3/11 Part 1 - Cobh Hermitage Center, and all kinds of shipping disasters

Up and out again this morning, but not before enjoying the hotel's breakfast buffet and a short relaxing moment in front of the fireplace. 

Then, into the bus and on to the road. We passed a lone tower, like one section of a castle, and Brendan said it was a tower house. These were build all over Ireland, mostly between the 15th and 17th centuries. King Henry VI subsidized building some of them and I would have loved to see one up close, but we had to keep going.

When we stopped for a restroom break we noticed a couple of horses and a dog in the neighboring field. Brendan pointed out that they belonged to the gypsies parked nearby. He said the government had built some "halting sites" for the Travelers (they function like RV parks, with power and water) but Travelers like to travel. They may settle in a farmer's field and only leave when they receive money. This works for them because it takes an order from the High Court to force them to leave. Brendan said that originally they were some of the dispossessed Irish during the famine days, and they just never settled down. Brendan remembers some coming to his house when he was a child and asking his mom for money. She gave them food instead, which they threw away as they walked away.

Brendan recalled a time in his police days when he was called out to a Traveler family who had settled in a house. When he got there he found they were using the house to stable their house and donkey while they lived in a tent in the yard.  But he also said some of these itinerant families have huge luxury houses. They prefer to be called Travelers instead of gypsies and have their own "Shelta" language.

As we moved on, Brendan pointed out the big bushes along the road covered in small yellow flowers. These are gorse bushes and are quite common here. Brendan said they are very flammable.

Brendan also talked about the rather poor state of the Irish health care and hospital systems. And he said the businesses most important to Ireland's economy are, in order, IT, Tourism, and farming.

He also told us that for some reason, Guinness is absolutely the best when you're drinking it illegally after pub hours.

Along the way he pulled over to the side of the road so we could get out and admire/photograph the magnificent Rock of Cashel, the castle of the High Kings of Ireland. Someday I'll come back and schedule a visit here!

As we traveled to the town of Cobh, Brendan spoke a little about the forced transport of the Irish people. The British used to transport unwanted Irish from Cobh harbor out to Barbados, then to Australia, and then to the US colonies. And sometimes to Canada which, in contrast to their reputation now, was one of the worst places to be sent. Brendan just suggested we look up the quarantine area in Canada. I did, and it's horrible. It's called Grosse Island and conditions were incredibly bad.

Soon we were at the town of Cobh. This town has gone through some names. British called it Cove town until Queen Victoria's visit, when it was renamed Queenstown. In 1921 the Irish renamed it Cobh. Brendan thinks that's almost a made-up word because there isn't really a V in Galic, but it's still pronounced as "cove".  Cobh has always been an important port, which means a lot of history touches this place. It's the departure point for 2.5 million Irish people between 1848 and 1950.

Before going through the display we were each given a card with the name of a person (captain, doctor, passenger, etc) who had sailed on some vessel from this port and we could look for information about the fate of that person in the exhibit. Mine was the pirate Anne Bonney, on The Revenge. Her family sailed from here and I already knew her fate! Randy was Colonel Patrick Cleburne. We learned he was an Irishman who rose to Major General in the United stages. He served on the Confederate side because people were so nice to him while he was living in Arkansas. At one point he called for the emancipation of slaves with the thought that they would fight for the South. Um, no. 

The stories of the immigrants is touching. One of the displays highlights the wide range of immigrants as they board - from ladies in high hats and tight corsets followed by porters with their luggage, to sturdy farm women in shawls, carrying every thing they own.

The display included information about the American Wake, which Brendan had mentioned before. Since people leaving for America would almost certainly never return, their family would hold a wake for them, mixing music and dancing with tearful farewells.

Most famously, this was the final port of call for the Titanic. In the entrance way is a quilt with the names of Titanic boarders from Cobh.

The personal stories are what hits home. The Titanic exhibit featured photographs by Father Browne, a Jesuit priest who was supposed to be on the ship. He received a ticket as a present and was excited to go. He spent a couple of days taking pictures before  telegraphing his superior for permission to spend time in New York. The reply was simply "GET OFF THAT SHIP – PROVINCIAL". Being an obedient priest, he did. So we have photographs of the Titanic and Father Brown had a much longer life. 

Not so lucky were the Rice family. Margaret Rice and her five sons (ages 10 to 2) were returning to Spokane after her husband died. None of them survived. 

Mary Mullin's family was well to do but she fell in love with Denis Lennon, a barman. Neither family though it was a good idea so they boarded the Titanic to elope to the US; neither of them survived. Brendan thought they were part of the basis for Rose and Jack of the Titanic movie. 

And 19 year old Jeremiah Burke was given a bottle of holy water by his mom. He thought it would be cute to empty the water and put a note in the bottle instead. He didn't survive but in the summer of 1913 the bottle washed up in Dunkettle, Ireland. 

In 1915 the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off the Irish coast and many victims are buried here. Martin Mannon, an ex-jockey who had lost a foot, was on the Lusitania when it was torpedoed. He assumed he would never survive so he made his way to the bar to order drinks. The bartender raced out so Martin helped himself (although he wrote down a tab) until the ship turned over a few minutes later. To his surprise he woke up in a life boat after spending 4 hours in the water. 

There wasn't enough time to fully absorb everything in the display; soon we needed to get back on the bus to get to our next destination. And our next destination is .... Blarney!