Cork events centre ready to host concerts in two years

Cork’s long-awaited €53m events centre should be built and ready to host its first concerts in just over two years.

The prediction was made as Taoiseach Enda Kenny turned the sod yesterday on the hugely anticipated 6,000-seat venue which could, once fully operational, attract up to 500,000 patrons every year and be worth up to €15m a year to the local economy.

It was one of two major city centre investment projects, worth a combined total of more than €100m, which had sods turned yesterday.