Cork is the second largest city in Ireland, located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster.

The city centre is an island positioned between two channels of the River Lee which meet downstream at the eastern end of the city centre, where the quays and docks along the river lead outwards towards Lough Mahon and Cork Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the world.

Originally a monastic settlement, Cork was expanded by Viking invaders around 915. Its charter was granted by Prince John in 1185. Cork city was once fully walled, and the remnants of the old medieval town centre can be found around South and North Main streets. The third largest city by population on the island of Ireland, the city’s cognomen of „the rebel city“ originates in its support for the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses. Corkonians sometimes refer to the city as „the real capital“, a reference to its opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Irish Civil War.

Culture

The Cork School of Music and the Crawford College of Art and Design provide a throughput of new blood, as do the active theatre components of several courses at University College Cork (UCC).

Important elements in the cultural life of the city are: Corcadorca Theatre Company, of which Cillian Murphy was a troupe member prior to Hollywood fame; the Institute for Choreography and Dance, a national contemporary dance resource; the Triskel Arts Centre (capacity c.90), which includes the Triskel Christchurch independent cinema; dance venue the Firkin Crane (capacity c.240); the Cork Academy of Dramatic Art (CADA) and Graffiti Theatre Company; and the Cork Jazz Festival, Cork Film Festival and Live at the Marquee events. The Everyman Palace Theatre (capacity c.650) and the Granary Theatre (capacity c.150) both host plays throughout the year.

Cork is home to the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, and popular rock musicians and bands including John Spillane, Rory Gallagher, Five Go Down to the Sea?, Microdisney, The Frank and Walters, Sultans of Ping, Simple Kid, Fred and Mick Flannery. The opera singers Cara O’Sullivan, Mary Hegarty, Brendan Collins, and Sam McElroy are also Cork born.

Ranging in capacity from 50 to 1,000, the main music venues in the city are the Cork Opera House (capacity c.1000), The Everyman, Cyprus Avenue, Dali, Triskel Christchurch, The Roundy, and Coughlan’s. Crawford Art Gallery

The city’s literary community centres on the Munster Literature Centre and the Triskel Arts Centre. The short story writers Frank O’Connor and Seán Ó Faoláin hailed from Cork, and contemporary writers include Thomas McCarthy, Gerry Murphy, and novelist and poet William Wall.

Additions to the arts infrastructure include modern additions to the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery and renovations to the Cork Opera House in the early 21st century. The Lewis Glucksman Gallery opened in the Autumn of 2004 at UCC, was nominated for the Stirling Prize in the United Kingdom, and the building of a new €60 million School of Music was completed in September 2007.

Cork was the European Capital of Culture for 2005, and in 2009 was included in the Lonely Planet’s top 10 „Best in Travel 2010“. The guide described Cork as being „at the top of its game: sophisticated, vibrant and diverse“.

There is a rivalry between Cork and Dublin, similar to the rivalry between Manchester and London, Melbourne and Sydney or Barcelona and Madrid. Some Corkonians view themselves as different from the rest of Ireland, and refer to themselves as „The Rebels“; the county is known as the Rebel County. This view sometimes manifests itself in humorous references to the Real Capital and the sale of T-shirts with light-hearted banners celebrating The People’s Republic of Cork.

Food

The city has many local traditions in food, including crubeens,  tripe and drisheen, which were historically served in eating houses like that run by Katty Barry in the mid-20th century. The English Market sells locally produced foods, including fresh fish, meats, fruit and vegetables, eggs and artisan cheeses and breads. During certain city festivals, food stalls are also sometimes erected on city streets such as St. Patrick’s Street or Grand Parade.

Accent

The Cork accent, part of the Southwest dialect of Hiberno-English, displays various features which set it apart from other accents in Ireland. Patterns of tone and intonation often rise and fall, with the overall tone tending to be more high-pitched than other Irish accents. English spoken in Cork has a number of dialect words that are peculiar to the city and environs. Like standard Hiberno-English, some of these words originate from the Irish language, but others through other languages Cork’s inhabitants encountered at home and abroad. The Cork accent displays varying degrees of rhoticity, usually indicative of the speaker’s local community.

Places of interest

Cork features architecturally notable buildings originating from the Medieval to Modern periods. The only notable remnant of the Medieval era is the Red Abbey. There are two cathedrals in the city; St. Mary’s Cathedral and Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral. St Mary’s Cathedral, often referred to as the North Cathedral, is the Catholic cathedral of the city and was begun in 1808. Its distinctive tower was added in the 1860s. St Fin Barre’s Cathedral serves the Church of Ireland (Anglican) and is possibly the more famous of the two. It is built on the foundations of an earlier cathedral. Work began in 1862 and ended in 1879 under the direction of architect William Burges.

St. Patrick’s Street, the main street of the city which was remodelled in the mid-2000s, is known for the architecture of the buildings along its pedestrian-friendly route and is the main shopping thoroughfare. At its northern end is a landmark statue of Father Mathew. The reason for its curved shape is that it was originally a channel of the River Lee which was built over on arches. The General Post Office, with its limestone façade, is on Oliver Plunkett Street, on the site of the Theatre Royal which was built in 1760 and burned down in 1840. The English circus proprietor Pablo Fanque rebuilt an amphitheatre on the spot in 1850, which was subsequently transformed into a theatre and then into the present General Post Office in 1877. The Grand Parade is a tree-lined avenue, home to offices, shops and financial institutions. The old financial centre is the South Mall, with several banks whose interior derive from the 19th century, such as the Allied Irish Bank’s which was once an exchange.Cork County Hall

Many of the city’s buildings are in the Georgian style, although there are a number of examples of modern landmark structures, such as County Hall tower, which was, at one time the tallest building in Ireland until being superseded by another Cork City building: The Elysian. Outside the County Hall is the landmark sculpture of two men, known locally as ‚Cha and Miah‘. Across the river from County Hall is Ireland’s longest building; built in Victorian times, Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital has now been partially renovated and converted into a residential housing complex called Atkins Hall, after its architect William Atkins.

Cork’s most famous building is the church tower of Shandon, which dominates the North side of the city. It is widely regarded as the symbol of the city. The North and East sides are faced in red sandstone, and the West and South sides are clad in the predominant stone of the region, white limestone. At the top sits a weather vane in the form of an eleven-foot salmon. Another site in Shandon is Skiddy’s Almshouse, which was built in the 18th century to provide a home to the poorest of the city.

Cork City Hall, another notable building of limestone, replaced the previous one which was destroyed by the Black and Tans during the War of Independence in an event known as the „Burning of Cork„. The cost of this new building was provided by the UK Government in the 1930s as a gesture of reconciliation. The courthouse in Washington Street

Other notable places include Elizabeth Fort, the Cork Opera House, Christ Church on South Main Street (now the Triskel Arts Centre and original site of early Hiberno-Norse church), and St Mary’s Dominican Church on Popes Quay. Other popular tourist attractions include the grounds of University College Cork, through which the River Lee flows, the Women’s Gaol at Sunday’s Well (now a heritage centre) and the English Market. This covered market traces its origins back to 1610, and the present building dates from 1786.

Parks and amenity spaces include Fitzgerald’s Park to the west of the city (which contains the Cork Public Museum), the angling lake known as The Lough, Bishop Lucey Park (which is centrally located and contains a portion of the old city wall) and the Marina and Atlantic Pond (an avenue and amenity near Blackrock used by joggers, runners and rowing clubs).

Up until April 2009, there were also two large commercial breweries in the city. The Beamish and Crawford on South Main Street closed in April 2009 and transferred production to the Murphy’s brewery in Lady’s Well. This brewery also produces Heineken for the Irish market. There is also the Franciscan Well brewery, which started as an independent brewery in 1998 but has since been acquired by Coors.