British pub group JD Wetherspoon is eyeing more openings in Cork and Dublin as it seeks to push the number of bars it owns in the Republic to around 30 in the coming years.

A further €1m-plus Cork city bar and nightclub sale has just concluded, with the Bowery on Tuckey Street selling off-market: it comes just as Wetherspoons are poised to reopen a premises now standing them a total investment of as much as €3.5m, a bar investment level seemingly back to boom time values.

UK pub operator JD Wetherspoon will open its newest pub and first Irish venture outside the capital in Cork next week following a €3.65m investment.