"Cork" Cork by leafmcgowan

Cork comes from the Irish name "corcach" which means "swamp". It was founded in the 6th century of the Common Era as a monastic settlement by Saint Finbarr. It gained city rights in 1185. It hosts a population of over 119,000 (2006). It is Ireland's third largest city, and the 2nd largest in the Republic of Ireland. Cork is known for its rebelliousness through the ages, starting with its support of the English Pretender Perkin Warbeck in 1491 after the War of the Roses. The ciy is built on a island atop the river Lee which is created by the division into two channels at the western end of the City. Cork Harbour is one of the world's largest natural harbours making it also one of Ireland's largest seaports. The city gained urban character in the early 900's when Viking settlers founded a trading port supporting the global Scandinavian trade network. Once as fully walled city during the Middle Ages, only a few sections and gates still stand today. City received charter by King John in 1185. 1491 Cork played a big role in the English Wars of the Roses when Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the English throne had landed in the city and tried to recruit support to overthrow Henry VII of England. Because of this, the city gained reputation of being incestuous as written in 1577 described as "so encumbered with evil neighbours, Irish outlaws, hat they are fayne to watch their gates hourly ... they trust not the country adjoining and only marry within the town so that the whole city is linked to each other in affinity." The climate is the common Irish abundant rainfall and lack of temperature extremes as temperatures below 0 °C or above 30 °C are rare. Cork is known for its Glucksman Gallery at UCC with major influences in music, art, dance, theater, film, and poetry. It is also home to the RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet and many musical acts including John Spillane, The Frank And Walters, Sultans Of Ping, Singer songwriter Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan of The High Llamas, short story writers Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faoláin, opera singers Cara O'Sullivan, Mary Hegarty, Brendan Collins, and Sam McElroy, Simple Kid and the late Rory Gallagher. Contemporary writers include Thomas McCarthy, Gerry Murphy (poet), and novelist and poet William Wall are from Cork. Cork is notable for gaining cultural diversity as a high threshhold zone for immigration from Western Europe, especially Spain and France in the late 90's and more recently from Eastern Europe such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia,and Hungary. Cork and Dublin are competitive rivals. Cork has alot of industry, most notable for Murphys Stout, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Viagra production, European headquarters of Apple, home to the Heineken Brewery, and most recently as one of AMazon.com's European headquarters.