Cobh, Ireland (Day 7, Part 1 of 2)

 

Before we started on our next adventure I had laundry to do!  I'll give you my full packing details when we get to our day at sea, but the plan was to do laundry twice while we were on the ship.  This worked out great.  I put my laundry in the wash before we headed up to the Lido deck for breakfast.  By the time we finished eating, I was able to switch everything to the dryer and 45 minutes later we were folding and putting everything away. 

 

We had now arrived in Ireland ~ officially the Republic of Ireland.  The Republic of Ireland is 26 of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland.  The remaining 6 counties are Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom.  I read somewhere that our cruise should not have been called the British Isles because it included the Republic of Ireland.  British Isles is actually correct - the British Isles is a geographical term which includes two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and 5,000 small islands.  It is occupied by two nations - the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Republic of Ireland.  So while the Republic of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom, it is part of the British Isles.

 

 

I had big plans for the next two days when we would be in Dublin and Belfast, so I opted not to plan anything in Cobh (formerly known as Queenstown.)  This stop on our itinerary was for Cork but the port is actually Cobh (pronounced Cove.)  Cork is where the Blarney Castle and Blarney Stone are located.  Everything I read said it was usually very crowded and since Cork was about 30 minutes away we decided to just stay in the port city.

 

 

We started out in a few of the shops in town.  I had read about Aran wool and we checked out some of the sweaters, hats and purses available before exploring some more.  Cobh was the last port of call for the Titanic before it headed across the Atlantic Ocean.  There is a Titanic Trail throughout the town.  This is the West View marker:

The hill up the "Deck of Cards" houses is steep, but we made it to the top!

It was a pretty port town.  Have I mentioned the beautiful weather?

St. Colman's Cathedral is the tallest church in Ireland.  Construction began in 1868 and was not completed until 1919.  It was difficult to get the entire church in a picture it is so tall!

 

We then found the Cobh Museum which was a little gem.  Along with being the Titanic's last port of call, Cobh was also the destination of the RMS Lusitania when it was struck by a German torpedo on May 7, 1915.  The search, rescue and burial operations were coordinated from the town of Queenstown in Cork Harbour which at that time was a British Naval Admiralty base.  There were many artifacts on display from that time.  There is also an area dedicated to Genealogical Research.  We know that Les' great-great-great-great grandfather, John McElhaney, who came to America in 1785 came from Ireland but the trail goes cold as far as where in Ireland he lived.  Les' dad has done quite a bit of research but has never been to Ireland, so we were on the lookout for any helpful information.

As I already wrote, we didn't have much of a plan for this day.  We still had quite a few hours left and decided to visit Spike Island.  It will get its own post because there is a lot to say!  Hint:  Spike Island is often described as “Ireland’s Alcatraz”...