Beta | CORK CITY AND COUNTY

PHOTOGRAPHED 12 MAY 2022 PUBLISHED 17 JUNE 2023

I decided to reprocess this and other photographs from my 2022 visit to Cork using three AI apps that I am currently beta testing.

When I visited Cork City in May 2022 it had not fully recovered from Covid-19 restrictions and the weather was not the best (as is always the case when I visit).

Because of transport problems I did a lot of walking and got to see places that I had not intended to visit. I had no intention of photographing Monahan Road but I got lost when I got off a bus at the wrong stop. Also, my iPhone froze and I could not get it to reboot and had to wait for the battery to exhaust.

Monahan Road is an established commercial location with a mixture of warehousing, industrial and office uses in the area. The South City Link Road (N27) is 1Km to the west and provides access to all main arterial routes via the South Ring Road (N40). Cork City centre is within c.1.3 kms. Nearby occupiers include Cleve Quarter & Business Park, Monahan Road Business Park, Tellengana House, Lawley House and the CORE building.

In June 2017 demolition work has begun on the former Munster Agricultural Society buildings in the Cork Showgrounds to make way for the new Marina Park.

The Munster Agricultural Society Showgrounds was based Monahans Road. The detached nine-bay double-height viewing stand was an interesting survivor from the early years. Cork Corporation provided the land as a permanent home for the showground and the Society spent £5,300 laying out the grounds and building the necessary structures. The showground opened in 1892 and this building probably dated to that time. Its well proportioned late Victorian pavilion style contrasted with the later buildings on the site, as did its generous proportions and carefully designed and executed timber detailing.

The Marina Park will surround the redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium and all-weather pitch stretching from Monahan Road and Centre Park road towards Blackrock village.

The first phase of the new park cost €7m and cover the area west of the stadium between Monahan Road and the Atlantic Pond.

This was my first time to use GEO-Tagging and I also more-or-less limited myself to using a Sigma 24-105 lens as it was weather resistant.

Note: On 31 March 2022 the Health (Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 ended. This gave the Minister for Health the power to make regulations and introduce measures to slow down the spread of the virus.