Cork
Rebel City since 1491—backed wrong king, later Irish independence. Apple's European HQ since 1980 (6,000 employees); now Ireland's pharma-tech alternative to overheated Dublin.
Cork has always defined itself against Dublin—which is exactly what you'd expect from a city built on a marsh. The name comes from corcach (Irish for marsh), and the city centre remains an island between two channels of the River Lee. Saint Finbar founded a monastery here in the 6th century; Vikings transformed it into a trading port around 915; and by 1491, Cork was rebelling against English kings, backing the pretender Perkin Warbeck against Henry VII. The mayor and several citizens followed Warbeck to England and were executed when the plot failed. The nickname 'Rebel City' stuck.
That rebelliousness took more serious form in the 20th century. Cork was a stronghold of the Irish War of Independence (1919-21) and remained anti-Treaty through the Civil War. But rebellion also manifested economically. When Apple needed a European manufacturing base in 1980—just four years after the company was founded—it chose Cork, not Dublin. The 60-person factory that once built Apple IIs now employs 6,000 across logistics, supply chain, and customer services. Cork became Apple's European headquarters, and Apple's success attracted Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and EMC.
Today Cork (population 224,004 as of 2022) operates as Ireland's 'second city' with the second-largest natural harbour in the world after Sydney. The pharma-tech economy gives it independence from Dublin's cycles, and as Dublin's housing crisis intensifies, Cork increasingly positions itself as an alternative. The 'People's Republic of Cork' t-shirts are jokes, but the economic strategy isn't.
By 2026, Cork bets that Dublin's success will drive talent and companies south. Forty years after Apple arrived, the city that backed the wrong claimant to the English throne now bets on being the right alternative to an overheated capital.