Sigh of relief as South Mall bank sells for €1.65m

A BANK selling – at auction. An event so close to a miracle you could almost hear the angels sing.

The sweet music – just as the auction gavel came down on the ACC bank branch at 41 South Mall in Cork at €1.65 million – was however, very much for real. It came, unwittingly but right on cue, from the Choral Festival’s visiting Portadown Choir, rehearsing in the function room across the hotel corridor.

Bank rescue packages worth billions have been bandied about so much in the beleaguered Irish economy in recent months, that a paltry sum like €1.65m for a bricks and mortar bank property seems almost quaint. And, for the 50 or so suited figures in Cork’s Imperial Hotel, many of them underemployed estate agents, the sound of an auction hammer falling was indeed something to sing about, swoon over, indeed. The market has a pulse.