A popular pub in Cork has spoken out against chain brands coming to the city centre.

As several thousand happy and sated punters headed for the exits at the Irish Examiner Food Festival in Cork’s Fitzgerald Park yesterday evening, the light mist finally began to thicken, marking the end of the splendid weather that proved a vital ingredient in the tremendous success of a celebration of food and drink on Leeside.

Enjoying a head massage by the pond in Fitzgerald Park, still savouring the exquisite aftertastes of some Ballymaloe crab paté washed down with a 30-year-old sherry, as a string quartet plays in the background — it is hard to imagine a finer place to be on a Friday afternoon than the inaugural Irish Examiner Food Festival.

HERE’S a tale of two cities, and two men, and how the more things change, the more often they stay the same.

GAA CHIEFS were last night faced with the nightmare scenario of Clare and Wexford players boycotting tomorrow’s All-Ireland SHC relegation playoff.