Now for a real Corker

Why you should go to Cork

Mark Bolton

The River Lee, Cork

With its thriving culinary scene and distinct charm, it's the right time to pop to Cork, says Joseph Roberts. Photographs by Mark Bolton

Port cities always have a different atmosphere to inland cities, a different history and a different culture: think of Liverpool, think of Marseille. Cork is no exception. It's not a large city but, like those larger ports, it has its own accent - it sounds more Welsh than Irish and weirdly Trinidadian when you hear the voices in situ with their drawling intonations like those of calypso singers. Cork has its own slang, known as 'gammin', which traces its derivations from Irish, French and Dutch as well as Hindustani (the Royal Munster Fusiliers brought words home with them from India) and shelta, the language of Irish Travellers.

Cork grew enormously as a city in Tudor and Stuart times with an influx of English settlers, and even more in the 18th century when it became a major provisioning port; English, Welsh, Dutch and Huguenots swelled the population. It is the most westerly port on the European side of the Atlantic and ships going to the Americas and the West Indies stocked up here on salt beef and pork, salted butter and buttered eggs for the voyage, and to sell in the colonies. Battle board, a type of salt cod named for its rigidity, is still produced today.