Cobh, Ireland

 

July 11

The name of this town is pronounced Cove.  Originally that was it’s name.  Then when Queen Victoria came to visit, the town was renamed Queenstown.  But when Ireland got its independence the name reverted back to Cove, but with the Irish spelling.  There is no “v” in the Irish alphabet, but bh is pronounced that way.  Interesting,

We spent the day here.  It was cloudy, sunny and it rained.  Oh, that was in the first 5 minutes.  We did have the right clothes with us so we were OK.

Today was the 7th annual Australia Day here in Cobh.  I thought we were lucky to get here on the day they celebrate it, only to find out that they celebrate it because we are here…..

   How often do you see a kangaroo in a storefront in Ireland?

The ship we are now on is the Sea Princess.  It has about 2,000 passengers and originated in Australia in May.  It is a world cruise and most of the passengers are from either Austrailia or New Zealand. There happen to be 4 people from our first ship on this one, besides us.

A lot bigger than the Pacific Princess which held 650 passengers.    

                                                                       

As we walked up toward the town park, where celebrations were to happen all the day, we heard and saw this lovely lady playing away.

                                  Doesn’t she look typically Irish?

Guess what??? Cobh has a cathedral….what a surprise.  Today they had a carillon player give a concert of Austrailian songs.  The only one we knew was Waltzing Matilda.  The cathedral is a lot smaller than Canterbury, but most are.  We got a tour, an in depth tour.  We now know where each piece of wood and marble came from.

                      

We learned about Annie Moore who was the first emigrant to go through Ellis Isand.  She was 15 years old and it was her birthday, so they gave her the honor.  She is very famous here, and should be in the US also.               

We spent much of the day on the promenade.  There is a  bandstand and we heard a bartone. 

I guess we expected to hear Irish or Austrailian music because I was surprised to hear “My Way” and other popular tunes.  Duane and I danced to some of the songs.  Yes, we were the only ones dancing and therefore our pictures are in lots of peope’s cameras. 

This park is the John F. Kennedy Park.