There are just two weeks left to get a last strike at the Coliseum, as the long-running entertainment complex, officially known as Leisureplex, closes for good on December 21.

If you ever whiled away a few hours of your youth there, now is your final opportunity for a nostalgic trip back to the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s.

As research for my Christmas shopping column last week, advising people to gift experiences rather than extraneous stuff, I went to the Leisureplex to buy gift vouchers and was surprisingly crestfallen to learn that none were for sale because the place was shutting shop before Christmas.

An era of entertainment and fun is coming to an end on MacCurtain Street as the building makes way for another Premier Inn. Sniff!

The art deco building, which opened originally in 1913 as a cinema, is making way for a generic brick and glass façade.

The now almost windowless Coliseum doesn’t have many architectural fans, but it’s sad to me that a building that was a happy, diversionary destination for so many Corkonians over a hundred years is going to be replaced by a hotel chain.

In an era of streamers and endless movies at a click of a button, going to the cinema is, for most of us, no longer the weekly or bi-weekly event it once was.

During the golden age of cinemas, Cork boasted 12 theatres and pages of nostalgia have been written........

© Evening Echo