Steeplejacks Sean McIlvenna from Belfast and Stevie Hennessy from Ballymacoda at work on the old chimney for maintenance work at the Lifetime Lab on the Lee Road. Picture: Richard Mills

Two steeplejacks were brought from Dublin and Belfast to repair damage to one of Cork’s best-known landmarks.
The 100ft chimney stack at the Lifetime Lab had been showing signs of fragmentation as a result of the recent harsh winters.
Lifetime Lab manager Mervyn Horgan said that plants were also growing out of the stack, including a four-foot bush.
Mr Horgan said: “The date plaque on the chimney stack is 1865. The steeplejacks are specialists who are now heading to Lismore, to the heritage centre there. They also do work on Blarney Castle.”
He said the bush growing out of the building was at a height of 90 feet.

“We were concerned so we had to address it. The ladders will stay up there for two weeks, at which point the steeplejacks will return to check the repair works,” he explained.
The chimney stack was built to carry smoke away from the fire-powered pumps which fed the water to the reservoirs for the city. Mr Horgan said the stack was built tall to help take the smoke away from nearby houses.