Michael Moynihan: Disastrous environmental effects of city council’s planning policies

Vehicles pass through flood water on Monahan Road as crowds depart Páirc Uí Chaoimh after the county hurling finals in Cork city. Picture: Larry Cummins

If ever the title of Venice of the North was up for grabs, it was at or about 6pm last Sunday in Cork. I don’t like to spark PTSD among readers — intentionally, at least — but even the mention of last weekend’s downpour may be triggering. It should at least have you wringing out your socks as a Pavlovian response.

Yours truly was out in it briefly. Not at the county hurling final, but doing the weekend shop; I got home before the rain began to come down like stair-rods, to quote a Cork icon for whom the county hurling final was a familiar outing. He used the term the day the Second World War broke out and there was something similarly apocalyptic about last weekend’s rain, an eerie, ominous atmosphere in the city which was linked to St Finbarr’s win in the above-mentioned game.