Ever had a television programme find you? Not long after our first visit to Ireland we were flicking through channels trying to find something to watch when a bridge that looked a little familiar appeared on screen. The programme wasn’t something we’d seen before, or probably would have lingered on if it hadn’t been for the distinct white metal bridge that made us realise that it was filmed in Cork.
The programme was ‘The Young Offenders’ and it’s a comedy series is based around two young Cork lads Conor and Jock who generally get up to petty crime while trying to cope with school, family and life at the lower end of the social scale.
The show began as a film of the same name that was released in 2016. It was so well received that it got picked up as a series as a joint production by the BBC and Irish broadcaster RTE in 2018.
Honestly it’s not something I’d usually watch – I like a bit of escapism not tales from council estates – but it’s so excellently written and acted that it’s charmed myself and my husband so much that when we went back to Cork in March this year we deliberately sought out some of the locations.
Only a short walk from our hotel but up a ridiculously steep road is Bell’s Park that features in many episodes. The main characters are often sat together on one of the benches. (We weren’t sure which one, so we sat on all 5!). It’s worth the trek up as the views of the city are beautiful. We caught it late in the afternoon and the light was spectacular.
One evening we stopped for a late-night dessert in the Shake Dog ice-cream parlour/diner – which was used in a Season 2 episode when the lads attempt to hide from the murderous and wonderfully named ‘Dinny the Teaspoon’.
The English Market is a centuries old food market in the centre of Cork https://www.corkcity.ie/en/english-market/ and frequently appears in the show as it’s the location of the fish stall Conor’s mother works. The owner of the stall appears in the series, basically as himself and we saw him working on the day we visited – so this must be a first to actually see a ‘performer’ in situ at a location. By the stall was poster for the original film which appeared to have been signed by the cast and crew. The Queen even visited the market and stopped by the stall in 2018.
The third and probably final season of the series is due to air anytime now. I’m thinking it will be final series as the young cast aren’t so young anymore. I’d highly recommend checking out interviews with the cast on YouTube, they’re so different from the characters they play it’s very strange, especially the two lads who are almost unrecognisable with ‘normal hair’. Look out for the bench at the start of this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6A6n1KeQ9k
From scene to seen 