Agreed on The Park. I was in there recently and was surprised at how little has been done to the place given it was shut for nearly nine months. OK the floorboards have been painted with some varnish that makes everybody's shoes squeak when they walk on it; the small stage has been removed. The stairs to the jacks is actually dirtier than it ever was in Ziggy's. The few posters in the jacks have been changed but nothing else. I think even the condom machine is the same. The bar itself had an array of those jam-jars that have become de rigueur of late. Nobody in the place when I was there seemed to be conversing with anybody else. Just dolefully looking into their drinks, which seemed to primarily be bottled beer. In fairness, the barmaid had a bit character but her colleague the guy with the piercings behind the bar had all the charisma of a wet blanket and looked as though he wished he was anywhere else but behind the bar.
All in all I think a little piece of me died when I went in there and compared it to what a great spot it was with Jamesy.
Hadn't realised Benny had taken over Canty's as well. Obviously things are going well for him in the pub trade and more power to him. Good to see a Cork guy, and a CBC guy too, doing well. But part of me wonders at the back of it all, is there something wrong with more and more of the pubs of Cork coming under the influence of fewer and fewer owners. I began drinking in the late 1970s when there still existed a thing called tied-houses - something our younger viewers mightn't be familiar with. Basically the Breweries owned a number of pubs in town and would only sell their own product there. Think Guinness Jazz Festival but without the music. So you could go into a pub and there not be any Murphy's available, or no Guinness or Guinness products available. I just think it's a bit regressive when more and more pubs are being hoovered up if, as is the case in a number of them, the more popular products aren't available, while "similar" products are being pushed instead.
