Harbour views from Jacob’s Island

MAHON peninsula, in Cork harbour, was an unappreciated waterfront asset — until the Lee tunnel came into being, and City Hall sold off large land tracts at this geographic ‘backwater,’ for huge money.

Now, Mahon is one of Cork’s growing employment spots, hoovering up hundreds of new jobs and millions in investment in the past five years, from retail park and shopping centre to office campuses and call centres.

It also got a new wave of residential development, with McCarthy Developments seeing the potential of the shoreline, and putting in a mix of tall apartment blocks, duplexes and some townhouses, and a mix of semis and detached homes, too.