From a bridge weekend to Ella Fitzgerald: How the late Jim Mountjoy founded Cork's jazz festival 

When Jim Mountjoy launched the Cork Jazz Festival at the Metropole Hotel in 1978, he had no idea it would grow into one of the genre's best and longest-running events 

Jim Mountjoy with Ella Fitzgerald ias she arrived  for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in 1980. In the background is festival co-founder Pearse Harvey. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

(Jim Mountjoy passed away on February 22, 2025. This article was originally published in 2017) 

YOU’D imagine that possessing little interest in jazz, and never having attended any music festival aren’t the best qualifications for setting up one of Europe’s top jazz festivals. But that didn’t stop Jim Mountjoy, the man who established Cork’s long-enduring event way back in 1978.