Cork has had it hard: browbeaten, brawled over, burned down and rebuilt; no wonder it never outshone Dublin in the capital city stakes. Maimed by the Black Death, scared by starvation and ravaged by religious reformation, it’s remarkable that only a million Corkonians emigrated in the harsh winter of 1846-7. That period, known as Black 47, was the toughest of the Great Famine when potato crops failed, starving souls flooded Cork in search of food or work. They found full workhouses, beggars and new cemeteries being dug.

It’s not what Saint Finbarr envisioned when Cork was begun as a monastic site in the 6th century. Vikings settlers were more forward-thinking; their arrival in the 900s determined Cork’s destiny as a trading port. With one of the world’s largest natural harbours, water trade became the city’s bread and butter, especially the latter. In the 16th century, Cork’s butter spread as far as the West Indies. If only Cork’s history was all plain sailing. A long and complicated period of British interference started in 1169 with the Norman conquest of Ireland. By 1177, Cork was controlled by Henry II of England.

Prince John chartered and walled the city in 1185, before the bubonic plague wiped out half the population in 1349; more perished in a re in 1354. Control of Cork then continually changed hands in a restless period of war, revolt, bible burning and expulsion. It ended when Oliver Cromwell granted the Protestants command of Cork, something they retained until the 19th century.

Cork was marred with curfews, violence and murder. Temporary constables, known as the Black and Tans, committed many atrocities. In 1920, The City Hall and Carnegie Library were burned to the ground. Stability returned and an economic upturn (known as the Celtic Tiger) transformed Cork in the 1980s and 1990s. It became European Capital of Culture in 2005 before the global financial crisis poached it in its prime.

The Cork School of Music and the Crawford College of Art and Design provide a throughput of new blood, as do the active theatre components of several courses at University College Cork (UCC). Highlights include: Corcadorca Theatre Company, of which Cillian Murphy was a troupe member prior to Hollywood fame; the Institute for Choreography and Dance, a national contemporary dance resource; the Triskel Arts Centre, which includes the Triskel Christchurch independent cinema; dance venue the Firkin Crane; the Cork Academy of Dramatic Art (CADA) and Graffiti Theatre Company; and the Cork Jazz Festival, Cork Film Festival and Live at the Marquee events. The Everyman Palace Theatre and the Granary Theatre both play host to dramatic plays throughout the year.

Cork is home to the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, and to many musical acts, including John Spillane, The Frank and Walters, Sultans of Ping, Simple Kid, Microdisney, Fred, Mick Flannery and the late Rory Gallagher. Singer songwriter Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan of The High Llamas also hail from Cork. The opera singers Cara O’Sullivan, Mary Hegarty, Brendan Collins, and Sam McElroy are also Cork born.

Additions to the arts infrastructure include modern additions to the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery and major renovations to the Cork Opera House in the early 21st century. The Lewis Glucksman Gallery opened in the Autumn of 2004 at UCC, was nominated for the Stirling Prize in the United Kingdom, and the building of a new €60 million School of Music was completed in September 2007.