‘It’s a great chance to showcase Cork’: The rise and rise of Cork on a Fork food festival 

It began as a Cork City Council initiative to boost business after the covid pandemic. Three years later, the city’s restaurants are clamouring to be part of it. Joe McNamee meets the people behind Cork on a Fork

Niamh Murphy, festival manager of Cork on a Fork Festival for Cork City Council pictured in the English Market. Picture: Chani Anderson

When Cork City Council’s Cork on a Fork food festival returns next week (August 13-17), it will be with all the burgeoning confidence of a child that has finally found favour. It was a different picture, in 2022, when the festival was first mooted.

It was pitched as a council attempt to stimulate post-covid recovery, but to the local hospitality sector, ravaged by the pandemic, it appeared a step too far.