Cork and Cobh

Before I launch into stories about the ill-fated Titanic, I have to tell you about the scary side of Limerick. It seems to be a big joke in Ireland, that the local Limerickans, wear stab vests like the Garda (police). Apparently there is a lot of gang violence, and stabbing is the choice means of inflicting pain and suffering.

Well, on our way home from Galway, we missed our turnoff at one of the round-abouts and ended up lost, and eventually near King John's Castle. It is sort of close to the town centre, but because of construction, it is difficult to get to the centre for there. So Ang being Ang, I took a turn of faith, which turned out to be one of my least wise turns ever. We ended up in a rough part of town. I was concentrating on the enormous speed bumps in the road and missed the huge floral memorial for a stabbing victim (which according to Stephanie, happened at that spot) and the copious numbers of scary looking people. Even the children looked scary. At this point we hadn't figured out how to lock the doors on the car, so there were a number of worried people in the car. Don't worry though, we received a great deal of divine protection and didn't see or suffer anything.

Ok, back to the touring. Cork and Cobh, like all Irish towns and cities are steeped in history. Cobh was the launching place for hundreds of thousands of immigrants to North America. It was neat seeing Cobh, and then seeing Ellis Island in NYC (though I didn't get to stop and visit there this time). Many of my friends' families left Cobh for Canada, and their names can be found on passenger manifests at the local museum. Though neither Steph or I had family come over from Ireland, we didn't take the time to tour the museum... 8Euro was a little much for 30 mins of touring. There was also a fairly large Titanic exhibit in the museum, as Cobh was the last port of call before the ship left for New York in 1912.

But we did walk around the town, and it is really cute. Lots of colourful buildings.

There was also St. Colman's Cathedral at the top of the hill over looking the town. And of course it was beautiful. First built in the 660s, it has survived, and been recently reno-ed to reflect its former glory.

After our very short walking tour of the town, we headed back to Cork. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland (after Dublin, and not counting Belfast), boasting a population of maybe 190,000. Sounds like Saskatchewan... It is a major seaport, with some of the big boats able to come right into the centre of town. For some reason I love boats, and am fascinated with the big container ships. Every time I go to Vancouver, I love to visit the harbour to see what kind of ships are going through. Crazy for a prairie-girl, I know. Oh, and Cork has lots of hills. I like hills, but Steph insisted that to save time, we should drive to our points of interest instead of walk...

At St. Finn Barre's Cathedral, I had to parallel park my wrong-sided, stick-shift car on should-be-one-way-but-isn't street with a slight incline. Not to brag, but it was one of the best park jobs I did the whole trip.

I think the outside of the building was my favourite. They did a really good job explaining the statuary outside the church. Those sculptors were really clever!

Another interesting fact. In the 1800's, the cathedral yard was used extensively as a cemetary. The literature at the church indicated some 17,000 people were buried through over a period of 30 (or was it 40) years. I couldn't capture it in pictures... but the yard is really small.

Our final stop in Cork was the Cork Butter Museum. This was a really cool stop. The whole museum is dedicated to butter. The history, method of manufacture, and future of Irish butter resides in this small, hard-to-get-to building. If Cork Butter authorities read this blog... offer free samples of your product! We finished watching the 15 mins video, and craved butter. But there was none to be had.

We had to rush back to Limerick for a lecture at the University, so our time was limited in Cork. If anything, this trip has given me an appreciation for Ireland that I didn't have before, and a desire to return and absorb more of the history and culture it has to offer.