Seaport Town of Cobh

by Lucinda Walter

Title

Seaport Town of Cobh

Artist

Lucinda Walter

Medium

Photograph - Photography, Digital Art, Fine Art

Description

Cobh (/ˈkoʊv/ kohv, Irish: an Cóbh), known from 1850 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a tourist seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour and is home to Ireland's only dedicated cruise terminal. Tourism in the area draws on the maritime and emigration legacy of the town - including its association with the RMS Titanic.

Facing the town are Spike Island and Haulbowline Island, and on a high point in the town stands St Colman's Cathedral, one of the tallest buildings in Ireland and seat of the diocese of Cloyne. The port, which has had several Irish-language names, was first called "Cove" ("The Cove of Cork") in 1750. It was renamed "Queenstown" in 1850 to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria.[clarification needed] This remained the town's name until 1920, when it was renamed Cobh by the new authorities of the Irish Free State.[1] Cobh is a Gaelicisation of the English name Cove and it shares the same pronunciation but has no meaning in the Irish language. According to legend, one of the first colonists of Ireland was Neimheidh, who landed in Cork Harbour over 1000 years BC.[citation needed] He and his followers were said to have been wiped out in a plague, but the Great Island was known in Irish as Oilean Ard Neimheadh because of its association with him. Later it became known as Crich Liathain because of the powerful Uí Liatháin kingdom who ruled in the area from Late Antiquity into the early 13th century. The island subsequently became known as Oilean Mor An Barra, (the Great Island of Barry & Barrymore) after the Barry family who inherited it.



St. Colman Cathedral
The village on the island was known as Ballyvoloon, overlooking "The Cove" and this was first referred to as Cove village in 1750 by Smith the historian who said "it was inhabited by seamen and revenue officials". The Cork directory of 1787 shows about thirty businesses in the town including one butcher and one draper. The Water Club established at Haulbowline in 1720 was the progenitor of the present Royal Cork Yacht Club (now based in Crosshaven) and is the oldest yacht club in the world. The Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) was based for many years in Cobh and the present Sirius Arts Centre was formerly a clubhouse of the RCYC organisation. In 1966 the Royal Cork Yacht Club merged with the Royal Munster Yacht Club, retaining the name of the RCYC but moving its headquarters to those of the RMYC at Crosshaven at the other side of the harbour.



The tower of St. Colman Cathedral from the streets below.
Cobh has several pubs and hotels and leisure facilities which include the newly built Coral Leisure Center.[when?] The oldest recorded pub on the island is reputed to have been the "Anti Gallicon" situated in the Holy Ground, and apparently liable to flooding when the tide came in. Dating back to the 1780s, the pub was named after opponents of the French "Gallicon" faction who opposed the powers of the Pope. International upheaval led to Cobh experiencing rapid development in the early 19th century. Due to the natural protection enjoyed thanks to its harbour setting, the town became important as a tactical centre for naval military base purposes, never more so than at the time of the Napoleonic Wars between France and Britain. Today, the Irish Naval Service headquarters is based on Haulbowline island facing Cobh.

The wars against the French led to the town becoming a British Naval port with its own admiral, and many of the present-day buildings date from this time. The eventual cessation of hostilities dented Cobh's prosperity for a while but it soon became known as a health resort, and many convalescents came to avail themselves of its temperate climate. Notable amongst these people was Charles Wolfe who wrote "The Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna". Wolfe is buried in the Old Church Cemetery outside the town. One of the major transatlantic Irish ports, the former Queenstown 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 famously the final port of call for the RMS Titanic when she set out across the Atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage. She was assisted by the PS America and the PS Ireland, two ageing White Star Line tenders, along with several other smaller boats delivering first-class luggage. Local lore has it that a Titanic crew member, John Coffey, a native of Queenstown, jumped ship, although there is no record of his name on the crew list. 123 passengers boarded in all; only 44 survived the sinking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobh

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June 28th, 2014

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