Cork Culture

Cork Opera House (tel: (021) 427 0022; www.corkoperahouse.ie) is the only purpose-built opera house in Ireland and the main music venue in Cork. The auditorium has 1,000 seats, and the orchestra pit can hold 70 musicians. A wide variety of performances can be experienced here - opera, dance, drama, musicals, comedy, family entertainment and classical music concerts. The Everyman Palace (tel: (021) 450 1673; www.everymanpalace.com) is a beautiful Victorian theatre housed in a listed building steeped in atmosphere and character. Its programme is an eclectic mix of plays, operas, musicals and concerts. Granary (tel: (021) 490 4275; www.granary.ie) has a more experimental programme of theatre, performance, dance, live art, installation and music, as well as talks, workshops and artists' presentations. There are further dance performances in the Firkin Crane, the building that formerly housed Cork's butter market (tel: (021) 450 7487; www.firkincrane.com). It is also home to the Cork City Ballet (www.corkcityballet.com).

Cinemas in Cork include the Gate Multiplex (tel: (021) 427 9595; www.corkcinemas.com) on North Main Street; the Omniplex Cork (tel: (021) 435 8711; www.omniplex.ie) at Mahon Point; and the Kino Arthouse Cinema (tel: (021) 427 1571; www.kinocinema.net) on Washington Street.

Listings of events in Cork city are published by the monthly Whaz On? (www.whazon.com/cork) magazine.