What's going on in Cobh? (probably far from complete)I'm from Cobh. A really nice place in the south of Ireland. This is a collection of a bit of a local knowledge on Cobh and I've also trawled the web for anything I can find half-relevant.
If you want pictures or a bit of historical information, you'll find some nice touristy sites listed below and photos from a few people who have visited. Current information can be found by following the parish newsletter or Chamber of Commerce links. Enjoy anyway.
This site is, of course, completely unofficial etc...
AND also very neglected and oldish. Aplologies for that.
Caveat emptor and all that.
Don't be too ready to believe anything you read on the www (or anywhere else for that matter). :)
If anyone knows anything else either on or off web about Cobh please do mail me. Anything is appreciated, stories, history, whatever. I'd like to include a bit more information here.
Also I myself have only been a visitor to Cobh for the past few years so if I'm becoming out of date then you can help and give out to me.
Pretty, huh? By no means accurate though :) Previous thanks to Adobe photoshop. Now everything done with The Gimp and other gnu and open source tools. Others may be interested in the psp format picture.
There's quite a few links below, all external, but some are rather difficult to find on the web unless you poke around alot. Have fun clicking.
What's going on in Cobh? (probably far from complete)
Events section
of Cobh Chamber of commerce pages.
The Great Island Community News.
Cobh newsletter.
The Cobh Youth Information Centre is open "about a year now" for the last three or four years! It is run by the YMCA who have information centres like these all over Cork. The YIC, (Youth Information Centre) is operated by people from Cobh.
During this past year the YMCA has also run two STEP, (Support, Training, Enterprise, Programme) courses in Cobh.
From
Cork County Council,
Context & development plans
The Irish Titanic Historical Society, on Cobh.
Very good information on some of the interesting buildings, the Library (The Arch Building, the old Town Hall), the quays, the Lusitania memorial and more.
The Lusitania was sunk by the German submarine U20 on May 7, 1915, about 12 miles south of the Old Head of Kinsale with a total of 1962 persons on board. A total of 1198 people were lost. Both survivors and the dead came to Cobh leaving a lasting impression on the town. The Lusitania peace memorial remembers the tragedy.
The Titanic's last port of call was to Cobh before on the morning of April 11, 1912. She was served by smaller tenders who ferried passengers and baggage out to where she waited outside the harbour. A lucky few disembarked in Cobh, 9 people? including the Odell party, a Mr E. Nichols and John Coffey, a deserting fireman. She (as you probably know!) struck an iceberg 3 days later and sank early on April 15th with about 2227 persons on board 705 survived.
Today, cruise liners are used more for pleasure than anything else. Find out whhich liners call to Cobh and When on Janet's Cruise liner visits to Cobh page.
Museums and centres
Cobh, The Queenstown Story,
Emigration heritage centre, in the old train
station by the deep water quay. Of the 6 million Irish emigrants fleeing thee
famine and poverty in Ireland from around 1850, 2.5 million left from Cobh
including Annie Moore and her brothers (see picture), the then President of
Ireland, Mary Robinson, unveiled a bronze statue featuring Annie, Phillip and
Anthony at the Deepwater Quay, Cobh, on February 8, 1993. Natives of Cork
city, they left Cobh from the Deepwater Quay on December 20, 1891. They
arrived at Ellis Island on New Year's Day 1892, it was her 15th birthday!
They were the first to be processed by Ellis Island which was newly opened.i
They then joined their parents and older brother in Brooklyn, New York,
who had emigrated two years previously.
The great ocean liners including those which came to a tragic end,
e.g. the
Titanic and the Lusitania, are also an integral part of the history of Cobh
and are featured in the museums.
Cobh Museum in the old
Scots Church on the High Road in Cobh. A collection of marine paintings,
models and photographs and a museum of the business and social life of Cobh
as a naval town.
Irish Museums & Heritage Centres on Cobh
Megalithomania.com Cork
has no entry for sites on the Great Island I think?
Off the top of my head ...
The Cathedral
This is by far the most dominant and imposing piece of architecture in Cobh made even more impressive by its position high up overlooking the harbour.
The Churches of the Great Island the history of the Churches, quite interesting.
Cobh Bells The carillion has just been restored and is going back into the cathedral after a visit to the Netherlands. The 42 original bells installed on 1916 with five 1958 treble bells and two spanking new bass bells (St. Oliver Plunkett and Blessed Dominic Collins) are going on view before being rehung starting April 19th. Interestingly enough to those knowledgable about bells (but not me) they are being rehung in a different order (more normal biggest down?).
The Irish Architectural Archive house an excellent collection, check out their site. In particular they have a drawing of the cathedral without its steeple from the Ashlin & Coleman collection.
Royal Cork Yacht Club RCYCHome to probably the oldest yacht club in the world for a century, it is now the Sirius arts centre. Built on the waterfront in 1854, a pretty feature from both land and sea. The Sirius Arts Centre is now home to an Artist in residence programme, it mounts exhibitions from various artists, hosts musical concerts and provides a center for Community Arts, Seminars and Training.
See also Lynda Cronin, Visual Artist Lynda Cronin another page.
The Chamber of commerce
and
The Junior Chamber of CommercePlaces to stay, things to do, things to see, a bit of history. Hire a boat? Go on a harbour cruise? Play a round of golf? Go fishing? Check out the museum, the heritage centre. Taste some smoked salmon. Find some contact numbers here and near the end of this page.
Foundmark East Cork.
Cork-guide Cobh.
Information on Cobh and the surrounding areas.
Roche's Point Lighthouse
At the entrance to cork harbour it can be seen day and night from much of the town. Look for its distinctive flash at night and take a walk up east-hill and watch for when it turns from red to white marking the start of the channel in from the sea. THe wreck of the Celtic
Lynch's QuayThe old Cork Harbour Commissioners Office built 1860 is now the office of Cobh UDC. Lynch's Quay is the oldest quay in Cobh, the eastern end serviced early transatlantic steamers. It's still going strong, the sailing centre is based right there, across the road, go on, get wet!
Deep-water QuayThis quay is right behind the train station and heritage centre. Tender ships which ferried passengers and cargo out to the big transatlantic ships used this quay. Many Irish emigrants departed from this very place.
It is nowadays a favourite of visiting navy ships, tugs and others who don't have to offload any cargo. I was on the USS Inchon and crawling into hueys and other such nice mechanical beasts there.
Belvelly
A very small village right at the bridge linking Cobh island to the mainland. The bridge was built on the site of an old ford.
Belvelley is home to an old school building and much older Castle and Martello tower. The Martello Towers were built during Napoleonic War as an early warning system of coastal invasion, bonfires lit on top of the tower were visible to the next martello tower. Belvelly Castle dates from the 13th century and is said to have belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh.
Hoi all you Dutch people, I know you love smoked salmon! :-) Hederman's Belvelly Smokehouse has Smoked Salmon Tasting daily.
Fota Island
Just across the bridge from Belvelly you find the entrance gates and lodge of Fota estate and wildlife park.
Giraffes, cheetahs, penguins, gazelle, assorted ducks and monkeys are all to be found in Fota. But they recently sold their Dairy herd so you'll probably not find any of the more common Irish cow there. Fota mansion house is also open to the public I think and I'm pretty sure someone's built a golf-course and maybe hotel there by now.
As sea scouts we used invade a wooded part of the island and camp (quite legitimately of course). Nice old quarries and trees to play in. More strange monkies for the tourists to observe! Scouting Ireland Fota Island Camping, Training and Activity Centre (SAI)
 |
The Cobh Sea Scouts, 4th Cork CobhAlan Daly was the last Scout leader I knew. Okay I admit it, I was a sea scout in my dark and distant youth. Members of the Scout Association of Ireland or SAI. Excellent fun, our meetings in the summer were spent for the most part sailing on the harbour. They've now got their own hall by the waterfront on the East side of town. It is right next to the Pilot boat's pier.The hall was I think at one time the RNLI lifeboat shed. It fell into disuse and was actually used by my Uncle, Michael Coleman and his gang to build his yacht "Ooooo nuts! I forget the name? Stella-Maris?". They had a WONDERFUL time trying to get the old rusted lifeboat trolley down the slip! So by now I hope all the scouts have a pretty decent boat-shed cum hall, I saw it Chirstmas 96 and it seemed to be quite a happy hall. |
East Ferry Marina
A long time ago now there used to be a ferry here bringing people, animals, everything across from the mainland. To defeat the current which gets quite viscous on either side of the island during tide changes, the ferry ran on cables. It was wrecked in a storm and never rebuilt, the pier and old metal ends can be seen to this day.
Nowadays there is the Marina, lots of boats and the rocky beach.
East Ferry Massrock
Mass is said once a year at East-ferry massrock in remembrance of the times when the Catholic religion was forbidden and the worship had to be in secret. The priests were permanently on the run and when they came this was the secret place where mass would be held. It's quite interesting to see the crowd standing on the beach slipping on the seaweedy rocks and the odd little kid finding a crab at the waters edge while the priest says mass at a white-clothed table over by the rocks.
The SpitCork harbour is a beautifully sheltered natural harbour, almost completely closed off from the seas destructive tendancies. For ships this also means it is full of obstacles like islands and mud-banks to sail around if they want to make it as far as Cobh, Ringaskiddy or Cork. "The Spit bank" is a big mud bank walkable on during the low end of low spring tides sometimes. It stretches out into the harbour near Spike and Haulbowline. "The Spit lighthouse" marks the far end of the bank and is quite a sharp turn for some of the bigger ships coming into the harbour.
Spike IslandSpike Island was a naval fort and still has some impressive bunkers and guns pointing at the entrance of Cork harbour. It is now a prison with interesting possible escape routes at spring tides (splatch through lovely thick mud). I think there are boat trips out there for tourists. Can anyone supply me more info here?
An Australian, Jan Foster (nee Sharp), is trying to find out more info on Spike Island as their Grandfather was born there in 1898. Father: Sharp, Mother: Daly Can anyone help?
Get yourself wet in CobhSailing, windsurfing, getting rained on, endless opportunities. Eddie English's sailing centre near the slip on the waterfront of the town is probably a good place to start.
East Ferry Marina and Cobh Angling Centre are worth taking a look at. And of course Cobh was the old home of the Royal Cork Yacht Club for years. The building is now the Sirius Arts Centre.
And for those of you who would prefer to stay somewhat drier: Sailing/Boats/Harbour trips.
Brian Walsh ALIA sailing pages weather, navigation, ...
Cobh regatta
Bari sails in Cobh.
Windsurfing in Cobh.
Daffodils in CobhThis is where I'm from, mostly a dairy farm in Ashgrove. The little
house in the background is now our Grannies, we used live there when
we were smaller. Mary stars in this picture and I presume she'll be
REALLY embarrassed knowing millions of people can now see her on the web.
And .... YES those are tulips, a huge field, in Cobh! Pretty, huh?
This picture is from spring 1998.
You'll not find many tulips there at the moment, the daffodils
have proved more able to cope with the Irish weather.
My Dad runs the farm with help from Mum, the girls and Seamus Wilson at the moment. Right now (spring 2000) they're all rushing around the place minding the new calves, organising the daffodil picking, milking cows, ......
If you'd like to embarrass Mary or just tell them all how pretty the tulips look you can mail them here.
ScoilColaiste Muire, where I went to school. Are the other schools in Cobh somewhere on the web? Hey look! See if you can spot my little sister: look for the Colaiste Muire Italian tour October '98
Tir na N'Og, Alia.A computery-minded neighbour of mine from Cuskinny.
Information systems consultancy and development service based in Cobh.
Property
Other businesses
Sonia O'Sullivan.The Irish Times is a good source of news.
Stats.
Up(13/7/96)
and
Down(29/7/96)
Aug 1, end of Atlanta Olympics
and back
Upish(5/9/96)
again.
Doing okay(4/8/97 Olympics) like.
And winning again March '98, yaaaaaayyyy!
And on track for a happy new event Feb 11 1999.
Irish Emigrant, Feb 1999 Sonia to become a mother. new baby girl, Ciara congrats Sonia's diary - a girl! July12 the priest :-[ motherhood
More recent news,
Olympics Irish diary at the Irish Times Sonia-stats
diary, Jan 2000
Feb
Feb, in Sydney
feb 16
Mar 26, Portugal
April,
Tegla Loroupe
May, Milan
Nice
second in Zurich
Zurich
5000m in Sydney Olympics
3000m rain-soaked Gateshead sendoff to Sydney
Roy Keane.Manchester United footballer. Cobh Ramblers
| Schoolboy's football team, Home ground: Pat O'Brien Park, Cobh. | springfield@ireland.com |
Haulbowline Naval baseAlso home of Irish Steel. (Irish Steel since closed down I think.)
Also home to
The Costal Resources Centre
oficially opened Sep 8 2003.
location directions
map
The Irish Naval Service (The Unofficial Pages).
The ladies L.E.Eithne [P31], Deirdre, Emer, Aoife, Aisling, Orla and Ciara.
The L.E.Ciara [P42] invades Britian :).
some ServicesGardai (021) 4811333 I think? historical architecture of new garda station :)
Hospital & medical Southern Health Board Health Centre Cobh Cobh (021) 4811270
VisitorsA visit to Lusitania and Titanic memorials.
Cobh is visited by a Swede, Mats O'Arvendal I think.
Cobh (and alot of the rest of Ireland!) is visited by Jeff Bailey.
Yasuhiro Namoto, a Nihongojin visits Cobh.
BobMax in Cobh.
Louis Vrooman visits Cobh.
Bob Greene visits Ireland. Least info on Cobh but best quote by FAR: "we went to our hotel in Cork (pronounced Kark)" ROTFL! :-D.
TBND (who?) goes to Ireland
Old pier, ¥³¡¼¥ô Cobh in katakana. 
Jun Terao, friends of Ireland.
Actividades
para des estudiantes de South of Ireland Language Centre. 'scuse my Spanish?
Noreen (American?) visits Cobh [broken link :(]
Important Pub :) and Tourist info
If you're going to be drinking, you might like to know what they're all singing: The "Holy Ground" Stories differ I find, was it a quarter of Cobh inhabited mainly by fisherman? Or was it where the sailors could go to pick up some female companionship?
Atlantic Inn, West Beach, Cobh +353 21 4811489 Clippers, 17 Westbound pl., Cobh +353 21 4813099 Marlogue Inn, East Ferry, Cobh +353 21 4813390 Mimmo's Restaurant, Italian & Irish Cuisine, 4 Casement Sq., Cobh +353 21 4811343 Robin Hill Restaurant & Guest House, Rushbrooke, Cobh +353 21 4811395 Jim's Place, 22 West Beach, Cobh +353 21 4811497 O'Brien's Coffee Shop, 8 Pearse Sq. Cobh +353 21 814091
Music
Harbour picturesHaulbowline, old factory/office buildings
Derry O'Donovan's images
Spike Island
View from high on Cobh of Haulbowline (most of it) & Spike:
Harbour view
Cork Dockyard (not in Haulbowline, in Ringaskiddy
WW1 plan of Haulbowline naval dockyard
www.IrishSeaShipping.com
IrishSeaShips yahoo group
Miscellaneous
Le Cobh?
More pictures!
Search the Irish Times for Cobh
