Mini parks popped up in parking spaces across Cork city today and a school transformed a road into a playground as cars gave way for a day.

Wheelchair users are set to experience the thrill of high-speed boat rides thanks to the delivery of new ‘inclusion powerboat’ on the south coast.

For the first time, the city has secured so-called URBACT European funding - a specific fund to aid urban development in cities across the EU - to promote play as a means of promoting social inclusion.

Parents of children as young as six months are being encouraged to get them involved in the first free health and wellbeing festival of its kind in Cork this weekend.