The wonderful smell is the first thing that hits you, the mingled scent of raw fish and even rawer meat with occasional whiffs of herbs and fruit. If you aren't hungry when you walk in, you will be when you leave. So have caution if you're on a diet.
I've heard that the market is expensive, but experience and other tales tell another story. Four meduim sized lemons can cost over 2 euros in a normal store in Cork, but at the English Market I got them for 1.60! Also apparently, chicken is cheaper here than at any food shop, and undoubtedly fresher too.
You can also go to the "specialities" department, where there will be a large assortment of olives and pastas, sundried tomatoes and sauces. The fruit, herbs and vegetables are all fresher than fresh, and the same goes for all other products too.
It's a real treat looking at the mounds of minced meat(cheap too!) and the piles of shrimp and big slimy fish all begging to be bought and eaten. I'm getting hungry just writing this. Obviously if you're a vegetarian and consider all I've written both tasteless and inhumane, then try to avoid the meat and fish sections of this place.