Michael Moynihan: Oliver Plunkett Street should be a jewel for visitors to Cork City

“Dublin's Camden Street has placed 22nd on the world's coolest streets list by Time Out magazine,” according to RTÉ.

“What makes a street cool, exactly? Well, according to the travel and hospitality media group, a top-tier thoroughfare should offer up much more than a decent walk. As well as being able to spend hours exploring creative new ventures in the food and beverage scene, there should be plenty of nightlife and culture hubs on offer.” 

 Fair dues. I lived near Camden Street for a while and it was always a lively spot. Between the second-hand bookshop and the pub with all the All-Star teams framed in the upstairs snug I found it a great stretch, full of treasures. Granted, it also contained the worst restaurant I have ever visited — and on a Valentine’s Day at that, after taking the recommendation of a teammate at face value. Unsurprisingly, and mercifully, that establishment is now long closed.

While I don’t want to be pessimistic about the ramifications of such a victory, I need to point out that something similar happened in Cork once upon a time.

In 2015 Oliver Plunkett Street was named the best street in Ireland and the UK by the Academy of Urbanism. Adjudicator Geoff Haslam said at the time: “We sometimes have to search for the DNA of a street but Oliver Plunkett Street exudes it — it’s a vibrant living street and community, full of surprises and it is clearly on an upward trajectory.”

 I strolled down that street last Monday afternoon and it has changed a good deal since then. 

At the Parnell Place end, there’s quite a bit of vacancy and some of the independent outlets which made it such a distinctive zone within the city have long since gone.

Places such as Liam Ruiséal’s bookshop, a distinctive presence on the street for years: gone. So is Uneeda Books up the street. Household Linens, gone after 45 years. Brennan’s Cook Shop, closed.

I strolled past The Body Shop a couple of days ago, and its shelves are empty. Not far away there were a couple of signs in the window of Jon Clare: Closing Down. Last Few Days.

Granted, turnover is only to be expected, and some of the vacancies will be filled at some point in the future. There are plans to move a wine bar into Brennan’s, while Here’s Health on Patrick Street is to take over the Liam Ruiséal building, which has been idle since 2018. The 5th Avenue outlet next to Jon Clare looked like it was being refurbished on Monday. All positive.

Cork ailments

Some positivity on the street infrastructure would also be welcome, though. At the Parnell Place end, there are steel bollards plastered with flyers, stickers, and graffiti; it’s not quite clear what purpose they now serve apart from attracting detritus. Some look seven feet tall, some look three feet tall, some are covered with advertising boards. The overall effect is clutter and mess, random spikes disfiguring the prospect rather than anything like an enhanced streetscape.

At the other end, the main pedestrian crossing on the Grand Parade, which leads walkers to Oliver Plunkett Street — just by Bean and Leaf — seems stricken by an ailment particular to Cork city streets.

Half of said crossing, which was originally set in alternating light and dark panels, has been replaced by tarmacadam, not unlike the pedestrian crossing on Patrick Street up towards the Statue.

Clearly, there’s something particularly punishing about Cork people’s footwear, because I don’t think I’ve seen that kind of damage done at street crossings in other cities around the world. Are Leesiders stamping particularly hard as soon as the green man flickers into life at the traffic lights? Answers on a postcard, please.

As for the ambience on Oliver Plunkett Street, it shares an atmosphere found in many parts of the city centre. Consider these headlines from this newspaper, all of which related to events on the street in the last twelve months alone.

All things considered, there’s a sense here of a missed opportunity — a part of Cork secured a prestigious international award, only for the potential boost of that prestige to be squandered. 

Oliver Plunkett Street could have used that award as a launchpad for creating a discrete identity, a distinctive destination for visitors to the city.

That destination is badly needed, by the way. Last weekend we had St Patrick’s Day, which is often seen as the real start of the tourist season, but if you landed a bus full of tourists at the Statue in Cork city this morning where would they go?

After those visitors disembark and nod at Fr Mathew their options are the English Market and the Crawford.

Then?

Well, from the Statue they could walk up to Shandon — according to Google Maps, it’s 600 metres and 10 minutes on foot. The Nano Nagle Centre? That’s 850 metres and a 12-minute walk.

After that, you’re beginning to ask questions about our tourists’ stamina. St Finn Barre’s Cathedral is 17 minutes and 1.2 km away, UCC’s grounds are 27 minutes and 1.9 km, the Cork City Museum is 32 minutes and 2.3 km, Cork City Gaol is 31 minutes and 2.1 km, and for any hollow-cheeked marathon runners on the tourist bus, Blackrock Castle is a lung-busting one-hour 12-minute walk at 5.2 km.

It’s not a good look when most of a city’s attractions involve leaving the city itself: hence the regret about losing the chance to really establish Oliver Plunkett Street. Yes, you can make the point that even Blackrock Castle is within the city boundaries. Obviously, it is.

But is it accessible to tourists who are in the heart of town? Are UCC’s grounds? Is the Gaol?

I wrote here a couple of weeks ago about the necklace of museums Waterford has, a trail of venues and premises that serves to attract and retain visitors to the very centre of that city. Where is the trail in Cork?

We could still have a couple of those trails in the centre of the city, and Oliver Plunkett Street would be an obvious place to start.

Camden Street, be warned.

• Best of luck to Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry of Anois, who begin a residency at Dance Cork Firkin Crane tonight which lasts into May and will feature events focusing on dereliction in our cities among other topics. For more details visit https://dancecorkfirkincrane.ie/anois-residency-events/