Why Are You Leaving?

23rd Mar 2010

We hear 40,000 Irish passport applications are lying on desks because of the public service go-slow in the offices that issue them. Down at South Mall people have been going berserk with frustration but why would you want to leave Cork in the first place?

It looks like thousands of people are going to be unable to take flights and sailings abroad because of the industrial action so this looks like an ideal opportunity for "Fáilte Chorcaí" to get our noses involved to entice people to visit the Rebel County.

Hey you! Irritated and depressed trying to leave Ireland? No passport? Why not visit one of the Lonely Planet's Top Ten cities? Here's your passport to the Peoples Republic.

Mickey Martin: shoring up the domestic tourist industry by keeping passport offices on go-slow

Disgruntled holiday-makers set on a break from the awfulness of the recession can escape the quagmire of Dublin on a €10 train journey and find themselves in Cork - exhibiting the perfect balance between culture and relaxation: theatre, restaurants, exhibitions, spas, live music, clubbing, sport and tons more.

Even the buzz around the city centre's thriving shopping areas seems to be coming back to what it was and this time, thankfully, its not just about throwing money at the cashiers in big name stores.

The number of buskers seems to have approximately doubled (by the way ask any travelling busker which Irish city is most rewarding of their services - the answer is in red and white at the top of this page so its no surprise they're bringing their talent south as often as possible), the weather is getting better so you can sit outside cafés and restaurants without having a hotwater bottle sewn to the inside of your jacket and festivals like the Lifelong Learning and the Mid-summer festivals will see plenty of additional entertainment and events on the streets too.

And there's none of this ghost town at 8.30pm tripe that you get in France and other sedate nations that wouldn't know craic if it came up and hit them with a bodhrán in the arse. We've all been to those soulless bars where you'd hear a pin drop, glasses of manky lager instead of proper pints and everyone looks distant and moody.

Cork city has, undoubtedly, the best set of pubs in Ireland with more events than a city of equivalent size anywhere else in Europe. And probably the world.

Then when these passport-less people are fully 'citied up' they can head 'Wescht' and sample the delights of the Cork countryside: climb Hungry Hill and take in the beauty with a flask of Barry's at the summit; go sailing in Kinsale or whale-watching in Union Hall and end up full of Murphy's at a trad session in Skibb; take a cookery course in Durrus and end up panned out watching the sunset over Sheep's Head. You get the idea.