Unlocking the potential: Cork’s docklands could breathe life into the city

Our docklands could breathe life into the city once again

Kennedy Quay, part of Cork's docklands area. Picture: Larry Cummins

Rivers and ports have shaped the development of cities for thousands of years. The rivers were the first highways for the earliest settlers, the ports their gateways to the world. The quays provided the foundations for growth, and the docklands which grew around them were the engines that helped drive that development.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the docklands around the lower reaches of the Liffey and the Lee bustled with activity as Cork’s merchant princes exported goods like grain and butter to the world, while in Dublin, furnaces fired in iron foundries and glass bottle companies — one facility alone manufacturing millions of bottles annually to hold Guinness stout — as thousands of shipyard workers built and repaired great ocean-going vessels.