Old CORK city - the second city of the Republic - is built on an island, the two channels of the River Lee embracing it either side while nineteenth-century suburbs sprawl up the surrounding hills. This gives the city centre a compactness and sharp definition. It's a place of great charm, with a history of vigorous intellectual independence, and approached from rural Ireland, it has a surprisingly cosmopolitan feel to it.

Evidence of Cork's history as a great mer... [More]