MacKat in Ireland

Mom, Mary, Katherine and I had two objectives for Monday: 1) see what the town of Cobh had to offer and 2) see the Jameson Distillery in Middleton.  We got up early, ate our potatoes like good Irish people, and headed toward Cobh.

The first thing we noticed is that Ireland is building an interstate from Dublin to Cork, the two largest cities.  In the last week I’ve heard several British radio talkshow hosts complaining that the Irish don’t know how to drive on these new roads, but at the time we were quite excited to be driving on a road without grass down the middle.

We got to Cobh (pronounced “Cove”) – it was a rare, beautiful day in Ireland – and walked along the water for a bit.  We decided to go on the “Titanic Trail” tour because the posters said it was “internationally acclaimed.”  The pictures of the town below are meant to show how colorful everything is.  We also learned that because of Cobh’s dependance on the sea trade most of these buildings are several hundred years old, as opposed to most of the rest of Ireland where the recession in the 1960s forced people to build ugly buildings – or something like that.  The tour guide said so.

It turns out that our tour guide researched all the information he shared with us himself, has been giving this tour for 12 years, has written books on the subject, done documentaries with the BBC on several subjects, and has basically revitalized the tourism sector of Cobh by himself.  On our tour he carried around pictures he’d taken of Titanic-related artifacts and showed them all to us.  He personally knows the last living survivor of the Titanic (she was 9 weeks old at the time).  All in all, he was a pretty good tour guide.

The tour ends in a local pub where we all got a free glass of Beamish, a very dark liquid that makes one Squeamish.  Katherine and I both had a sip (see below for proof) and moved on to better things.  Mom and Mary managed to tolerate it – I don’t know how.

The next pictures you’ll see are of St. Cormac’s Cathedral.  It took 80-some years to complete and houses Ireland’s only carillon – and it only has 49 bells.  For those keeping track, that’s USA: 270, Ireland: 1.  And Iowa State’s campanile has 50 bells.

After leaving Cobh we headed to the Jameson Experience at the Old Jameson Distillery.  We again avoided the tour because a) it cost money, b) we were short on time, and c) we didn’t really care.  We raided the gift shop instead.

The last few pictures you’ll see are of some of the real estate around Cobh, most notably an 800-year-old castle.  The price was not advertised.

Have you heard of Waterford Crystal?  Have you held Waterford Crystal in your hands?  Have you been in their factory?  We can now answer “yes” to all these questions, as the pictures below show.

The factory tour cost money and we were more interested in looking, so we just looked at the showroom.  I didn’t take many pictures because I was so focused on the intricate details of some of these creations.  There was a crystal globe on sale for several thousand euros, an enormous chandelier (about 10 times the size of the one pictured below) on sale for who knows how much, and even salt and pepper shakers for a few coins.

On the way back to Horse and Jockey Sunday night we stopped in a small town for something to eat.  We ran into some young hooligans and asked them for a good place for Fish ‘n Chips.  They led us down a dark alley to the least Irish establishment I’ve seen in the last two months.  It reminded me of Chuck E. Cheese’s from long ago.  After some fish we headed back to the hotel.