Cork's 18th-Century English Market to transform into a restaurant for one night only
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Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Irish Independent
Diarmuid Gavin and Donal Skehan join sustainability panel in Cork for Fork Fest business breakfast
Diarmuid Gavin, Donal Skehan, Ailis Crowley from FASH Forward, Maria Young from Green Spaces Cork and Virginia O'Gara from My Goodness / Cork Urban Soil Project are among the panellists at the business breakfast next week. Cork City's food and business communities will come together for an inspiring morning at the Cork on a Fork Fest Business Networking, in partnership with Cork Business Association (CBA) and Network Cork. The event which runs from 7.30am to 9.15am will be hosted by food writer Kate Ryan of and it takes place during Cork on a Fork Fest at the new Dunnes Stores Food Hall on St Patrick's Street. The event offers a unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and champion sustainable food practices. Attendees will enjoy complimentary tastings from a variety of artisan food stalls who are part of the new food hall, as well as sampling opportunities from some of the local artisan food producers who are part of the Dunnes Stores Simply Better Collection — perfect for breakfast on the go. The event will also include a live cooking demo by Head Chef Kate Lawlor from K O'Connell Fishmongers. The panel features Ailis Crowley from FASH Forward, who will give practical insights for reducing food waste in your business. Other panellists include Maria Young from Green Spaces Cork on the impact of community gardens and growing local; Virginia O'Gara from My Goodness / Cork Urban Soil Project on circular food systems and composting; Diarmuid Gavin - Creator of Dunnes Stores "Outer Spaces", and Donal Skehan, a Dunnes Stores ambassador. Whether you're a business owner, entrepreneur, or community changemaker, this is your chance to be inspired, build connections, and learn how your business can be part of a more sustainable future. Eric Foley, Grocery Manager, Dunnes Stores Patrick Street stated: 'We are so proud to be supporting the Cork on a Fork Festival, which celebrates the very best of Cork hospitality and food. We love the idea of hosting this event where local businesses will come together to discuss sustainability and we are delighted that we will have some of our local food producers present to join in on the conversations and networking.' The event is free for CBA and Network Cork members, and open to other businesses to book. Register at Eventbrite Link. Cork Business Association is also supporting a number of Coffee House Late events during Cork on a Fork Fest, in partnership with Cork City Council's night-time economy advisor. Now in its fourth year, Cork on a Fork Fest spotlights the businesses, farmers, producers, chefs, and culinary innovators that shape the region's vibrant food scene. This year's programme will feature almost 100 events across the city — including pop-up dining experiences, chef collaborations, street feasts, food trails, cooking demos, and family-friendly fun. Cork on a Fork Fest is organised by Cork City Council in partnership with local hospitality businesses. The festival is supported by stakeholders including Fáilte Ireland, Pure Cork, Cork Business Association, IHF Cork Branch, MTU, Cork Airport, and festival sponsors. Visit or follow @corkonaforkfest on social media.
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Irish Independent
Cork restaurant to face its toughest critics yet as it expands into school lunches
Cork-based food business Seventy Seven has announced the expansion of its operations into the Hot School Meals sector, delivering freshly prepared, nutritious lunches to schools across Cork City while creating local jobs and strengthening links with the city's iconic suppliers. The group, which feeds hundreds of people each week in Dwyers and in Seventy Seven on Grand Parade (formerly Soho), now wants to expand its business to feed the next generation, ensuring children have access to healthy, delicious meals every school day. Prepared daily in Seventy Seven's city-centre kitchen, the new school meal service uses ingredients sourced directly from local producers in the English Market and trusted Cork suppliers. Schools can choose between fresh and hot meals, delivered ready to serve immediately before lunch, or meals that can be delivered in the morning and reheated before serving, which the group says will be 'ideal for staggered lunch breaks'. 'This expansion is about taking what we already do best, making fresh, local food and bringing it into Cork's classrooms,' said Rory Murphy, Director at Seventy Seven. 'We're proud to create more jobs here in Cork while continuing to support the local suppliers we've worked with for years.' 'As the government tightens nutritional standards, we are fully aligned with those ambitions and look forward to contributing to the positive impact of this programme,' said Tara Lying, Director at Seventy Seven. The meals are free from sulphur dioxide and artificial preservatives, meeting high food safety standards and catering to pupils with allergies. Menus are nutritionist-approved, offering a balanced and varied selection of options, including vegetarian and special diet alternatives. The group will also be preparing meals in their own Cork-based kitchens, instead of relying on industrial-scale kitchens, ensuring that the quality remains high through every meal. By sourcing from the English Market and other local food producers, Seventy Seven says that it wants to ensure spending stays within the Cork economy — supporting independent butchers, bakers, farmers, and suppliers. The expansion will also bring new employment opportunities for chefs, kitchen assistants, and delivery drivers. The news comes after an announcement earlier this year that the hot meal scheme will now be rolled out across all non-DEIS, as well as DEIS schools, for the coming academic year, with the Government estimating a €62 million investment in the project. Funding will be provided to the schools, which are then free to choose a supplier, in accordance with national legislation and EU directives on procurement. It opens the market for independent school lunch suppliers to enter the market, or, like Seventy Seven, a restaurateur who wants to expand into their market. Needless to say, the children's menu will contain more than chicken and chips for school goers next year!
Irish Examiner
04-08-2025
- Irish Examiner
'We need new curators': Cork ceramicist Charlie Mahon makes the case for crafts
If it's August, it must be Cork Craft Month. Now in its 16th year, the festival features 99 events, including 80 hands-on workshops, around the city and county. Charlie Mahon is one of Cork's best-known makers, and his work features in two of the festival's major showcase exhibitions. Two of his distinctive ceramic sculptures may be seen in Echoes of the Makers, a special Cork Craft & Design members exhibition at Fota House in Carrigtwohill, while a third, along with some vases, is included in the Voice of the Craft exhibition at St Peter's on North Main St, Cork. His shop at the English Market also features on the festival's Clay Trail. Mahon has been producing ceramics since his days at the Crawford College of Art and Design in the 1980s. 'I was studying sculpture, and I ended up doing ceramics with Hugh Lorigan,' he says. 'It was my minor subject, but I got really interested. For my degree show, I had three pieces in ceramic and a single wood carving.' Ireland was then in the pit of a recession. 'After college, there were no jobs – you could go to London or stay here on the dole - so I went back and did a post-grad, making wire sculptures and ceramics.' When Mahon's grandmother gifted him a sum of money, he began looking at opportunities for further study in America. 'I applied for two courses, one in Mississippi and the other in North Carolina, and I was offered both. I took the one in Mississippi. I got a scholarship, so all my fees were paid, and they gave me a job as well, working on the front desk in the dormitories. The college was open 24/7, so basically I could work away in the pottery, learning the trade, whenever I chose. I did that for two years. It was a fantastic experience.' He would have quite happily stayed on in America, but his parents were experiencing management problems with a fast food business they'd opened in Co Clare, and they asked if he would come back and run it. 'I did that for a few months,' he says, 'but I saw that it wasn't going to work, so we shut it down.' He stayed on in Co Clare. 'I went around the potteries looking for work, and a place called Irish Country Pottery offered me a job as a production thrower. I threw 300 jugs for the banquet hall in Bunratty Castle before I was offered another job, in a rehabilitation unit. There were people from psychiatric institutions coming out into the community, and I worked with them on pottery production for the next six years.' He met his wife, Elmarie, and they moved to Cork in 1996 when he was offered a position as production co-ordinator at the Stephen Pearce Pottery in Shanagarry. 'A few years later, they bought Carrigaline Pottery, and I began working there as the technical manager.' Charlie Mahon at the English Market, Cork. Picture: Michael O'Sullivan /OSM PHOTO Mahon continued producing his own work as a sculptor. 'I had three solo shows at Gallery 44 on MacCurtain St,' he says. 'They all went really well. And then, around 2004, I set up in business myself, producing ceramic crafts. At that time, the outlets all had a sale-or-return policy, which meant you'd get paid when the work sold. But when the crash came in 2008, the market was quite literally wiped out. I had work in 27 different outlets. Most of them closed, and some never paid what I was owed. I found out that one guy gave my pieces to his landlord in lieu of rent. I got caught for thousands overall.' He took a job with the Cheshire Home in Cork, and his ceramics took a back seat for the next several years. 'It was Máiréad McCorley at Cork Craft & Design who got me making work again, around 2017. These days, I make between 100 and 200 pieces a week, but I still work at the Cheshire Home on a part-time basis. The crafts market is seasonal, you never know what might happen.' Until recently, he worked from home in Little Island. 'We have two old stables out the back, and a lean-to where I had the kilns. I'd go down in a raincoat half the time. The stables were never insulated, and the wind would blow through you. But then, about four years ago, I got a unit down in Euro Business Park. It's three times the size, and a lot warmer.' These days, Mahon's wife Elmarie takes care of the business administration and running their craft shop at the English Market, allowing him to concentrate on production. His pottery lines include his Mackerel, Grá, Green Heart and Witty Sheep series. Successful and all as they have been, he hopes to shift to making more of his wall-hanging sculptures. 'I think of them as conversation pieces, the kind of work that tells a story,' he says. 'The three galleries I sell them through are always crying out for more. I'd like to step up to producing at least two or three a month.' Mahon is aware of how the art world often looks down on the crafts industry. 'People like Grayson Parry have done an awful lot to bridge the two,' he says. 'But that attitude is still there. A lot of it has to do with curators. Even in the crafts world, they'll stick with showing their favourites. What we need is new curators, showing a greater variety of work, just like Ava Hayes has been doing with Cork Crafts Month.' The crafts industry in Cork is in rude health, he says. Cork Craft & Design maintains two galleries, at Douglas Court Shopping Centre and St Patrick's Woollen Mills, 'and there are outlets all over the county. We have hundreds of craftspeople – potters, wood turners, furniture makers and so on – and Crafts Month is a great promotion for the work we're doing.' He's delighted to have so much work in this year's exhibitions. 'The showcase at Fota House opened this past weekend, but the sculptures only came out of the kiln on Monday. In ceramics, you can expect to lose around 14% of the work from start to finish. That's part of the game, you know. But when I opened the kiln, the two pieces were standing tall. That's always a relief, I doubt I would have found the time to make anything else.'
