A new documentary takes a look at a bizarre elevated Cork City highway (almost built in the 60s)

By Christina Collins August 21, 2023August 21, 2023

It’s a day for the ducks.

But up on the second floor of the Crawford Art Gallery, a fascinating new Cork film is playing on a loop in the cosy screening room.

The documentary, directed and produced by local poet and architect Michelle Delea, tells the extraordinary story of Cork’s near miss with a bizarre four-lane elevated highway.

In 1968, the approved plan proposed an elevated ring road and sprawling set of spaghetti junctions for Cork City Centre, which also looked to widen Paul Street and Cornmarket Street into four-lane undivided roads.

In place of Cork’s landmarks and gorgeous cityscape would be elevated carriageways, columns of concrete and acres and acres of carparks to facilitate “100 per cent penetration” by the private car in the city centre.

“The one I always come back to, which I can’t fathom, was that they were going to demolish the whole block going from Paul Street down Cornmarket, up the Quay and down Half Moon Street,” said Michelle Delea.

“That’s now very much the heart of the city. That was going to be flattened for car parking, and it’s one of many blocks that were designated for clearance.”

The Sprawling Octopus of an Elevated Highway follows the group of seven courageous architects who opposed the plan alongside Irish Times journalist Mary Leland, as well as the sketches and drawings that allowed the group to visually communicate to the public what a ‘concrete noose’ around the city would look like and garner support for its opposition.