banners were a tribute to Cork City Council’s permanent installation of an exhibition by the Cork LGBT Archive at the City Museum earlier in August: entitled We Were Always Here (because, indeed, we were, for all 800 years). Banner design and banner use was courtesy the Archive and Orla Egan and designer Darren O’Connor.

Many thanks to Public Art Manager Valerie Byrne for all her help and assistance, and the Arts Team at the Council led by Michelle Carew. Thank you to the Arts Council, Gay Project, Circus Factory and UCC who supported the first iterations of the project.