Killarney

We stayed in Killarney for two nights and ventured out from there to Cobh, Cork, Blarney Castle, The Ring of Kerry and the Bog Village. Killarney was small, but lovely. The hotel was within walking distance to the castle along with a few pubs that had amazing food and of course, live music every night. We saw the band Voodoo at one of the local pubs.

Cobh
Cobh (pronounced Cove) is a quaint village on the coast, full of color and steep, narrow streets. They had just had a huge celebration on the 100th anniversary for the Titanic. The Heritage Centre, above, had a beautiful exhibition to mark the anniversary. The last 123 passengers boarded at Cobh.

Cobh was also the departing point for large numbers of Irish immigrants during the years of the famine. Outside of the Heritage Center is a sculpture of Annie Moore and her brothers, the first woman to enter through Ellis Island when it opened in 1892. This statue is also installed at Ellis Island. Also departing from Cobh were 30,000 male convicts  and 9,000 female convicts headed to Australia during the years of 1791 and 1853.

Cobh, previously known as Queenstown, is also known for the care of passengers rescued when the Lusitania was sunk off the coast of Ireland in May 1915 by a German torpedo. Survivors were brought into Queenstown and cared for and 150 victims were buried in mass graves 1 mile north of town, with 80 of them never being identified.

The Navigator (or Brendan, The Navigator), by M. Gregoiry, is a public sculpture facing the shoreline in Cobh.

It was commissioned for the Millenium Celebration in Cobh and refers to St. Brendan, one of the early monastic saints of Ireland (c.484 - c.577). According to legend St. Brendan sets out with other pilgrims on a 7 year journey to find Paradise and during the journey God protects them from a sea monster by shifting the seas.

I will follow up later with the beautiful cathedral that we discovered in Cobh! Later...