Cork County Council has been told to prepare plans to get a number of harbour forts, Martello towers, and what was once the largest gunpowder factory in the world added to Unesco’s world heritage status list.

Forts and Martello towers dotted around Cork Harbour and what was once the biggest gunpowder factory in the British empire could soon be designated as Unesco World Heritage sites.

The detail of a €4m claim by film director Jim Sheridan and his wife, Fran, over alleged defective works on their luxury seafront home in Dalkey, Co Dublin, has been challenged in the High Court.