Reading and Roaming

Around Ireland: Cobh

June 22, 2022June 22, 2022 JWF 1 Comment

Cobh (“Cove”) is a tiny town about 45 minutes south of Cork noted for its harbor. It was the port of embarkation for many Irish from around the country leaving for America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The harbor is well situated militarily and protected and has only one way in and out.

On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore from Cork was the first person to pass through the recently opened Ellis Island immigration center. She and her two brothers had traveled in steerage for the journey to America and settled in New York’s Lower East Side. She was the first of millions of individuals who entered through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.

Cobh’s more recent maritime history far surpasses its size. In April 1912, Cobh was the last port of call for the Titanic, taking on passengers just three days before its tragic encounter with an iceberg. Many passengers arrived in Cobh by rail, stayed overnight in a rooming house, and then went to early mass at the cathedral before boarding their ship. The first class passengers were taken out to the ship by tender; other passengers were packed onto a ferry.

In May 1915, the RMS Lusitania en route to Liverpool from New York was torpedoed by the Germans off the coast of Cobh during the First World War. More than a thousand passengers on the Lusitania lost their lives, but seven hundred were rescued and survived, largely due to the efforts of the local people of Cobh. About 150 bodies were buried in a mass grave in a local cemetery. The memorial sculpture in Cobh features two mourning fishermen and an angel urging that there be peace.

Lusitania Peace Memorial dedicated in 1968

Cobh is a charming town, parts of it set high on a promontory. The streets are narrow, twisty, and a challenge to navigate, especially if you’re used to driving on the right, not left. The Chief Penguin earned his stripes getting us to and from Cobh and out of the town.

Staircase up to Cobh Museum conveys the challenges of navigating the town

We had a tour of about an hour given by historian Michael Martin. He earned his PhD at Berkeley and has spent many years researching the maritime disasters affecting Cobh. He created created this “Titanic Trail” tour. You can even see some of it on YouTube.

The town buildings have remained mostly the way they were a hundred years ago. Many facades are painted in bright solid colors. The contrast between these colors and the gray stone of St. Colman’s Cathedral, which looms above them, makes the cathedral with its detailed stone work stand out even more.

The tour covered only a short distance, but lots of history and several monuments to historic events. There is a fairly recent monument to the Titanic, but I didn’t think it was interesting enough in itself to merit a photo. Michael Martin was an excellent guide. We ended at Kelly’s Bar for Irish coffee, a chat, and copies of two of his books. A most enjoyable outing.

View from waterside park toward St. Colman’s Cathedral (completed 1919)

ADDENDUM

We would have liked to go up to St. Colman’s Cathedral to see the interior and also the Gaia (My-earth.org) exhibit in the sanctuary. It is an artwork of the globe and is a traveling exhibit. Alas, we ran out of time as we were expected at Fota House and Gardens outside Cobh.

It turned out that the tour we were to take at Fota was later than originally scheduled. We were a bit underwhelmed by the property and being concerned about traffic back to Cork, we decided not to wait around. Thanks again to Google, we successfully got out of Cobh and arrived safely back at Hayfield Manor.

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Around Ireland: Cork City

June 21, 2022June 21, 2022 JWF Leave a comment

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When we arrived in Cork on Sunday and took a short walk around the area, we inadvertently headed in the opposite direction from the city center. We walked through some dull, more industrial-looking university buildings and never really got to where we wanted to be, even after we turned ourselves around. Cork, at that point, seemed a bit scruffy.

The next morning, yesterday, we had a lively tour guide named Helena, a bit of a Judy Dench look-a-like, who talked fast, walked fast, and bubbled over with lots of Irish history. With her, we got a wider tour of both the historic sites and the modern downtown and were this time impressed with what we saw and learned!

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK

Our first stop on our walking tour was the lovely quad at UC Cork. Founded in 1845, Cork is one of the three Queen’s colleges making up the National University of Ireland. The other two are in Galway and Belfast. It was quiet as most students are gone for the summer. The stately grey stone building on one side of the quad included quarters for both the bishop and the college president.

Not far from it is the modern student center and the lovely Honan Chapel completed in 1917. Our timing was fortuitous as one of the university staff came along at just the right time to unlock the chapel.

The stained glass windows inside are rich and detailed, but the standout for me was the mosaic work, River of Life, running on the floor down the central aisle. At one end were the signs of the zodiac, and at the other, a lion, tiger, and a fish among the animals depicted. The lighting can be adjusted to bathe the walls in blue or mauve light.

Also while at the university, we went into the Stone Corridor to see a display of Ogham Stones. These rectangular stones two to three feet in height were gravestones containing a coded form of the Irish language.

The words are spelled by a series of small vertical grooves in groups and placed right, left, or center on the face of the stone. These stones are approximately 1500 years old and date from before St. Patrick came to Ireland.

SAINT FIN BARRE’S CATHEDRAL

St. Fin Barre’s is a Gothic Revival cathedral with three spires or steeples. It was designed by William Burges, consecrated in 1870, and named for the patron saint of Cork. It’s an Anglican cathedral (Church of Ireland) and is built on a site which has been a place for worship since the 7th century. We did not go inside, instead studying the sculptured figures around the doors and later viewing it from a greater distance.

Three spires of St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral

ELIZABETH FORT

Dating from the 17th century, Elizabeth Fort was built on high ground outside the city of Cork. Later the city grew up around it. It’s what’s known as a five star fort since it provided vantage points in five different directions in case of attack.

At one time, it was also a holding jail for women who were petty thieves or deemed of loose morals. Some of them were then transported to Australia for seven years of hard labor. There are steep steps to get to the uppermost level, but the views were worth the short climb!

View from Elizabeth Fort. Red brick building is a convent.

MODERN CORK

Cork today has a bustling attractive downtown and, with the city’s boundaries recently expanded, counts a population of about 200,000. Apple has an office here and employs about 6,000 people. Google also has a presence. Throughout the city, you see familiar chains such as Starbucks, McDonalds, North Face, and the like. The city is broken up by several channels of the River Lee and is actually an island. A number of bridges span the various branches of the river.

On St. Patrick’s Street, the main thoroughfare, there is an impressive monument to the individuals who died in conflicts over the years, ones that occurred before the Easter Rising in 1916.

Monument to individuals lost to conflicts and wars

In 2004, the street was re-designed to be more pedestrian friendly and flood lights mounted on angled steel poles, intended to look like ship sails, provide a focal point. Our guide told us that people either love the lights for hate them. I’d like to see them lit at night, but didn’t have the opportunity.

After our walking tour, we had lunch outside at the casual Amicus cafe. My open-faced chicken sandwich with the proverbial chips is in the header photo.

LODGING

A word about lodging. We have been very fortunate in the hotels we’ve stayed in so far on this trip. Thank you, Audley Travel. Our favorite to date is the lovely Hayfield Manor, here in Cork. It’s about a 15 minute walk from the center of town and tucked into a residential neighborhood not too far from the university in the other direction.

It was built in the 1920’s by the Musgraves, a prosperous local merchant family. Over the years, the house became neglected. In 1995, the current owners did a massive renovation and restoration while keeping the feel of the original home. It has gracious public spaces, a grand double staircase, and, in our case, a very comfortable and spacious room. We have also enjoyed tasty cuisine at dinner and from their extensive breakfast buffet.

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Ireland: Rock of Cashel

June 20, 2022June 20, 2022 JWF Leave a comment

THE JOURNEY

Our next stop was to be the city of Cork, but on the way, we visited the Rock of Cashel. We’ve been using Google Maps for navigation, and without it, we would have been many times lost on this route! We were not directed to a motorway, but rather traveled on a whole series of little R-numbered roads, many just simple rural lanes enclosed by tall hedgerows on either side. They were winding and full of hairpin turns. Thankfully, since it was a Sunday, few other cars were out. We had almost decided to give up on finding the Rock of Cashel and then it loomed high on the horizon not too far away!

THE SITE

I am not sure what I was expecting, perhaps just a very prominent rock on a promontory. Instead, the Rock of Cashel is a set of medieval church remains sitting up high. Initially, from the 4th or 5th centuries to the 12th century, the Rock was primarily a fortress and where the kings of Cashel held sway. St. Patrick is believed to have baptized the grandsons of the first Cashel king.

In 1101, the then king of Cashel gave the Rock of Cashel to the church, and soon the early Romanesque church, Cormac’s Chapel was built. In the 13th century, the present cathedral, also on this site, was built, then altered and expanded in the 15th century, sacked by the English in 1647, but used by the Church of Ireland until 1749.

Over the next several centuries, the cathedral gradually decayed and in 1869 was put under the care of the government. Further excavation on the site took place in 1975 and restoration in the 1980’s.

SPECIFICS

The cathedral, unlike Cormac’s Chapel, is in the Gothic style and was constructed between 1230 and 1270 and was fit in between the then existing round tower, chapel, and a rock-cut well.

The round tower is the oldest surviving building here and may date from about 1101. Towers like these were free standing bell towers from the late 10th the mid-12th centuries and are only found in this shape and form in Ireland. You may recall we saw an impressive round tower at St. Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny.

In the grounds around the complex are a number of graves, some very very old, and some contemporary from 2016 to 2021. Standing Celtic crosses dot this part of the landscape. And from the side, you have a wonderful view looking down on green fields and grazing cows. It was cold, almost bitterly so, with a brisk wind; hence, we moved around quickly and did not linger long.

View looking down from Rock of Cashel grounds

After our brief stop at the Rock of Cashel, we got on the road again. This time, we were able to take the M8 roadway into the city of Cork.

Around Ireland: Kilkenny

June 19, 2022June 19, 2022 JWF Leave a comment

WHERE

Kilkenny is about 60 miles south and a bit west of Dublin, a drive of not quite 2 hours. We stayed outside town at a country estate, had a lovely dinner there, and then the next day spent several hours exploring the town on our own and with a guide. Kilkenny the town has a population of about 26,000 and the county a total of around 100,000.

WHAT

Kilkenny is a market town and a tourist draw today, but its history goes back to before the 13th century and before the Normans came from France. For a time it was the capital of a pre-Norman kingdom and, for a brief period in the 1600’s, an independent Irish parliament made Kilkenny its capital. Alas, in 1650, Oliver Cromwell came calling, destroying much, and capturing Kilkenny for the English. There’s a historic castle (13th century) which with its original four towers was part of the defensive wall around the city center.

St. Canice’s Cathedral, also from the 13th century, gave the town its name. Cromwell’s forces badly damaged it, but it is nicely restored. It is striking for its round tower.

THE DAY

It was Saturday morning, and we were impressed with how lively and busy Kilkenny was. This is a town that has a an active business district. Lots of shops and restaurants and folks sitting outside or waiting in line for cafe tables despite it being a chilly morning. The locals were in T-shirts while we were bundled up in several layers!

There were a few recognizable chain stores, but most were local shops in old stone buildings with attractive traditional signs. I didn’t see any neon or plastic whatsoever. We spent some time in an inviting and well-stocked bookstore and wandered up and down several shopping streets before we met Jason for our tour of more historic sites.

PRIDE book display in Kilkenny Book Centre

Jason is a local guy whose first career was as an electrician. When the recession of 2008 put him out of work, he started offering cycling tours. Today he owns a hundred bicycles and serves an international clientele, heavily American. He also has a fleet of water bikes, and renting one of these to peddle along the river appeals to the locals, offering him some insurance against events like Covid-19.

Aside from tourism, Kilkenny is known for its red ale which, Jason stated, is mostly drunk by people outside Ireland. And for hurling, an ancient sport that is sort of a cross between lacrosse and soccer.