Father Mathew Quay is a road that is definitely closed. The tarmac has been torn up to be remade into something better, hopefully.

Construction signs on Parnell Bridge in front of Cork City Hall were lit up by a passing bus a few nights ago.

Chicago in 2005 was a city in flux, and nowhere was that more obvious than at the Trump Tower construction site, right on the banks of the Chicago River. I was walking at the edge of the site and took a bunch of photos, some of which I’ve posted over the years. What you see…

You have to go all the way back to 2008 to see the building of Opera Lane., in Cork. Google Maps only goes back to 2009 on Patrick’s Street, where you can see some construction work, but Emmett Place isn’t covered until 2010 when construction had completed. Turn around and there’s the modern site of…

Looking across the top of the City Council building behind City Hall in 2005. It was still being built at the time!

Parts of Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Blackrock are being demolished as part of the somewhat controversial redevelopment of the area. This Examiner article has some photos and a video of the stadium before demolition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_m2Alw2AA

Douglas, 2013.

Now there are gleaming store fronts on Academy Street, Cork but back in 2008 the old offices of the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo had just been demolished and work was under way on the skeleton of the new buildings.

Albert Quay will soon be the site of a glass fronted office block, either 7 stories or 9 stories high. Here are a few photos of the site as it was over the last month. Not much to see except rubble and machinery. The well known front of the building will be coming down soon…

Back in 2008 Academy Street, Cork looked very different. The clothes shops and Opera Lane had yet to be built. If you stood in the same spot today all you’d see would be the shining façade of consumerism.

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