And there's nobody visiting the city anymore due to the expensive hotels, high crime rates, and general poor condition of the place.
I was down int local yesterday evening and there was a couple from Brighton in who were looking for some trad. They had been to Sin E (which they left because it was too mental), Corner House, Counihans, and even the feckin Old Reliable, because they had looked up trad music in Cork and these were the places that came up. None of them had live trad on last night, and I was at a loss as to where I could send them. I eventually told them to give the Spailpin a go, but fuck knows what the music is like in there these days.
The Friday of Paddy's weekend, every pub in town should have a fucking trad session on ffs. Why should we expect tourists to come here and spend their money when we give them nothing in return. They're not coming for the weather like.
If I had foreign friends coming to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day I'd tell them to go to Galway, Ennis, Kilkenny, Killarney... basically anywhere but Cork. All you'll find in Cork are Racing Pubs and people fighting on the streets.
