Cork City’s formerly controversial Stapleton House finally looks fit for purpose, having lain empty since built over a decade ago.

One of Cork’s most prolific developers has said the city will be a “very vibrant place” within the next 12-18 months.

A €1bn Texas-based cybersecurity company, Forcepoint, is to occupy two floors of Cork city centre’s new office block, 85 South Mall, intensifying the 21st-century tech corridor on the southern capital’s most traditional business, banking, commerce and services boulevard.

A former League of Ireland football ground is in line to become an office and commercial development, if a recent application to Cork County Council succeeds.