Grover's Visit Ireland: Day 7
Spending the night just outside Cork in Inniscarra at Knockawn Wood made for an easy journey in the morning to go to the Titanic Experience in COBH, Co. Cork. Dad was really excited to go on the tour. He loves history on ships and war. His favorite piece of history is of Ernest Shackleton, a polar explorer. Needless to say he was excited to see Titanic.
To get to COBH we took a 5 minute ferry ride from Cork. On the tour we were taken back in time to 1912 and the final resting spot of Titanic before she set off for her historical journey. Through the use of video and narrators we got a full experience of what the Queenstown port was like on the day of boarding. The building we were in is the original building the passengers boarded from. Since social class was highlighted passengers boarded at different levels based upon the ticket each held. Titanic was too big to fit in the port so she anchored at Roches Point and the passengers boarded tenders to reach her. In only 2 hours the Titanic was boarded as set sail for America, there was no turning back. At this point in the tour we were outside over looking the original dock for the tenders and were told of a story of a man who had a ticket to Queenstown, but not America his uncle forced him to leave the ship even though a couple had offered to pay his way to America. His name was Father Brown, a famed photographer of his time, and he took numerous pictures of the boat and life on the boat before he left. Titanic was a magnificent ship, the beauty of it time. At the start of te tour we were given a boarding pass for a real passenger on the ship. Mine was 2nd class Thomas Francis Myles. At the end of the tour you find out is your passenger survived. Mine did not. Titanic was the biggest ship to be built up to that time and held about 2,200 passengers so tickets were expensive. One first class ticket cost 870 pounds or $4,350 and a third class ticket cost 8 pounds or $40. Today the journey would cost $69,600 for a first class passenger and $640 for third class. Huge amounts of money were spent on a ship that failed to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
After the Titanic experience we visited the Cobh, The Queenstown Story. In the museum we were taught about convict ships, Titanic, Lusitania, and the famine. It was interesting to see how people went from being sent on ship to a new content for crimes of all natures for free to Titanic where people paid. Also, seeing the Lusitania exhibit was fascinating because I had been to the Old Head of Kinsale were the ship was struck by torpedo from a German submarine, but I did not know that the survivors were ferried to Queenstown. An interesting fact of Cobh is that the town had Three names. Up till 1849 the town was called Cove because it is the harbor of Cork. Then in 1894 the Queen first stepped foot on Irish soil here. So the name changed to Queentown to honor the occasion. In 1920 the town change back to its original Irish name of Cobh, still pronounced Cove.
After the trip to Cobh, we headed to Cork to walk around the city, see a few churches and explore the English Market. The churches had history, architecture, and divine art. Amazing to see such old pieces of history. The English Market is a great place to go shopping for fresh food. All different kinds of foods are available especially meats. There was everything from beef to lamb to pork, even a pigs head. Everything is there just short of the actual cow. Coming home to Thomastown we stopped in Kilkenny to get some groceries and as we exited the store the most vibrant rainbow was greeting us.
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