Michael Moynihan: A neglected northside puts Cork at risk of becoming a divided city

The prevalence of dereliction all over the city, but particularly on the northside, is a relatively recent marker of division, or second-class status

The tower of St Anne's Church, Shandon, rises above the streets of terraced houses on a cold morning in Cork's City's northside. Picture: David Creedon

One of the great retorts your columnist relied on during a long exile in Dublin centred on the river winding its way through the capital.

Or its effect on the city, to be more precise. When Dubliners started with the northside-southside slagging, it was all too easy to point out that in Cork, the mechanisms of snobbery were far too sophisticated to rely on that kind of crudity.