Easter was approaching the end and so did our Ireland tour, in Cork. By Cork we find the world’s second largest natural harbor (after Sydney): Cobh.
This drew our attention to one of the songs that we play together with ‘The Dirty Old Band‘.
The Irish rover (Trad)
On the Fourth of July
Eighteen hundred and six
We set sail from the sweet Cobh of Cork
We were sailing away
With a cargo of bricks
For the grand City Hall in New York
‘Twas a wonderful craft
She was rigged for and aft
And oh, how the wild winds drove her
She stood several blasts
She had twenty-seven masts
And they called her ‘The Irish Rover’
Cobh was named Queenstown 1849-1920, after a visit by Queen Victoria (a little boring if all places she visited would change name?). Around 2.5 out of 6 million Irish emigrants left Ireland via Cobh during the years 1848-1950. A journey across the Atlantic was an expensive and very dramatic event. The travelers had to borrow money from most of their relatives to afford the tickets, and it was unlikely that they would ever return. The farewell therefore became a kind of a funeral, since they were not going to see each other again. In the evening and night before departure, it was customary to hold a wake for the traveller, also called an ‘American wake‘. The setting was usually sad, although there was a hope for a better life behind the decision. In poor families, it was not usual to sing, dance or drink alcohol during an American wake. The usual thing to do was fasting. To break the fast one had to go to church, and in Cobh Cathedral for many years they held mass very early in the morning so that the emigrants could eat before boarding the ships.
Cobh today has just under 13,000 inhabitants, and it is a colorful and cozy little town. The main industry is tourism, with a focus on its status as a port city, and around 100,000 cruise tourists arrive the city each year. Besides ‘The Irish Rover’, which with its 27 masts would have been a very large ship, there was another giant that left Europe from Cobh: The Titanic. Cobh, then known as Queenstown, was the Titanic’s last port of call. But it was much too big for the quay, so contrary to what is shown in the film, she was anchored outside the islands of Haulbowline and Spike. Transport to and from took place with smaller tender boats.
123 passengers boarded the Titanic from Queenstown (and one lucky soul left the ship). Of these, 44 people survived. The old ‘White Star Line’ office is today a museum. Quite small, but pretty good. A very wise move to get close to the disaster is that the ticket you get is a copy of what the ticket from 1912 looked like – inscribed with an actual name among the 123. At the end of the tour, you can look up your alias yourself and find out if you survived or not.
Idun was assigned the 30-year-old maid Marcelle (Maggie) Daly, who traveled third class and survived. Knut’s alias was Thomas Myles, aged 60, who traveled in second class. His family was visited by a survivor a few weeks after the accident, who could tell them that Mr Myles was allocated a place in a lifeboat, but stepped back, as it was ‘Women and children first‘. Unfortunately, Knut did not survive, but he kept his honor.
Now time was just right for a bath, and we actually saw some youngsters jumping from the pier by the Titanic Museum. But then there was this thing about permission. On the way to the pier, the prohibition sign was impossible to ignore, so “we” decided not to have a bath in Cobh city center anyway, since around 50% of tobatheornottobathe doesn’t like to break rules if not necessary.
Instead, we went for a beach bath! Winter swimming has become popular also in Ireland, and we had received a tip about Cuskinny beach, which is less than 3 km from Cobh. The beach is shallow, so unless you want to wade far far away in mud, you should go there at high tide. We did, and this was a very nice bath. Beautiful, clear water, not too fine sand, and quite a few bathers with and without wetsuits and buoys.
As very often before when taking a bath in not exactly warm water- it was the ladies who were in the majority (we only saw a couple of men among the 15 swimmers). And the average age was high, when Idun waded into the water she was actually the youngest. A splendid bath in wonderful sunshine!
Once back at the car park, a sauna had suddenly appeared. It was Mike who had built a wood-fired sauna from a horse transport wagon. Awesome! He drives from beach to beach, and charges 10 euros per person per half an hour.
