A New Chapter - Cork to get new Library!

It’s weird how things turn out sometimes. A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about the state of public libraries here in Cork, Ireland’s second city. Whilst this state wasn’t necessarily bad per se, it was clear that some of the libraries are very much sub-par for a city of nearly a quarter of a million people. In the closing paragraph of that post, I briefly touched on the plans to create a brand new state-of-the-art library in the city centre of Cork to replace the old 1970s era library, although I also lamented on these plans progressing at the sub-glacial speeds typical for public projects in Cork. Seriously, I’ve seen tectonic plates move faster than some of Cork City Council’s processes!

Well, it seems that the council has finally figured out how to release the handbrake! On Monday, May 11th, 2026, Cork City Council announced that they’d acquired the Counting House, an office building that forms part of the redevelopment of the old Beamish & Crawford brewery site, situated at the southern edge of Cork’s medieval core at South Main Street. The aim behind this is to turn the Counting House into Cork’s new central library. And to be fair, the plans sound ambitious. The new library is not only supposed to be three times larger than the current one and house  a collection of over half a million books, it will also play host to up to1500 events annually, provide dedicated event, lecture and exhibition spaces, 300 workspaces as well as a café and shop space, in addition to new research areas, dedicated areas for children’s, teen, and young adult literature and a host of other improvements. In short, it’ll be the type of library that Cork deserves!

Formerly the corporate offices of Cork's Beamish & Crawford brewery, the Counting House is set to become Cork's new central library!

But let’s take things step by step. Or is that page by page? What exactly is the Counting House? Why is it there, and what’s with the site as a whole? For centuries, the southern end of South Main Street and the area around South Gate Bridge was the site of a series of breweries before Beamish & Crawford took over in 1792. The brewery there expanded, eventually gaining a corporate office building in a mock-Tudor style in 1919 known as the Counting House, and remained in operation all the way up until 2009, when the company, which at this point had been taken over by Heineken, moved production to its Ladyswell brewery on the north side of Cork, just a minute’s walk from where I used to live!

For the next few years, the entire site lay vacant, an industrial derelict right in the city centre, until the entire site was taken in hand by the city in 2016 to be redeveloped. The plans were ambitious. The site was supposed to be transformed into a new urban centre for the city, with residential apartments, a commercial, retail and hospitality element and a state-of-the art events centre as the crown jewel. I’m not going to go into details on the events centre plan, there’s not enough alcohol in the entire country to numb the pain of that particular fiasco, but the commercial and residential aspects of the project also underwent a massive transformation. The apartment block was turned into student accommodation, whilst the commercial/hospitality development was turned into a pure office development, completely locking the public out of large parts of the redevelopment plans. 

The brick-clad building on the left houses student apartments. Under the original plans for the site's redevelopment, this would have been regular rental flats instead.

It was these radically changed buildings that were eventually built, and to be fair, the student accommodation part of the redevelopment project worked out, it’s operating and seems to be fully occupied. The office building, incorporating the 1919 Beamish & Crawford counting house and subsequently also called Counting House, was not so lucky. COVID-19 completely screwed up the office real estate market, and the developer was never able to attract a tenant for any part of the building. It just sat there empty, even as office buildings in other parts of the city began filling up. In a way, this is a blessing because the building is just incredible. Whilst much of the Counting House is effectively a newbuild, it does incorporate the industrial heritage of the site, utilising old walls, roof beams, hoppers and other industrial machinery in a way that really keeps the history of the site alive. Hell, even the 1919 counting house is an intriguing space in its own right, ideally suited for the planned café/shop as well as some of the performance/exhibition spaces planned for the new library. 

With the exception of special events, such as 2023's STAMP arts festival, the building has been closed to the public ever since it was completed.

Rather than just being a pretty facade, the original 1919 Counting House was carefully refurbished.

Personally, I believe that this part of the development is tailor made for a café on the ground floor, something the city's plans already call for.

Meanwhile, the first floor gallery, as well as a number of separate rooms on that level, just scream exhibition space to me, which is incidentally what they were used for during the STAMP festival back in 2023.

I just love atriums...

Personally, I couldn’t be more thrilled at this development. I’d been able to go inside the old parts of the counting house a few years ago, when it was briefly opened as part of an arts festival in the city, and even then, I’d been floored. It is a site that oozes history, Beamish being one of the two local stouts here in Cork, the other being Murphy’s, both vastly superior to Guiness. It sits at the very heart of Cork’s medieval spine, close to where the city was founded nearly a millennium ago. This entire part of the city has suffered significantly from urban decay over the last decade and a half and whilst there has been some effort to revitalise the area, this has so far lacked a focal point, especially with the much-delayed events centre dead in the water by the looks of it. Turning the Counting House into the new central library will provide that focal point and in turn provide much needed footfall in the area, which should go a long way towards halting the ongoing dereliction issues there. 

Rather than route everyone through the historic part of the building, the Counting House's main entrance is in this modern annex on the side.

As striking as the new entrance and stairwell are, I have a feeling that they're going to require quite a few changes. In fact, I think that most of the needed changes will have to happen here.

This part of the building was designed with corporate use in mind. This includes access control barriers on the ground floor, which are just out of view at the bottom of this photo.

The stairwell also serves as a link between the modern architecture of the new building and the site's historic structures. Hell, if my legs get better, I might even start taking the stairs out of principle here!

On the upper floors, the stairwell fully embraces a stark industrial design.
Please note that this picture, together with the ones below, was not taken by me but rather provided by a generous donor.

In addition to being designed for open-plan use, the redeveloped Counting House really embraces its industrial past. 

Whilst there will have to be some changes to these floors to make them suitable as a library, I do hope that structural elements such as these beams remain visible!

I don't know if the wooden roof beams are original, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are. Either way, this will be a striking space once converted!

Plenty of machinery from the site's brewery days has been preserved as well. It's great to know that they will be accessible to the public in the future!

Then, there’s the time aspect. Now, to be blunt, converting the Counting House into a library is going to take some time. Yes, it is effectively a new building and yes, it is already equipped with electrical and lighting system, access control systems and HVAC needed for modern office use. However, there will have to be changes to the building. Special controlled environments are going to be needed for the reference and research sections of the library, which will house antique and fragile documents. The windows are going to need to be adapted to reduce or eliminate books being bleached by sunlight. I presume that some of the floors will need to be strengthened to take the weight of all the bookshelves, and of course, there’s no telling what the final layout is going to be like. All of these plans will need to go through a public consultation process before the project can go out to tender, which will take some time on its own. As much as I hate to say it, I fear that we’re still two to three years away from the new library opening. However, as depressing as that may sound, it is still much faster than a complete newbuild would have been. Between site acquisition, an architectural competition for the new building, the inevitable objections from residents and businesses, the tender and construction process, my estimate is that we’d be looking at a process of at least ten years, possibly more. Knowing the state of architecture in Ireland, the result would have likely been far less impressive than the Counting House. 

Not that any of this matters if you look at the public reaction to the announcement. I know that using social media to gauge the mood of the public is of questionable utility, given that the likes of Facebook are swamped by recalcitrant cranks, conspiracy whackos and the general dregs of society these days. Still, even by that standard, the borderline violent reaction to the new plans for the library is nothing short of depressing! You see, the attacks aren’t against Cork City Council’s track record of public projects, which would be totally understandable. The city has a track record of over-promising and under-delivering as well as for generally treating the public with outright disgust. I myself have criticised the city for this in the past, and I will continue to do so. No, the attacks are aimed at the very fact that it’s going to be a library. Because who the hell reads anyway? It’s all left globalist indoctrination and handouts for parasites that shouldn’t be in this country anyway! I’m used to Ireland’s strong anti-intellectual streak at this point, but the pushback against the library has gone far beyond what I expected! I guess it just goes to show that those who’d benefit most from the services provided by a library are the ones least receptive to them! It also reinforces my belief that Cork’s biggest enemies are the people of Cork themselves!

I don’t want to end this post on a sour note though. This project is a much-needed shot in the arm for the city centre, and it’ll be a flagship for the city for years and decades to come. It’ll take some more time, but I for one can’t wait to check out the new library once it opens!