{"id":507385,"date":"2026-06-19T05:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507385\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T05:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:17:13","slug":"its-a-big-loss-cork-locals-very-disappointed-at-closure-of-popular-food-trucks-on-paul-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507385\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s a big loss’: Cork locals ‘very disappointed’ at closure of popular food trucks on Paul Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plaza, located in front of Paul Street shopping centre, is operated by Holren Properties Ahall Ltd and began operations in late 2025.<\/p>\n

Cork City Council said while it broadly supported public realm initiatives, it also had \u201ca statutory responsibility to take appropriate action where unauthorised activity is occurring\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Representatives from The Fifth Quarter declined to comment on whether the food court was operating outside planning regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus now is firmly on the future and on developing new initiatives, events and activation opportunities that will continue to support local businesses, entrepreneurs and the city centre,\u201d The Fifth Quarter said.<\/p>\n

Locals paid tribute to the plaza as a popular community third space, and said the development provided a much-needed facelift for an area that occasionally courted antisocial behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing to do over here. You just walk by, you get your groceries, you go home,\u201d said Adeel Ahmed, who has been living in Cork City for the past year.<\/p>\n

\"MonserratMonserrat Lopez and Nini Pham working in the Little Vietnam food truck following the announcement that food stalls would have to stop operating on Paul Street, Cork.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think of a city centre, you think of what this community has become now\u2026 they have a community place to sit for everyone, just chat, chill, relax, and that’s what this place became in the past nine months, and I think now that they’re taking it away, it’s a big loss.<\/p>\n

\n It was just so nice to be able to come by, get a snack, sit here, especially when the sun’s out\u2026 I can’t think of another place in the city centre, aside from pubs or bars.\n <\/p>\n

Food vendors were left flatfooted by the news. Monserrat Lopez, who works at Little Vietnam, said she heard about the plaza\u2019s closure less than two weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GustavoGustavo Martinis, who operates the food stall Truffle Dog: ‘We change the space for the better, and then everyone, every time, just comes here and says, “Thank you so much, thanks for transforming this place, thanks for what you guys did”.’<\/p>\n

“It’s really sad, because I think it’s a wonderful place, not even for the food trucks, but for the people to come by and enjoy the city centre. I don’t think we have a lot of spaces like this,” she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard a lot of people saying that they love this place,\u201d said Gustavo Martinis, who works at Truffle Dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe change the space for the better, and then everyone, every time, just comes here and says, \u2018Thank you so much, thanks for transforming this place, thanks for what you guys did’.”<\/p>\n

Cairo2Cork was Nivene Sadick\u2019s first venture in the food business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started on October 18 last year. The support we’ve had from the first day has been absolutely phenomenal.<\/p>\n

\"NiveneNivene Sadick, who operates the food stall Cairo2Cork: ‘The support we’ve had from the first day has been absolutely phenomenal.’<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a different place now, and it’s so vibrant. We’re hopeful that this area will still stay as vibrant as ever; we’ll still be trading\u2026 we’re just going to have to come up with a plan B.<\/p>\n

\n We\u2019re sad, we’re going to miss all of our local customers here and all the businesses around us.\n <\/p>\n

Mary Horgan was lining up outside of Cairo2Cork when she heard the news the food truck would be leaving the plaza. She’s shocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very disappointed, because it cleaned up this area and I found the food beautiful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe area was safe, and it wasn\u2019t safe before. I saw this place in the good times, and I saw it when it went really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others rued that no compromise could be reached between Holren Properties and the City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely they could find a way, without it, it’s quite a dead space. It was kind of people malingering, and nothing is happening. It brings a lot of life to the place,\u201d said Tony Carey.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul Street is usually quite empty, and it’s one of the few locations where you can actually meet outside, eat, and try some different stuff,\u201d said Krystian Bialek.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plaza, located in front of Paul Street shopping centre, is operated by Holren Properties Ahall Ltd and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5658,79,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-507385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-irish-examiner-instagram","tag-cork-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}