'Horrific music', 'visually tacky' and 'too loud' among complaints levelled at Cork buskers

SOME "truly horrific" music, a tin whistle playing the same few notes over and over again, and performing in the middle of the night were among the complaints made about Cork city's buskers.

Street preachers using loudspeakers calling for corporal punishment for children also formed part of the complaints about abusive, offensive, and obscene street performers made to the City Council in the past 18 months.

However, fewer than one in four fines issued to them were paid, new data shows.

Almost half of the complaints referred to buskers performing outside of designated times, 15 more said the music was too loud, while there also complaints about offensive performances and buskers performing for more than two hours.

Busking bylaws introduced in May 2024 set out a requirement to have a permit, and rules around when, where and for how long people can play.

However, many complainants took issue with the enforcement of them, with one person saying they had emailed numerous times about the same person. They asked: “How many times is he allowed to break the rules before any action is taken?” 

“It appears no one is implementing the regulations,” another complainant said, adding: “It is like hitting your head off a wall”.

Another person begged the council to get a performer off the street, saying they had to cut a work meeting short because of the noise, adding: “It’s shocking and embarrassing and I can’t run my business like this.”

Another person wrote that a busker was playing way too loudly, and when their co-worker “approached him and politely explained the disruption it is causing to our business, he was quite abusive to him and has since turned the volume up even higher.” 

Another said they witnessed an elderly lady being abused by a busker because she asked him to turn down the volume, adding that they were working in a medical facility and struggling to hear patients because of the noise.

One reported busking happening until 1.30am, another said that a busker was “playing the same few notes over and over on a tin whistle”, while yet another said that someone was “playing very badly and loudly, out of time”.

According to one complaint, an individual was playing “extremely loud (dare I say terrible!) music at full blast – no matter what side street we walked down, there was no escape from the terrible racket they were causing.” 

'Truly horrific'

They said that busking in Cork can be great, but this act “was truly horrific – there surely cannot be any place for this level of noise and obscene entertainment”.

The complaints were redacted to avoid identifying individual performers, but there were many complaints regarding buskers outside one particular department store, including one saying they were “visually tacky and cheap”.

One described an act at the same location as “noise pollution”, while another said that they “should have their licence revoked – they stay way past the two-hour limit, their speakers are far too loud and they cause an obstruction by taking up more than their fair share of the footpath”.

Another complained about “deeply concerning” street preachers, saying that they were using amplification so should be subject to busking bylaws and should need a permit.

“They spread harmful misinformation about the LGBT+ community, advocated for corporal punishment of children (which is illegal in Ireland), and declared that all other religions, particularly Islam, are ‘false religions built by the devil’.” 

Further information provided to The Echo shows that the council has issued 13 fixed payment notices from the start of 2025 to midway through 2026, but that just three of these had been paid.

One had been appealed and payment was still awaited for two issued this year, but there were also five instances of court appearances for non-payment, with a further two due next month.

The council had also issued two written notices, and one permit revocation letter.

The data shows a significant ramp-up of inspections this year, with 149 conducted as of July, compared with 155 in the entirety of last year.