Our next exhibition, "Cork: Layers of Time and Traces", features the two winners of our Alliance Française de Cork-MTU CCAD 2025 Exhibition Award: Deirdre O’Neill and Abby Curran. The official launch will take place in our gallery on Thursday 16th October at 7.30 pm.

"Cork: Layers of Time and Traces" presents a conversation between past and present.
Abby Curran’s expressive drawings capture Cork’s vibrant energy, while Deirdre O’Neill’s painterly works evoke the city’s rich history. Together, their art reveals the layers of time etched into place and memory.

If you wish to attend this event, please send us an email: info@alliancefrancaisecork.com

Deirdre O’Neill
The central theme of Deirdre O’Neill’s work is war and the women who live and who have lived under the influence and shadow of war. In her exploration of the current environment, it is certain that war is ubiquitous. Reporting of global events is instantaneous and is constantly delivered to us through our mobile phones and other technological devices.

In her exploration of contemporary war, she began to reflect on her own family history particularly her maternal grandparents and the struggles that they endured, especially the women whose lives were impacted. Her investigation into the past segued into place and past times of faded memories. These places remain although now transformed into spaces that generations have forgotten. The aim of her undertaking is to portray the zeitgeist of these former times.

Abby Curran
Abby Curran’s work encapsulates the energetic movement that pulses through Cork City and is an embodied response to her surroundings. She follows her instinct to capture the fast pace of life when surrounded in a cityscape, and the space around her influences the drawings she makes while staying in tune with her senses. By capturing the flux of life, her drawings are a bodily reaction to the city, which can be seen through gestural lines, mark-making, and gathering fragments of a time and place.

Working on site and expanding her sketches in the studio, Abby takes many aspects from different locations and compiles her experiences, fusing many places and times, collapsing many moments into a layered reflection of cumulative expressions which instantly guides her through her drawing process. She uses media that allows her to densely layer and erase elements of her work to express her multi-sensory drawings.

We are delighted to have launched our very first Cork French Cine Club, in our new projection room!

Our October 2025 screening will take place on 23rd October:
Le quatrième mur (The Fourth Wall, David Oelhoffen, 2024).
Drama, based on the award-winning novel by journalist Sorj Chalandon.
The story takes place in 1982, during the Lebanese Civil War. Georges, at the request of his dying friend Samuel, accepts a seemingly impossible mission: to stage Jean Anouilh’s play Antigone in Beirut, with a troupe of actors from opposing communities.
In French, with English subtitles.

Please note that our free Cork French Cine Club screenings are exclusively for AF de Cork #members and adult students. Booking is essential as places are limited.

Click here > to see our membership options

We are pleased to announce that we have now launched our new French language immersion programme for secondary schools.

On 25th September, we were delighted to welcome Mr. Ó Dubhaigh and his 5th and 6th Year students from Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, Co. #Kerry, for a whole day of #French language immersion at AF de Cork.

Students took part in several French language and cultural workshops and then watched a French film in our projection room.

If you are a post-primary teacher or principal interested in organising a French day at AF de Cork for your students, please contact us by email: info@alliancefrancaisecork.com

It is possible to become an Alliance Française de Cork member without taking classes with us.

2025-2026 Alliance Française de Cork members (until June 2026):

• receive preferential invitations to our cultural events and screenings in our new projection room
• can get access to the online library Culturethèque for an extended period of one year
• can borrow books from our onsite library (during our desk opening hours)
• receive our Newsletters

Get your 2025-2026 Cultural Membership today! Contact us at: info@alliancefrancaisecork.com

Many thanks to France Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Brittany Ferries for inviting Alliance Française de Cork, represented by its President Valérie David-McGonnell, to the annual lunch on board the beautiful Pont-Aven ship in Ringaskiddy today, in the presence of H.E. Céline Place, Ambassador of France to Ireland, Brittany Ferries President & Hon. Consul of Ireland to Brittany Jean-Marc Roué, France-Ireland Chamber of Commerce President Chris Smyth & Director Cliona McGowan, Mayor of County Cork Cllr. Mary Linehan Foley, Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City Cllr. Margaret McDonnell, Cork Chamber of Commerce President Rob Horgan, Cobh Chamber of Commerce President Toddy Stafford, Hon. Consul of France to Cork Josselin LE GALL, and Ann Doherty, CEO of the Port of Cork.

Many thanks to all who attended our Open Day on 6th September 2025.
Well done to the participants of our cultural quiz and congratulations to our three winners, Wenting, Lily, & Daniel, who won French and Belgian items as well as a reduction voucher for our French courses.

Autumn 2025 OPEN DAY at Alliance Française de #Cork: Sat. 6th Sept., 11 am - 3 pm
Meet our teachers, have your level assessed, register for a course or membership, and enter a cultural #quiz (12 pm) to win a prize!

On Friday 19th September at 6.45 pm, as part of Culture Night, we are delighted to organise a free screening of the French film "Divertimento" (Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, 2022, in French with English subtitles) in our projection room (in-person event), with the support of Institut Français.

Synopsis:
"Divertimento" (Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, 2022)
Zahia, 17, is from an underprivileged suburb of Paris and aspires to become an orchestra conductor, a role rarely held by women.
With her twin sister Fettouma, a cellist, they face social and cultural obstacles when they enter an elite Paris music school.
Zahia wants to make classical music accessible to everyone and creates her own orchestra, Divertimento.
Based on the inspiring true story of Zahia Ziouani, one of the few renowned female conductors.

Booking is essential. Please note that places are limited.

Alliance Française de Cork will be closed for the summer until 20th August.

In the meantime, registration for our 2025-2026 French courses continues using the links on our website:
https://www.alliancefrancaisecork.com/-Our-French-Courses-

A bientôt !

From September 2024 to 4th July 2025, for the first time ever, our French language centre has reached a landmark of #1100 registrations.
The President and the Board of Directors would like to thank our students, teachers, Administrative Coordinator, sponsors and partners for their support.

Did you know?
Alliance Française de Cork was created in 1947, first as a French Circle, by Irish actress and teacher Rachel Burrows.
It is a French language school and cultural centre which is part of an international network of 829 Alliances Françaises.
It is registered as a Charity and, like many other Alliances Françaises outside of capital cities, it does not have a paid Director.
It is managed by a Cork-based Board of voluntary Directors - Pr. Grace Neville, Pascal Lucas, Kate Murphy, Philippe Grosbois - presided by Valérie David-McGonnell (since 2022).

Summary of our 2024-2025 Activities: