Cork

Sister cities

• San Francisco
• Swansea
• Shanghai
• Coventry
• Kaliningrad
• Rennes
• Cologne

History

Cork was originally a monastic settlement, reputedly founded by Saint Finbar in the sixth century. It became more urbanised between 915 and 922 when Norseman (Viking) settlers founded a trading port. Like Dublin, Cork was an important trading centre in the global Scandinavian trade network. The ecclesiastical settlement developed alongside the Viking , with the two forming a type of symbiotic relationship; the Norsemen providing otherwise unobtainable trade goods for the monastery, and perhaps also military aid. The city's charter was granted by Prince John, as Lord of Ireland, in 1185. The city was once fully walled, and some wall sections and gates remain today. For much of the Middle Ages, Cork city was an outpost of Old English culture in the midst of a predominantly hostile Gaelic countryside and cut off from the English government in the Pale around Dublin. Neighbouring Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman lords extorted "Black Rent" from the citizens to keep them from attacking the city. The present extent of the city has exceeded the medieval boundaries of the Barony of Cork City; it now takes in much of the neighbouring Barony of Cork. Together, these baronies are located between the Barony of Barrymore to the east, Muskerry East to the west and Kerrycurrihy to the south. The city's municipal government was dominated by about 12–15 merchant families, whose wealth came from overseas trade with continental Europe—in particular the export of wool and hides and the import of salt, iron and wine. The medieval population of Cork was about 2,100 people. It suffered a severe blow in 1349 when almost half the townspeople died of plague when the Black Death arrived in the town. In 1491, Cork played a part in the English Wars of the Roses when Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the…

Most-observed species

• Black-headed Gull

  Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,395
• Herring Gull

  Larus argentatus Pontoppidan, 1763 · Aves
  2,037
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,840
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,811
• Great Cormorant/European Shag

  Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,799
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,788
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,698
• Rook

  Corvus frugilegus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,681