Up the walls: take a tour of Cork city's vibrant street-art scene with this online map

The tour takes shape around Mad About Cork's painted electrical boxes - and takes in major street-art pieces on the city's walls and gable-ends

Some of the work of the Mad About Cork project, as seen on ESB boxes around the city - part of this online street-art tour

If you've ever disembarked off the bus at Parnell Place before venturing into the centre of Cork city (our country's social and economic capital, of course), you'll immediately be familiar with one of the first sights that greets you - an ESB box, painted red, and bearing the legend 'Ireland is a like a bottle - it'd sink without a Cork'.

This piece, and others on electrical boxes dotted around town, are a daily sight for countless Corkonians, touching on everything from local culture and slang, to hearty welcomes for international and marginalised communities.

Now they're the basis of 'Cork City Street Art', a new tour of the city commissioned by Cork City Council and available as an open-source online map, with accompanying notes on each piece for the newly-acquainted.

Kevin O’Brien of Mad about Cork, standing near the Shandon Bridge in Cork with a piece of his artwork. Picture: Dan Linehan

"This tour showcases a small selection of the wonderful street art in Cork city centre", reads the tour's intro. 

"It focuses on the electrical-box art, which was created by volunteers from the People’s Republic of Cork (PROC) and Mad About Cork, with artists Garreth Joyce and Kevin O’Brien responsible for many. 

"Tasters of the evocative and colourful work of Alan Hurley, Curtis Hylton, Tom Doig and The Walls Project are also included."

Extending a welcome to Cork's Nigerian community is music legend Fela Kuti. Picture: Ethel Crowley

Projects like Mad About Cork have been dedicated to showcasing the role of street art and murals in bringing new life to areas of the city that fall outside of an ever-narrowing consumer shopping route, alongside flower arrangements and, at one time, a community garden on Kyle Street.

The tour fills in the gaps with looks at city-central pieces from the Walls project, which aims to showcase the work of nationally- and internationally-renowned Irish mural artists, as well as standalone pieces that dot the route.

Some of Cork city's street art: a new online tour takes you through the heart of the city to see murals, stencils and Cork's famous painted ESB boxes

It's a varied cross-section of the artistic life of a city that, while currently recovering from Covid, and grappling with issues like the housing crisis and dereliction, is filled with an irrepressible character, and a wide, vibrant frame of cultural and social reference.

• Check out the Cork City Street Art map here - best accessed on mobile devices while wandering about town, of course.