Patrick Street is both the old & new showcase of the City in terms of shopping. It hosts the biggest and best Department Stores, including the iconic ‘Brown Thomas’ (The Harrods of Ireland) and all the usual European & American High St names. On Patrick Street you'll find some fine old style establishments like Gentlemen’s Outfitters and such that keep the street interesting and quintessentially Irish.
Recently refurbished for the City of Culture in 2005, the wide pavements and funky street architecture has regenerated the look and feel of the city centre and controlled the once chaotic traffic. ‘Doing Pana’ as it’s called locally,(walking the length of Patrick Street) is essential to an in-your-face introduction to what Cork is all about and it has an international feel of a much bigger place than it actually is.