In 2013 a Blessing of the Bonnets' took place at the St Colman's Cathedral, Cobh, County Cork. Bonnets will be blessed. After the service,the bonnets were taken through Cobh to the Cobh Heritage Centre where the bonnets remain as a permanent installation. 150 bonnets representing the women aboard the ill-fated ship the 'Neva' and their 34 babies and children. Only 6 of these women survived as also did 9 crew (including the captain).
The Neva sailed from Cobh on the 8 January 1835 bound for New South Wales, Australia. It was shipwrecked off the coast of King Island Tasmania on the 13 May 1835. 150 female convicts and their 34 children faced drowning. Only six of the women aboard and ten of the 26 crew survived the ordeal. The women who survived were Ellen Galvin from Limerick, Rose Ann Hyland from County Down, Mary Slattery from County Kerry, Rose Ann Dunn from County Cavan,
Ann Cullen from County Laois (formerly Queens County) and Margaret Drury from County Roscommon.
Italics are tour description. 6th September 2015: EXPLORING CORK
After a delicious breakfast which included fresh strawberries Mick picked us up at 9AM.
Today we include a full day with your driver/guide to explore Cork City and the English market.
It turns out it is not open on Sundays. But never mind, Mick had a back-up plan, The Cork City Gaol.
Brief History of Cork City Gaol: (Opened 1824, Closed 1923)
The Cork City Gaol in Sunday’s well, was designed to replace the old Gaol at the Northgate Bridge in the heart of the city. The old Gaol was nearly 100 years old on a confined site, Overcrowded and Unhygienic.
Some highlights.
Stepping inside visitors are taken back in time to the 19th century. Wandering through the wings of the Gaol, the atmosphere suggests you are accompanied by the shuffling feet of inmates, each representing their particular period in Irish history from pre –famine times to the foundation of the state. The cells are furnished with amazingly life like wax figures; original graffiti on cell walls tell the innermost feelings of some inmates while a very spectacular audio visual tells the social history and contrasting lifestyles of the 19th century Cork and why some people turned to crime, and some ended up in Australia.
Governor's office with Queen Victoria over the fireplace.
Guilty!
"By a lonely prison wall
I heard a sweet voice calling,
"Danny, they have taken you away.
For you stole Travelian's corn,
That your babes might see the morn,
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay."
You will also visit the Queenstown Story in Cobh. At the Queenstown Story you will learn about the tragedy of the Irish Famine and the story of Irish Emigration. You will also learn through story boards about the sinking of the US ship Lusitania, and the last stop of the ill-fated Titanic at the port of Cobh.
This is a stunning multimedia exhibition is located in Cobh’s restored Victorian Railway Station.
From 1848 to 1950, over 6 million adults and children emigrated from Ireland – over 2.5 million departed from Cobh, making it the single most important port of emigration. This exodus from Ireland was largely as a result of poverty, crop failures, the land system and a lack of opportunity.
Annie Moore was the first emigrant to pass through the Ellis Island immigration facility in New York Harbor on Jan 1, 1892. She had traveled from Cobh on the steamship Nevada with her brother Anthony and Phillip.
A statue of Annie and her brothers stands on the quayside in Cobh.
Mick pointed out a mural as he knew my interest in them.
Time for a quick bite, well, not so quick...but good.
Later you will visit the Midleton Distillery. A tour of the Jameson Experience is a journey through the story and making of Irish whiskey. Guided tours are available throughout the year and all tours commence with an audio-visual presentation, retracing the history of whiskey in Ireland. Guests are then guided through the old distillery, where they can admire the old kilns, mills, maltings, water wheel, still house, distiller’s cottage, cooperage and warehouses.
Late afternoon as we pass through Cork. We had asked Mick if we could find the new monument of nine eagle feathers erected to commemorate the donation from the Choctaws. it so happened we spotted it from the motorway.
Just 13 years before the Famine, the Choctaws were forced by the American army, at gunpoint, to march across mountains and snow.
They were stripped of their land in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, and had to walk 500 miles to Oklahoma.
Despite the oppression faced by the Choctaws in the years preceding the famine, on hearing of the plight and hunger of the Irish people in 1847, they raised $170 to send to the Irish people and ease their suffering. This figure is equivalent to tens of thousands of dollars in today’s currency.
Cork
In the late afternoon its back to Kinsale for an evening at your leisure.
Laura had made reservations at Man Friday's for 7:30 and we walked over there. Another delicious set menu of three courses.
