Air passengers sent on return trip to 1970s

WITH all our hopes of recognition as a cultural haven this year, why then does Cork airport wear the same drab, shabby, lacklustre garb of something better suited to the 1970s?

On arrival from the UK recently, I wondered how a first-time visitor to our city might respond. First there was the strawberry-scented infusion in the ladies’ toilet, which half masked the underlying acrid whiffs of something else. Then there was the pink-dusted baggage reclaim area with its fishless, waterless ‘fish tank.’

Upstairs in the viewing area - thank goodness for some distraction and an alternative coffee dock - there was what looked like the makings of an art exhibition positioned alongside the flight monitor, reminiscent of technology circa 1968.