Cobh and Kinsale

Cove/Queenstown/Cobh--those were all names for the same city. It is the port for the large metropolitan area of Cork, in the south of Ireland. It is the place where millions of Irish departed their homeland.The name was Cove under the Irish chieftains, Queenstown under the British, and Cobh since Independence.

We walked along the strand, next to more bright-colored buildings. On our day in Cobh, there were only tug boats and ferries, but the harbor is often filled with clipper ships, cargo ships, and cruise ships.

We walked on towards The Queenstown Experience, an interactive museum about the millions of emigrants who left from this port. The symbol of the emigrants is a statue of a young mother with her children, the mother looking back to Ireland and the boy looking out to sea.

The displays simulated storm-wracked clipper ships, the last goodbyes to the families left behind, and the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic, for which Cobh was the last port before it sailed into the Atlantic towards disaster.

We drove south to Kinsale, the historic spot where England won the decisive final battle against the Irish chieftains in 1601. The defeated chieftains fled to France, leaving England to bully the Irish at will. We explored the English fort, high above the city and shore, from which the English watched for Spanish conquest or unruly Irishmen.

I thought Dingle was the most colorful town in Ireland, but Kinsale is definitely its rival.

Its dock is filled with colorful boats and its streets with colorful buildings.

We then drove back to Waterville along the south coast, with its green fields and blue sea.