Why don't Cork people call St Patrick Street "Pana" in real life?

I'm from Cork but spent a long time abroad in the 2000's. I never heard the term Pana until I came home in 2018. I always wondered where the term Pana originated from.

I do always

Growing up, I only heard it used in reference to people "doing Pana" (walking up and down the street with friends looking for love, laughs and trouble!) . My mother used to talk about this. But it was never an alternative name for St. Patrick's Street outside of this context, in my experience.

In recent years, I've heard of the unenforced, useless St. Patrick's Street traffic restrictions referred to as, "the Pana ban".

Yeah, my parents referred to it in the same way. Apparently "doing Pana" was very popular in the 50's when they were courting!

It's a sausage that would have been thrown down Pana!

This is also true.

You would probably have to be of a certain vintage to know about, or use Pana.

This is so strange, i only moved here 6 years ago was introduced to the street as Pana by many a cork person who I worked with. So to everyone I brought down I'd say cork people call it pana for some unknown reason and now it looks like I worked with a niche bunch of corkinians...who are not in anyway the same age/from the same area of the city.

Weird one