County Cork- Cobh and Clonakilty- Saturday, August 10, 2013

As we were finishing up some of our food for breakfast in our apartment/ dormitory suite this morning, Scott poured some of the last milk on his cereal.  It was only then that he noticed it was goat's milk.  We pointed this out to Anna this morning, since she was the one that picked it out.  "Well, they should be more specific about those things,"  Anna said.

"It says 'Goat's Milk' on it.  And there's a picture of a goat.  How much more specific can you get?" Scott asked.  We all laughed, and any way, we finished it and it tasted fine.  We checked out reluctantly because this place has been a fun one to stay in.  The underground parking was relatively easy and the whole suite was very roomy.  It's easy to picture this entire complex filled with college students.

We drove on through into County Cork.  Our destination today was almost two hours away, the coastal town of Cobh (pronounced "Cove").   When we got into town, it was almost noon, and we stopped at the Cobh Heritage Centre which is built in a nicely repurposed train station.  Outside the building is a statue of Annie Moore and her two little brothers.  She was the first immigrant to be processed in Ellis Island when it opened its doors in 1892, and she hadv departed from Cobh, as did many other immigrants. 

We had a quick lunch at the cafe in the Cobh Heritage Centre, went to the gift shop (which was disappointingly not a site specific shop, but just a generally Irish gift shop) and then went to the museum in the complex called, "The Queenstown Experience."  Cobh used to be called Queenstown, but has changed its name back to its original Irish name and spelling.  The first part of the museum focuses on the many emigrants who left from here to the US, as well as Canada and Australia.  It's certainly interesting seeing this side of the story here.  When we were in Germany, we visited Balinstadt which tells of the people who passed through Hamburg to America.  This museum is the Irish emigrant's story.    There is an interesting cross section view of a "famine ship" and the story of the "Great Hunger" behind the facade of one of the abandoned stone houses.  Scenes and facts about the crossing are projected on three large sails.  

One part of the emigration story is about the ones who left because they were sentenced to "transportation" by the courts after being found guilty of some crime.  A portion of this museum is dedicated to them.  One fascinating but horrible story was that of many prisoners from the 1798 Rebellion who were sentenced to transportation and taken to Australia on a ship called the Atlas.  She left Cobh with 179 convicts, but conditions were so harsh that 68 of them died on the voyage.

Cobh was the last port-of-call for the Titanic.  (Scott said it was the last place it stopped, but Anna said the last place it stopped wast the bottom of the ocean.)  A portion of the museum in the Cobh Heritage Centre is dedicated to that ship (which makes this the... fourth Titanic exhibit we've visited?).  One interesting artifact is a letter, written on Titanic stationary that was sent out by one of the passengers while they were docked here. Another is a bottle that washed ashore in 1913 that had a goodbye note in it from a passenger.  The family recognized his handwriting and said that the bottle was one he had holy water in.  The Lusitania, sunk by the Germans in World War I, went down 25 miles from here, and many of the survivors were brought here after the disaster.  A portion of the museum examines that as well.

After the museum, we walked up the hill to St. Colman's Cathedral.  Actually, most of us walked up the hill, but Scott practically ran up.  We haven't seen him move that fast in a long time.  He wanted to get to the cathedral to tape the bells that would ring at 2:00.  He did, and then we visited the gift shop where he bought a CD called "The Bells of Cobh," which is all melodies played on the cathedral's carillon of bells.   Of course, Scott's interest in the bells is that Matt wrote a great song called "St. Colman's Bells" that will be on Rush the Growler's CD.  It's a song specifically about the many immigrants that passed through here and who probably heard those bells as their last bit of Ireland.  "As the ship sails out of the harbour in Cork, St. Colman's bells are ringing in the air; As we sail away, across to Americay, we're hoping for a better living there."  We peeked in the Cathedral itself, and then went to find our bed and breakfast.

The irony is that Scott had run right past the bed and breakfast without knowing it, and our room has a view of St. Colman's.  It's a block away from where we are, and the same view that Scott had worked so hard for is just a short walk from where we are staying.  We had walked down to the water front again for dinner, and ate at Pappa John's.  We ate outside, so we were sitting at the Lusitania mounment, just across from the old White Star Line offices (which is now yet another Titanic museum), and looked up at the spire of St. Colman's as the bells rang out several times. 

A few nights ago, Scott tried contacting Paul Harrington through Facebook.  Paul and his wife Heather were two thirds of a group called "The Wild Geese."  We were big fans of them back in Buffalo, before we moved to Virginia.  In fact, we made it to their "farewell concert" at the Buffalo Irish Center, after which they moved back to Paul's homeland, Ireland.  We always said that if we went to Ireland, we'd want to hear them play.  Paul wrote back: "Hi Scott. Have been following your travels. Not much happening with us musically these days. We kinda got away from performing a few years ago. However, on Saturday night we will be doing an acoustic set at the "teach beag" in clonakilty from 9.30 to 11.30. Kind of a hit  and miss session. Do drop in if ye're around!"

So we made our way to Clonakilty tonight, a little more than an hour away, and found the pub called An Teach Beag.   We're not yet sure how that's pronounced, but it means "The Small House."  It's in a whitewashed stone cottage behind one of the hotels on the main street in town.  Paul and Heather were at a comer table playing.   We took a seat at the far corner of the bar to hide for the first few songs, but they soon invited us down to sit and play.  

They were pulling out a lot of songs from "twenty years ago" (but there were several that they said they didn't remember enough of to play).  The first that we heard from then was "Spancil Hill," the second song that they played.  Heather loaned Scott her mandolin, and the first one Scott could think of to play with them was "Star of the County Down."  Later, since it was mentioned as they were talking about old times, Scott played "Marching Through Georgia," which might have been his strongest performance.  He followed that with "Prohibition's Wake."  Later still, he played, the "Minstrel Boy" (which he forgot the words to) and an instrumental version of "Mrs. McGrath" (that was the one he played with Paul on stage at the Irish Center, way back when).  

We learned a lot about how Paul and Heather and their family are doing.  Paul was playing on little to no sleep because of the long hours he works (and he has to work a long shift again on Sunday).  Heather had burnt her finger while making the jams she sells at farmer's markets.  You wouldn't know either of those things from listening to them play tonight, though.  Their son is living in New York and their daughter is in London.  Both are in their twenties and dating musicians.  

The last song Scott could think of to play was "Whiskey Before Breakfast" and the "Hills of Connemara."  It's a medley of the two songs, and was the longest version of it Scott had ever played, because Paul sang both songs.  Paul suggested "the Mermaid," and that was the last song that we played.  We had a long ride back to Cobh.  It was a great time, though, and a great setting for it.