“It’s always Cork first and Ireland second,” said Roy Keane in a 1997 RTE documentary, Have Boots Will Travel. Keane, now the national football team’s assistant manager, was describing how he replies when people ask where he’s from. However, the reality is this self-proclaimed “rebel city” often plays second fiddle to Dublin in terms of attention, influence and media hubbub – and that even extends to it as a short-break destination. But missing out on Cork is a mistake. This is a city with a little bit of everything, and a touch of magic.
Blessed by a location in southern Ireland that means fresh seafood plus lush countryside for dairy produce and livestock, Cork’s food scene is flourishing under the watchful eye of chefs such as Kate Lawlor and Denis Cotter, and at restaurants including Electric, Farmgate Cafe, Fenn’s Quay and Market Lane. Beer thoughts may start with Beamish and Murphy’s but craft breweries, such as award-winner Rising Sons, as well as Elbow Lane, the Franciscan Well, and the Cotton Ball Brewing Co, provide character in a pub scene that is alive, well and adhering to cliches – in the best possible sense.
Yes, it has its historic attractions. Enjoy city views and ring the Shandon Bells at St Anne’s church (adults €5, children €2.50), marvel at the William Burges-designed Saint Fin Barre’s cathedral (€5), chinstroke at the Crawford art gallery (free) – or visit Cork Butter museum (adult €4, child €1.50). But this student-rich city also has a sense of fun and a strong cultural heartbeat away from its tourist hits.
Cork hosts 24 major festivals every year, including Ireland’s oldest movie showcase, the Cork film festival, which celebrates its 61st birthday in November. There’s also a world-renowned jazz festival in October and annual celebrations of folk music, literature, science and food. What’s more, this is a place built for strolling and has a centre ripe for exploring. It has its dark side, too … though you can more easily examine that amid the, at times, comic setting of Lisa McInerney’s prize-winning novel The Glorious Heresies.
Cork may often have been merely a starting point for those heading west to the rugged, dramatic scenery of the Ring of Kerry, Mizen Head and the Ring of Beara but it is a fascinating jaunt in its own right. The verbal jousting with Dublin about being the “real” capital of Ireland is unlikely to end but pick any month and there’ll be a great event here; pick the right time and an affordable return flight is likely. Cork could be the short-hop stop that turns into the best of adventures.
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Get on the Fab Food Trail
It’s not fast food but fab food. This walking tour is nourishing and an essential way to see Cork’s most respected and up-and-coming cafes, restaurants and market traders. The three-hour guided odyssey reveals great foodie destinations – with tasting opportunities – and provides an insight into the city’s architecture and history. The groups are small (up to 14) and the stopoffs changed regularly – though it may include the inventive Filter cafe, the swishness of Fenn’s Quay restaurant, and the ace salad and juice bar, The Rocket Man.
• Cork Tasting Trail with Fab Food Trails, €55, fabfoodtrails.ie
Festivals a go-go
It doesn’t matter if you miss a festival in Cork, there’ll be another along in a minute: the city averages two a month. The jazz festival (28-31 October) attracts star names and this year has a double bill featuring the Robert Glasper Experiment and the James Taylor Quartet. The Cork film festival (11-20 November) mixes home-grown movies, a well-curated pick from world cinema, plus a few Hollywood big hitters. It makes use of venues around the city, including the impressive Opera House. This year, the festival features director Nate Parker’s provocative The Birth of a Nation; Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch’s documentary about punk band the Stooges; a strand of German films; and a series of late-night screenings including a 40th anniversary presentation of Carrie. If you want to plan ahead: the midsummer festival in mid-to-late June is a sunny celebration of the arts, while Cork Pride is usually held in July.
• guinnessjazzfestival.com; corkfilmfest.org; corkmidsummer.com; corkpride.com
Back to university
The grounds of University College Cork make a pleasant place for a stroll – leafy winding paths, walks alongside the river Lee – but they also provide a glimpse of old and new in harmony. At the entrance to the grounds is the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, a glorious timber, stone and glass construction that hosts free exhibitions. A few minutes away, and facing the student centre, is the Honan Chapel: an arts and crafts design, it celebrates its 100th anniversary in November and is named after the Cork merchant family who financed its construction.
• glucksman.org, honanchapel.com
Shop in a market that’s super
The English Market is in the centre of the city and seems to be its heart, too; it certainly fills the belly. A traditional covered market dating from the mid-19th century, it brings together greengrocers, bakers, butchers and fishmongers with a smattering of cafes and a clutch of stalls selling clothes, household items and art. It’s a destination in its own right but, importantly, functions as a market, not a novelty. Stalls to check out include butcher Tom Durcan, for his spiced beef, and Kay O’Connell Fish Merchants, where Pat O’Connell has plenty of wit to match his fish wisdom.
• englishmarket.ie
WHERE TO EAT
Farmgate Café
On the upper floor of the English Market, this daytime cafe has views of the stalls below, turning it into a gallery for observing the scale of the market. Family-run – Rebecca Harte, daughter of the original owner, Kay, is now the manager – it gets most of its produce direct from the market. The lunch menu features a catch of the day, while meat treats include hearty-not-heavy pork sausages, mash, lentils and bacon (€12.50) and, for a subtle-but-sweet dish, there’s the St Tola goat’s cheese and roasted beetroot salad (€12.50).
• English Market, Princes Street, +353 21 427 8134, farmgatecork.ie. Open Mon-Sat 8.30am-5pm
Electric
The focus of the menu is on locally caught fish and prime Irish steaks but the art deco building and its views of the Lee from the restaurant, bar and terrace add an extra jolt of “wow” to this foodie haven. A new fish bar, open from 5pm daily, serves three Pacific oysters for €7, seafood chowder from €4.50 and a sumptuous and refreshing lightly poached hake with cream (€12).
• 41 South Mall, +353 21 4222 990, electriccork.com
Cafe Paradiso
The simple, modern decor of chef Denis Cotter’s restaurant provides an elegant environment for vegetarian cuisine that is dazzling to look at and just as fulfilling to eat. Now in its 23rd year, Paradiso offers a menu of two courses for €33 or three for €40. Highlights include beetroot, watercress and orange risotto with fresh Ardsallagh goat’s cheese, pine nut crumb and kai lan greens; and the chilli-glazed tofu, pak choi, rice noodles, tamarind-coconut broth with gingered aduki wonton.
• 16 Lancaster Quay, +353 21 4277 939, paradiso.restaurant. The Paradiso also has two guestrooms: two-night stay for two with dinner on one night, €330
Market Lane
In a buzzy location on Oliver Plunkett Street, which is lined with shops, cafes and pubs, Market Lane has a menu mixing traditional Irish ingredients with a dash of continental flair. It’s a great spot for those planning a longer night out as its early-bird menu, served Monday-Thursday from 5pm-7pm and Sunday 1pm-7pm, has three courses for €23.50, which might comprise French onion soup, slow-cooked west Cork ham hock, and vanilla bean ice-cream with almond brittle.
• 5/6 Oliver Plunkett Street, +353 21 427 4710, marketlane.ie
Nash 19
The worst thing about Nash 19 – bakery, cafe and gallery – is that it closes at 4pm. The good news is, it’s open early: weekdays from 7.30am, Saturdays from 8.30am. And if it’s busy, pick up a Nash2Go box of sandwiches. If the baked cakes and tarts, or owner Claire Nash’s house granola (€4) don’t tempt, the full fry-up (€10), or a lunch-time feast of its house burger with skinny fries (€13), should put fuel in the tank.
• 19 Princes Street, +353 21 427 0880, nash19.com
WHERE TO DRINK
The Mutton Lane Inn
Welcome to your new favourite pub: the kind of dark-but-welcoming hideaway that would be perfect were it on the route home from work. Time seems to hold no sway in this compact (and candlelit) delight in an alleyway by the English Market. Open from 10.30am (not Sundays), it’s often busy but somehow there’s always somewhere to sit or prop yourself. Rising Sons’ craft brews feature prominently.
• 3 Mutton Lane, on Facebook
Edison
This cocktail bar in a former cinema offers an antidote to the bustle of the more conventional bars found on, and around, Washington Street. Cocktails start from €7 and include classics such as Tom Collins, Old Fashioned and Mai Tai, with new twists in a Popcorn Daiquiri and The Lethal Weapon (dark rum, grenadine, passion fruit, orange and pineapple). The industrial-chic decor, with its filament-showcasing lightbulbs, nods towards hipsterville but the fact it also stocks craft brews from Franciscan Well and Cotton Ball Brewing Co shows its local roots.
• 11-12 Washington Street, +353 21 427 3252, on Facebook
Charlie’s Bar
This is a Cork institution for two reasons: it’s a wonderful, traditional pub to watch live music in, and it’s an early-morning bar. That last bit means it’s open daily (except Sunday) from 7am. Right by the Lee but still close to the city centre, Charlie’s has a coal fire (for the cold mornings) and musical offerings beyond just fiddles, drums and accordions to include rock, blues and more.
• 2 Union Quay, +353 21 431 8342, charliesbarcork.com
Dennehy’s Bar
A couple of doors down from Rising Sons’ modern and cavernous pub-brewery on Cornmarket Street is Dennehy’s Bar – which is quite the opposite. There’s no TV; instead the walls are decorated with notes from the world’s currencies and framed covers of The Phoenix, Ireland’s answer to Private Eye. The bar has been run by the Dennehy family for more than 50 years, and that spirit of continuity is there in the chatter of locals and a concentration on the basics: bar stools and wooden tables, decent beers and good conversation.
• 11 Cornmarket Street, +353 21 427 2343, on Facebook
Reidy’s Wine Vault Bar
It’s slightly out of the city centre, on the road to the university, but Reidy’s is a great pitstop for decent beer, good-value food (soups, stews, sandwiches) and a calm atmosphere. It has a nostalgic air with its long wooden bar with plenty of seats, high stools around circular tables and globe-shaped bulbs that give out just the right amount of warm light. There’s also a quaint beer garden at the back.
• Western Road, no website
WHERE TO STAY
River Lee hotel
This large, plush, contemporary hotel has a picture-perfect location on the river and is almost equidistant from the university and the centre of town. The breakfast and dining area is light and airy, the rooms are a generous size with many having views of the river or Saint Fin Barre’s cathedral and there’s even a small spa, pool and gym area.
• Doubles from €140 room only, Western Road, +353 21 425 2700, doylecollection.com
The Imperial hotel
Whereas the River Lee is modern and glass-fronted, the Imperial has old-style grandeur and the maturity to say “2016 is my 200th birthday”. The 125 rooms mix classic furnishings with modern amenities and the lobby is a marbled wonder that is also a gateway to the New York-esque booths and curved bar of Seventy Six on the Mall. That restaurant is one of three; Lafayette’s Brasserie also impresses – because it seems inspired by Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. It’s in the heart of the city so worth a visit even for those not staying here.
• Doubles from €100 room only, South Mall, +353 21 730 6606, flynnhotels.com
More accommodation options
For cheaper stays, try Hotel Isaacs (doubles from €70 B&B, hotelisaacscork.com) or Brú Bar & hostel (doubles from €48, dorm beds from €15, bruhostel.com). Montenotte hotel (doubles from €109 B&B, themontenottehotel.com) has city views from its terrace, and its own cinema. The Metropole (doubles from €99 B&B, themetropolehotel.ie) has a lovely pool and is on MacCurtain Street, in what some are calling the city’s Victorian Quarter.
