This weekend the Cork City Hall Craft and Design Fair is underway, with 85 exhibitors offering crafted products to help tick a few items off the Christmas shopping list.

Get a head start on your Christmas shopping at the City Hall Crafts & Design Fair. Open today from 10am-6pm. Just a fiver on the door!

See you later for the opening day of the City Hall Crafts & Design Fair. Open today from 11am-9pm. Just a fiver on the door!

A West Cork artist has highlighted the dangers of plastic beach pollution in her latest exhibition which she will display at the City Hall Crafts and Design Fair which takes place in Cork from November 24-27.

Middle-eastern fayre seasoned with an Irish touch will be showcased by a Waterford couple at the biggest-ever City Hall Crafts and Design Fair in Cork from November 24-26. Tramore’s Nicola Crowley and her Israeli husband Dvir Nusery whose predominately vegan and vegetarian Middle-Eastern and North-African fayre is going down a treat with food critics. Nicola spent eight years in Israel before the couple left their jobs in the British Counsel and Embassy and moved back to her native Waterford to share their flavoursome food here Their latest product is a combination of middle-eastern flatbread with Irish seaweed, which will be among their products on display at the Cork Craft Fair. “In Israel, the food experience is amazing. Everything is home-made and a meal can be up to 15 dishes all shared at a table,” she said. “There’s something about sharing plates that adds to the social dining experience and so far, the Irish are loving that experience too. “Our dips and breads are all wholesome, full of flavour and mostly vegetarian and vegan which are also being loved by meat eaters.” http://www.cityhallcraftsfair.ie/

Eco-friendly t-shirts of Cork’s Fastnet Rock, made from recycled plastic bottles and organic cotton, have been specially designed for the biggest-ever City Hall Crafts and Design Fair in Cork from Friday to Sunday (Nov 24-26).

Must-have eco-friendly T-shirts, bearing Cork’s Fastnet Rock have been specially designed from recycled organic cotton and plastic bottles, for the biggest-ever City Hall Crafts and Design Fair in Cork from November 24-26 Due South, which has seen thousands of T-shirts being snapped up nationally and internationally in its first year of business. Founded by former Dublin life-coach Paul Harrington, the T-shirts comprise of clean and simple designs, which have evoked a lot of nostalgia. “I was advising people to make life changes, so I decided to follow that very advice myself and turn my screen-printing hobby into a business, with huge support from my fiancée Melanie Mondini,” he said “All the T-shirts are either 100% organic cotton or 60% recycled cotton and 40% recycled polyester, from plastic bottles. They are surprisingly the softest material ever. “We’ve sold thousands of T-shirts both home and abroad and the Dublin Pigeon House design is creating lots of nostalgia – one customer even had the design tattooed on himself. “I have Cork connections, through my father who is from Castletownbere so I designed a T-Shirt with the logo of Fastnet Rock on it, specially for the Cork Fair.” http://www.cityhallcraftsfair.ie/

With 85 exhibitors, this year’s fair promises to be a bumper celebration of an event that traditionally heralds the start of the Christmas season in Cork, offering a unique chance to pick up individual and original Christmas gift ideas.

A Limerick man’s eco-friendly business borne from his wife’s love of candles will be showcased at the biggest-ever City Hall Crafts and Design Fair in Cork from November 24-26. Tom Bromell began making Homeland candles, just outside Limerick city, after deciding to make an alternative to his wife’s candles, which were either too smoky or too overpowering. He believed in his new eco-friendly precision-made candles so much that he ditched a career in the motor, aircraft and manufacturing industries to pursue his hobby full-time seven years ago. “I started making candles many years ago as a hobby because my wife loves burning candles that were either too smoky or overpowering,” he said. “I began researching and experimenting to develop a candle that was technically perfect. We now make candles that burn evenly, offer quality fragrance and an unbeatable glow. “They are also eco-friends. No glass or metal containers, no excess packaging. Just a traditions design made better.” http://www.cityhallcraftsfair.ie/

A Tipperary artisan farmer will showcase Munster’s first cold-pressed rapeseed oil at the biggest-ever City Hall Crafts and Design Fair in Cork from November 24-26. Michael Corbett of Emerald Oils, a third-generation tillage farmer diversified to become the region’s first rapeseed oil producer. “I decided that if I’m going to go this, I’m going to do it all, so I produce and press the seeds and bottle the oil all on the farm. It’s completely soil to oil,” he said. “The award-winning oil varies from region to region, rather like wine and my oil is a lighter tasting oil that’s suitable for stir-frying, deep frying, roasting, baking, salad dressings and marinating. “I travelled to England and Germany to research production and machinery before I started and thankfully it’s paying off as the feedback we are getting is fantastic.” http://www.cityhallcraftsfair.ie/

Featured exhibitor: Naturally Cordial is made from whole fruit to a traditional recipe, with no artificial sweeteners, flavourings or enhancers. These cordials are a great accompaniment or alternative to alcohol and when diluted with still or sparkling water, and are an ever popular favourite with children. Find Naturally Cordial at Stand 19 in our first ever Christmas Food Emporium at the City Hall Crafts & Design Fair, Cork from Nov 24-26th. See http://www.cityhallcraftsfair.ie/