We were greeted today with an overcast sky, but with the hope of a brighter day, unfortunately as we headed out of Kinsale the weather turned the other way. We were heading towards Cobh. Cobh has quite a sad history, it was from this port that 2.5 million left these shores after the famine
COBH : County Cork : Republic of Ireland : Population 6800
Cobh was renamed Queenstown in 1849 to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria and so remained until the name Cobh was restored in 1920 with the foundation of the Irish Free State.
Our first reference point in Cobh was the huge spire of St Colman’s Cathedral dominating the town. The cathedral really is very impressive in size, emphasized by the fact that it seemed disproportionate to the size of the town. Inside is just as impressive with the fantastically sculpted walls and alter. While we were there, there were groups of school kids being put through their catholic paces. It seemed as if they were running practice sessions for the region in preparation for their Holy Communion. It was quite sweet to see and hear them, it was a little disconcerting to see so many large American tourists pushing through and taking flash photography of them. That was a little disrespectful we felt.
Before going into the main cathedral we decided to have a look at the little chapel on the side, unfortunately we got sprung poking our nose in by some devout souls saying their prayers. We felt the only right thing to do would be to go in and join them for a few minutes of respectful silence. We did feel like complete imposters though, especially as we neglected to cross ourselves as we left.
While we were in there the heavens opened, we came out to torrential rain, however we were prepared, we had raincoats. After half an hour of walking through the town we discovered the shortcomings of wearing a raincoat rather than a full waterproof body suit. We had the rain running down our legs … inside our jeans. Raincoat down, we were drenched through. It was shortly after this that we decided to head back to the comfort, and the heaters, of our car, but not before checking out a couple of the sites here. We found the memorial to those that lost their lives on the Lusitania, a ship that was torpedoed not far offshore from here in 1915, an event that brought America into the First World War and many of the survivors and dead were brought ashore here. Evidently some of those that died in this disaster are buried in the cemetery. Not far from the first memorial is the memorial to the Titanic. This was her last port of call on 11 April 1912 (to pick up the last 136 passengers) before her fateful journey.
Unfortunately we didn’t see Cobh at her best today, poring with rain and the steep streets turned into rivers of water to be navigated as we fought our way back up hill. We are glad that we got to see the cathedral though. Of course as luck would have it once we left town the rain started to ease, leaving us with that damp feeling, car heaters working overtime to try and dry ourselves out before the next stop.
BARRYSCOURT CASTLE : County Cork : Republic of Ireland
The site on which Barryscourt castle now stands has been occupied for over a thousand years- there is evidence of a wooden watermill having been built at the site sometime in the 7th century. The Barrys destroyed or severely damaged the family castles to prevent English forces from capturing them, including Barryscourt, which was threatened by an army led by Sir Walter Raleigh. Barryscourt ceased to be the main residence of the Barry family in 1617.
Our next stop was Barryscourt Castle, a great looking castle silhouetted against the recently developed blue sky. We have been told that this is a much finer looking castle than the Blarney variety not far away and with less crowds, however the real attraction was the ‘Free Entry’. Unfortunately we didn’t read the fine print which stated that it was free entry between June and September. So inside we did not get, however we can say with some authority that the outside is very fine indeed.
CORK : County Cork : Republic of Ireland : Population 120,000
The second largest city in the Republic of Ireland. County Cork has earned the nickname of "the Rebel County", while Corkonians often refer to the city as the "real capital of Ireland", and themselves as the "Rebels". A description of Cork written in 1577 speaks of the city as, "the fourth city of Ireland" that is, "so encumbered with evil neighbours, the Irish outlaws, that they are fayne to watch their gates hourly ... they trust not the country adjoining [and only marry within the town] so that the whole city is linked to each other in affinity".
Our next stop today was Cork city. After spending some time here we were left wondering whether we were in the wrong part of town, as we found it to be singularly unimpressive. It didn’t seem to have the spirit and atmosphere of every other place within Ireland that we visited, an atmosphere that we have come to expect. Maybe there is a historic reason for this. Cork seems to have spent much of its time under English rule, however they haven’t been particularly happy about it. They did manage to keep out of Cromwell’s grasp only to fall to William of Orange (hence the Protestant Cathedral). During the ‘Black and Tan’ era, the English were the most brutal and repressive within Cork City, much of the central city was burned to the ground. This city was also heavily involved in the Irish Civil War (1922-23).
We did go for a walk around the city and found one of the grand churches, St Finbarre’s Cathedral. Once again a fantastic example of architecture … from the outside. We decided against paying an entrance fee as we had already had our full of churches for the day. We do wonder what the deal is though. In Europe the churches are free and you have to pay to go to a gallery, in the UK the churches cost and the galleries are free, in Ireland the majority of churches are locked so that you couldn’t go in even if you wanted to.
As we were walking down the street heading towards our leaving point, we came across a team of Council men and Garda (Police), walking down the street lifting up every manhole, and service point on the pavement, after which they bolted them down and sealed them. Then we realized that they were probably doing security service in preparation for the visit of the Queen and Obama shortly afterwards. The Queen’s visit has received quite a bit of publicity lately as it is the first visit of a Reigning British Royal since this island was made a Republic.
After the disappointment of Cork we decided to head home to Kinsale and have a look around the town. We mooched around the little narrow winding streets in its centre looking at little art galleries, wondering whether we have wall space at home for our latest purchases. At the ended the day by heading into an ‘off license’ for some Irish Whiskey to be greeted with a “Kia Ora”. The duty manager has a Maori mate living here from “Palmy”. His wife visited NZ 12 years ago and “brought back a souvenir”. After talking about NZ and our chances with the World Cup, we headed across the road for a wonderful dinner finished off with live traditional music. Another wonderful day on our travels, everyday brings another surprise in the most unexpected way.
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