'It’s absolutely a disgrace': Cork City bar highlights its year-long problem with dirty water

Some of the dirty water that came out of the taps in Cork City's Forde's Bar. Photo: via Forde's Bar TikTok account

A Cork City pub has said it has been dealing with “manky” water coming out of taps for the last year.

Forde's Bar on Barrack Street has been highlighting the long-running saga of brown water coming out of its taps for the last 12 months.

“No tea and coffee inside Forde's today,” the manager of the bar, Barry O’Callaghan, previously posted on social media.  He then showed a pint glass full of discoloured orange/brown water.

He said:

The only black water we have is Guinness, Beamish or Murphys.

It is the latest in the saga of dirty discoloured water flowing out of taps across Cork City. The issue, which first emerged in homes over two years ago, saw brown water flowing from taps on the northside of the city, however, cases have also been reported on the southside more recently.

Mr O’Callaghan said yesterday that the water problem at the Barrack Street pub has been “on and off for the last year”.  “It is ridiculous at this stage now,” he said.

“Sometimes they give us notice and that’s grand, which means we can prepare. Sometimes it goes brown (without notice) and then if we don’t get to our ice machines on time, that all has to be drained, filtered out properly and then cleaned,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

As soon as they see the dirty water come out of the taps, they have to empty ice machines, stop the hot water boiler, turn off the glass washer and turn off the coffee machine. “Just in case, because you don’t know what colour the water is going through the coffee machine,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

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“The coffee is black anyway and it is filtered but you have to turn off everything. And then you have to wait until it clears up again. All that is money. Businesses in town are paying for their water,” he told 96FM's The Opinion Line with PJ Coogan.

A specialist cleaner was also called out to clean the filters which Mr O’Callaghan said cost over €100 for a call-out charge. “It’s absolutely a disgrace,” he added and said that other businesses in the area were suffering similarly.

The latest in the dirty water saga comes after residents from Mount Farran, on the north side of the city, took to the streets last October to highlight the shocking condition of the water flowing from their taps. 

Uisce Éireann continues to try to fix the discoloured water issue that has blighted parts of the city for two years.