Mahon (Irish: Machain) is an area to the eastern side of Metropolitan Cork, Ireland with a population of 12,000. It was once a peninsula of lush green fields and estates but in recent years has seen many developments. Mahon is located in a central position in the greater Cork area with the South Ring Road running through the area, entering at the Jack Lynch Tunnel which runs under the River Lee and giving easy access to Cork Airport as well as Cork City centre. The area is mainly residential with housing estates packed densely throughout. It is now home to the Mahon Point Shopping Centre which is Cork's biggest shopping center & retail park, following major re-development of the N25 road extended to Cork Airport via the new Jack Lynch Tunnel allowed the area to boom, but a bottleneck occrus usually on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays & Public Holidays between the hours 11:00am - 19:00pm over the Mahon flyover.The industrial area has major employers such as the Central Statistics Office, Project Management, Webprint and RCI deciding to locate there.
There are three schools in the area, Gaelscoil Mhachan, Nagle Community College and Scoil na Croise Naofa.
Mahon is the birthplace of Wayne Sherlock (born 21 June 1978) Blackrock H&F Club and Cork GAA, his honours include: 3 All-Ireland Titles, 5 Munster Titles and an All Star award.
Mahon gets its name from Lough Mahon, a wide stretch of the upper section of Cork Harbour.
In 1978 Cork Corporation (now called Cork City Council) opened Ireland's first purpose made Municipal Golf Course in the area with some financial assistance from the Golfing Union of Ireland. The Course was officially opened on the 3rd September 1980 and is called the Ted McCarthy Municipal Golf Course (after a long-serving local councillor).
Cork City Libraries provide a Mobile Library service on every second Tuesday at Avenue de Rennes in Mahon, and at the Pier Head, Blackrock, on the alternate Tuesday.