A writer has been posting letters around Cork ‘to make people feel less lonely’
Have you spotted one yet?
A UK-based writer has been spreading a little unexpected kindness across Cork this week through a street-writing project called Dear Stranger.
Jay Ventress (29) has been leaving handwritten, uplifting notes in public spaces around Europe and beyond for several years, hoping to reach anyone who might be having a tough day.
This week, the project arrived on Leeside, where passers-by stopped to chat and offer encouragement as Ventress taped his letters to a city-centre bus shelter.
“Cork, Ireland. I ran around your city posting Dear Stranger letters on your walls to hopefully try to make people feel less lonely. If you find one, feel free to say hello. If you see me on the street while posting letters say hello too. Always happy to talk to strangers.” he said.
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Jay started writing Dear Stranger letters during lockdown in Melbourne.
“I was depressed, broke, and felt invisible in a city that didn’t seem to want me. Writing was the only thing that kept me upright. so I walked the streets with a biro and a broken heart, taping letters to lamp posts, writing messages I wanted to believe, hoping someone might stop and read them.” he explains.
“They weren’t meant to go viral. They were cries for connection. Little handwritten lifelines thrown into the world.
”Since then, the project has taken me all around the world, from Melbourne to Manchester, Cairo to Tangier, Brussels to Berlin, led not by plans, but by people.”
Let us know if you spot one of Jay’s lovely letters around Cork.
