Making our Way West
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2009
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20
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Trip End
Oct 10, 2009
Schull,
County Cork,
Ireland
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
It promised to be a beautiful day with a light pink sky reflected in the water. After breakfast we left Youghal and drove to Cobh, getting to the historical center just before it opened. A cruise ship had just docked at the pier, but we didn’t know what country’s flag was flying. It was a much older ship than what we usually see, and the passengers spoke a language we didn’t understand.
We went through The Queenstown Story, which , through displays and boards, told of emigration, prison ships, and lost ships. Queenstown was the Titanic’s last port, and it was also near here that the Lusitania was sunk by the Germans. We read about the conditions in steerage when the Irish started emigrating in the early 19th century, and the horrors of the prison ships
Annie Moore and her brothers
. Part of the display for the Lusitania were posters seeking information about passengers and crew who were missing--reminiscent of the aftermath of September 11. It was a very sobering display, but well done. Outside the visitor center was a sculpture of Annie Moore and her two brothers. They left Queenstown for America in December 0f 1891 and arrived on Ellis Island in January, 1892. Annie was the first person to be processed and admitted to the States at Ellis Island. There is also a statue of her in New York.We bought coffee and took it out to our car where we ate our desserts from last night. It wasn’t the best chocolate cake, but it made a good snack. We then drove up the hill to St. Colman’s Cathedral, one of Cobh’s famous landmarks. We went in for a while, then set the GPS for Blarney and drove around the city of Cork.
Because we’ve already seen the castle, we just wanted to do some shopping at the Blarney Woolen Mills store there. I spoke with a woman who works in the crystal department at the store about the closing of the Waterford Factory. Everything is being outsourced now, and finding pieces that were made in Ireland is becoming quite difficult. They’re hoping that the factory will reopen, but at the moment that’s mostly conjecture
St. Colman's Cathedral
. After picking up a few things, we walked around the corner to Mackey’s Bistro, a favorite stop from our last trip. After lunch we stopped to chat with two couples from Kentucky who are here on tour and then crawled back into the car.Susan again plotted our course on the by-ways rather than the highways, and we drove toward the town of Schull (Skull) on the Mizen Peninsula. We stopped at a large shrine alongside the road, and found that it marked the spot where Irish hero Michael Collins was ambushed and slain in 1922.
We drove on through the countryside and suddenly a dog ran out from the bushes along the road. John swerved to avoid him, only to hit one of two others that had run out. The injured dog ran off--he hit the side of the car, and there were no homes visible, so we drove until we could find a place to pull over and collect ourselves. We were pretty shaken, and I can still here the dog’s yelp.
We finally got to Schull and found Stanley House up on a hill overlooking the bay. When we got out of the car, we saw deer on the other side of the fence surrounding the yard. Nancy and her husband raise red deer, and they were beautiful. We’ve been away from home so long that we miss our deer as well as our dears!
We went to the Bunratty Inn for dinner, and noticed that Patrick, the exceptionally tall bartender and manager, walked through a cut-out portion of the soffit that surrounded the top of the bar. We asked if that had been done for him, and he said that it had
The start of the Queenstown Story
. They decided it would be cheaper to cut an opening rather than raise the top of the bar all the way around.After dinner we were sitting in the candle-lit lounge at the b&b when Emily and Ryan skyped us. We couldn’t hear them, so they ended up waking Mike to turn the microphone on. It was such a nice surprise, and even nicer to hear that they miss us.
Tomorrow we’ll settle in for a few days in Kenmare. I know John is looking forward to days with less (we think) driving, and I’m looking forward to shopping opportunities!
