Thursday Cobh

9:30 and the bus pulls away from the Park Inn. First stop is Cobh, 2.25 hours away. Cobh, pronounced Cove, was originally named Cove by the British Navy, being a protected inlet harbor on the south coast of Ireland. It was officially named Queenstown up until 1921, after the Irish people succeeded in creating their own government, when the town was renamed Cove, but with an Irish spelling.

Queenstown/Cobh was the last port for the Titanic, where 2 first class, 7 second class and 129 third class emigrants joined the passengers from Southbampton and Cherbourg bound for the US.

In one of the quayside buildings, the former railway station, there is now a Cobh Heritage Centre, with narratives, photos, and artifacts about the trans-Atlantic sea traffic, including the Titanic, the Lusitania (sunk 35 miles south of Cobh), transportation to Botany Bay, and famine coffin ships.

Outside the Centre is a statue of 15 year old Annie Moore and her two brothers. She was the first person to cross the threshhold of Ellis Island on January 1, 1892. There is a matching statue on Ellis Island, and the song Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears celebrates her and the hopes and dreams of all immigrants. The song takes some liberties, as Annie was 17, her brothers were 15 and 12, and Ellis Island was actually shut down in 1954.

Also outside the Centre across the road is a billboard promoting an exit for Ireland from the EU, dubbed Irexit. Probably not a strong movement, since Ireland benefits biggly from being in the EU.

Lunch at the Centre, then we board the bus for a couple of hours to Bantry. Stay is at the Maritime Hotel at dockside for three nights. Dinner at 6:30, then a Men of Worth concert, followed by a gathering of the usual suspects in the hotel pub.