27/03/25
Welcome to our new staff spotlight section which highlights the many services delivered by Cork City Council on a daily basis.
In this edition of our staff spotlight, you'll get to meet our Staff Officer in Arts & Events, Fiona Browne.
Tell us about your job?
I work in Arts & Events at Cork City Council, primarily with the Events side of the house. I’m part of a great team who plan and deliver events like the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Culture Night, the Corkmas Parade and the wider Christmas offering.
We also deliver a range of once-off civic events such as the 2011 visit by the Queen to Cork and the 2018 visit by then Prince of Wales, Charles and his wife Camilla. Last July, we organised the first-ever Fanzone at Pairc Ui Chaoimh during the All-Ireland Final. I also manage bookings and building maintenance at the St. Lukes arts venue.
At the moment, I’m busy working on the delivery of the European Maritime Day (EMD) conference in May when the biggest players in Europe’s maritime sector will converge on Cork for three days.
What does a typical day involve?
My typical working day is 8.30am to 4.30pm. My day normally includes any or all of the following – procurement, scheduling and attending meeting, brainstorming around events, taking minutes, staff supervision, queries, finance reconciliation – everything that needs to be done to make each individual event happen!
What is your favourite part of your job
I’m absolutely a people person so I love working as part of a team and seeing an event coming together: delivered successfully, safely and on time. One of our biggest events to date was last Christmas’s parade to mark the switch on of the Christmas lights This was the first ever event of this nature where I was the project lead and I was involved in both the development and the delivery of the parade as an alternative to the traditional switch on ceremony. Thankfully, it was a phenomenal success, with audience numbers in the region of 40,000. Seeing that level of crowd satisfaction really makes the hard effort worthwhile!
What can make your job challenging at times?
As I’m sure is true for most of my City Council colleagues, budgets and deadlines are one of the most challenging aspects of the job - every year, costs for essential elements like security and health & safety become more and more costly. Also the Events Section is a small team and there can be huge pressure to meet deadlines. However, we are always ready to deliver - the show must go on!
What advice would you give your younger self?
Do your best and be the best person you can be. That’s all any one of us can do in this life and if you're going to do something, do it properly in the first instance.
And be happy! Life is short so live it to full. Tomorrow is not promised to any one of us.
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