St Finbarre’s Cathedral silhouetted against the sunset in Cork yesterday. It was freezing cold but the skies were mostly clear and snow hasn’t fallen in the City or here in Blarney either yet. The country is going through a recession but you wouldn’t know it. After driving around Parnell Place twice I parked in Merchant’s…

The interior of a cottage at the picturesque Brandon Creek on Slea Head, County Kerry. Outside there’s a planning permission notice, dated August 2008 and written in Irish. I presume the owner is no longer in a hurry to develop his property. All he wanted to do was replace the roof and add an extension.

Waterstones on Saint Patrick Street in Cork. Also Game, Euro City and a derelict store once rented by one of the national banks here in Ireland.

Engine No. 36 on display in Ken Station in Cork. Here’s what the Wikipedia page on the train station has to say about it: An old locomotive is on permanent display in the concourse at Kent Station since 1950. “Engine No. 36” dates from 1847 and is displayed in the booking hall. Originally built by…

One of the supports on the Shaky Bridge outside Fitzgerald Park in Cork.

The Clarion Hotel and the Boardwalk and offices sit on the banks of the River Lee in Cork City Centre.

The Blackrock end of Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. Michael Jackson, U2 and err, not sure who else have played in this stadium as well as the obvious GAA matches!

Another frosty morning in Blarney, County Cork. I’m glad I work from home. The roads are deadly now. Snow fell in Dublin yesterday and the city practically came to a stand still. It hasn’t snowed in Blarney yet but the roads have been bad. We had a Christmas Day adventure when the car didn’t make…

The new Opera Lane in Cork City separates the gleaming buildings of the new development that was built right in the heart of the city and completed this year. Back in July it was a rugged dirty construction site, and this photo is a fitting end to 2009, and the Noughties. Not much construction work…

Yellow spots mark the parking spaces while the Elysian looms overhead!

The Elysian, as it was in March 2008, still under construction while the Irish Economy economy fell apart around it.

County Hall in Cork, as it was in 2005. Not so long ago it was flooded but it looks vaguely impressive when seen from certain viewpoints since the facelift it received in this photo. Shame it’s built on a flood plain.