It has served Corkonians for generations and now, after surviving revolution, war, famine, fire and emigration to grow into a landmark for both locals and visitors, the English Market in the heart of the city is about to be celebrated with the launch of a unique history.
Entitled Serving a City: The Story of Cork's English Market, the 264-page volume by brothers Diarmuid and Donal Ó Drisceoil traces the development of the oldest food market on the island from its origins in 1788.
As the two historians explain, the market, which was originally associated with the Protestant upper classes, first became known as the English Market in 1840s to distinguish it from another market which opened in the Coal Quay which catered more for the Catholic Irish.
While the authors have researched the history of the market through corporation minutes books, commercial directories and other documentary sources, they have wisely interspersed many oral testimonies from stallholders through the book.
Among the many stallholders who they interviewed was Michael Bresnan who runs a family stall in the market which can be traced back to his grandfather who first opened his butcher's shop there in 1898.
Today, Michael - he began working in the market in 1961 - recalls how things have changed in his many years of serving locally-produced beef, lamb and pork to the people of Cork.
"I remember back then a woman would ask you if the meat was from a fridge and you'd have to try and anticipate would she buy it if you told her it was - usually back then the older people had no time for fridges so you'd assure her that it hadn't been in a fridge."
Today traditional traders such as butchers and vegetable sellers nestle cheek by jowl with newer arrivals who sell a wide range of cosmopolitan fare from olives and pates to chocolates and wine.
Pauline Noonan runs a pork and bacon stall with her 83-year-old mother Kathleen. She still does a healthy trade in old Cork favourites such as pigs trotters (crubeens) and pigs tails.
"We'd sell about 600 crubeens a week and 400 pigs tails - we sell every part of the pig except its squeak.
"We sell mainly to local people and northsiders, but over the last few years we have a lot of non-nationals coming in. A lot of Chinese buy offal bones from us."
Over at O'Reilly's tripe and drisheen stall Patricia O'Sullivan has seen a similar increase in new arrivals to Ireland buying their produce, and her customers now include Poles, Romanians, Chinese and Africans.
"The Poles and the Romanians chop up the tripe into small pieces and mix it with eggs to make omelettes. The Chinese make a soup from it while a lot of the Africans mix it with hot chilli to make a hot spicy stew."
Published by Collins Press, Serving a City will be launched at the English Market tonight at 6pm by Niall Toibin.
