cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of county cork, ireland and is the second largest natural harbour in the world. the locality, which had had several different irish-language names, was first referred to as cove ('the cove of cork") in 1750. it was renamed 'queenstown' in 1849 to commemorate a visit by queen victoria and so remained until the name cobh was restored in 1922 with the foundation of the irish free state. it was spelled 'cobh' instead of the original 'cove' as a way of 'gaelicising' an english placename, as many irish placenames had been anglicised by english settlers.
one of the major transatlantic irish ports, cobh was the departure point for 2.5 million of the six million irish people who emigrated to north america between 1848 and 1950.
on 11 april 1912 queenstown was the final port of call for the rms titanic as she set out across the atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage. 123 passengers boarded in cobh; only 44 survived the sinking.
an engineer who helped build titanic.
titanic shortly before she was released into the harbor.
we drove to monkstown and took the car ferry over to cobh. after going through the heritage museum and learning all about the history of cobh (i was unaware that the lusitania was sunk by a torpedo from a german u-boat in 1915), mom, charles and i had a snack at the quay's bar right on the waterfront. we watched a row boat of novice rowers practicing in the harbor and i was reminded of my rowing days at ust. we walked around a bit after eating and enjoyed the crisp, fresh air. we hiked up to st. colman cathedral, took some photos and visited with two irish cats.
shortly before five, we were back in the car on our way home to crosshaven. we planned to stop at cronin's and have a pint, so we drove to the house and picked up dad so he could join us. there was a new art exhibit up in the small dinning room at cronin's, so dad and i checked it out. the server, whose cousin sean is at ballymaloe with me, was working so i chatted with her a bit. she wanted to know how school was going and how her cousin was doing. i filled her in as best i could and then she told me to let sean know she was looking forward to the meal he had promised to cook her. charles and i finished our pints while mom and dad ran over to lynch's to pick up some spinach for dinner. we ended up chatting with sean cronin, the owner and denis and joleen's father, about boxing, ballymaloe and irish music/instruments. dad only had to come back in twice to get us. :)
dinner this evening was grilled monkfish, yellowfin tuna, sweet potatoes and spinach salads. i whipped up some chocolate mousse with irish mist for dessert and it is waiting in the fridge for us to enjoy when our stomachs are slightly less full.
another excellent saturday in crosshaven! a few new pics here.
charles heads back to galway on the 7.25am bus tomorrow morning and mom, dad and i might have a sailing date with peter o'rourke.
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