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.

“I think I’m going to cry, inspector” — this was just one of the interjections that lightened the weighty proceedings on day seven of An Bord Pleanála’s oral hearing into an application by Indaver Ireland to build an incinerator in Ringaskiddy.