Cobh, Ireland - August 17th

Rebecca and I spent Friday in Cobh - pronouced "cove". She brought Brian with her and I brought Cormac - we took a bus from Kinsale into Cork and then the train from Cork on into Cobh. Cobh has quite the history - the name was originally spelled Cove, and then was changed to Queenstown in 1849 in honor of a visit from Queen Victoria. It was then changed to Cobh (closer to the Irish spelling in 1922 with the foundation of the Irish Free State.

Cobh was one of the major transatlantic Irish ports, and was the departure point for about 2.5 million Irish people who emigrated to North America between 1848 and 1950. On April 11th, 1912, it was the final port of call for the Titantic. 7 lucky passengers disembarked here, but 113 boarded here. The Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat off the Old Head of Kinsale on May 7th, 1915 - survivors were brought to the town of Cohb, and over one hundred lie buried in the Old Church Cemetery a little north of the town. On a more personal note, the port of Cobh is where many workers left from as they came to the States all those years ago.

This first set of pictures were taken at the Cobh Heritage Center - there were exhibits there on Irish emigration, the Titanic and the Lusitania. Each exhibit was focused on the role that Cobh played in these historical events.

Not the world's best picture of me, but I liked the sign in the background - it talks about Sunday excursions to Youghal!

Cormac by a whiskey barrel

Cormac and I in front of the Titanic exhibit

Cormac listening to a Lusitania survivor recount the terrors of the sinking - we were supposed to be in the Queenstown Hotel, where many survivors were intially brought.

Standing in front of a statue honoring Irish immigrants

WWI exhibit

No longer in the Hertiage Center, but walking around town - this is the Lusitania Memorial

We actually chose this particular day to head to Cobh because there was supposed to be a festival on and we'd read that there would be yahcts from all around the world in the port. Perhaps things were actually kicking off until the next day, because these were the only "yahcts" we saw!

St. Colman's Cathedral

The rest of my pictures are from St. Colman's Cathedral. This cathedral was quite impressive! Built on the hill overlooking the town of Cobh, it is named after St. Colman (522-604) who is patron of the Diocese of Clyne. The style of architecture is French Gothic. It took 47 years to build (1868 -1915). The total cost was 235,000 pounds (I'm not sure what this would be in U.S. dollars - I'll have to look it up!) The spire was completed in 1915 and the famous carillon and the clock were installed in 1916. The carillon consists of 49 bells - each tuned to the accuracy of a single vibration!

Yes, that's me...the tiny person in the corner!

Close up of the entrance

Even saw some gargoyles!

The pulpit

The rose window and organ - I know the pipe organ is hard to see in the picture, but it has 2,468 pipes!