A visit to Cobh

A recent visit to Cobh, Co. Cork found me, early one Sunday morning, tramping the dew sodden grass of the Old Church cemetery, located just outside the town,. I was there to visit the graves of the victims of the sinking of the liner Lusitania. Buried in the cemetery are the remains of 193 victims of the sinking. Until recently I was unaware of any Kildare connections with the disaster, but in the County Kildare Online Electronic History Journal which is maintained by the Kildare County Library and Art Service I came across a news report from the Leinster Leader of 17th May 1952 which recounted the memories of Thomas McCormack of Killina, Robertstown who was on the Lusitania on that fateful day of 7th May 1915 when the liner was torpedoed by a German Submarine. McCormack, originally a boatman on the Grand Canal, was returning to Ireland after three years in the USA. His vivid recollections recall the moment of impact of the torpedo on the ship when he was standing on it’s portside. He recalled being knocked off his feet by a surge of people when the deck started to rise and lying prone on deck while he watched a boat of women and children being lowered over the side. Unable to make it to a lifeboat he made his way to the ship stern and could not recall whether he jumped or fell off the stern but found himself in the water. Observing the last moments of the ship he noted as the Liner went down she created in her wake a ‘tunnel’. He went on to say ‘It was like a tunnel of green glass, going down into the depths of the ocean. Around it’s sides I could see bodies and wreckage, all whirling about and going deeper into that horrible void. Then the boilers exploded and a column of water shot high in the air.’ One of his enduring memories of the disaster was of a group of men singing hymns in a language he didn’t recognise, while holding hands as they floated in the sea. Another survivor from Kildare was a priest, Fr. Kennedy, who later became a Jesuit Missionary in China. I was very taken with how well the cemetery has been maintained by the local community, and particularly the very informative sign board at the entrance to the cemetery. While reading I was surprised to note another Kildare connection in that the Rev. Charles Wolfe, the author and poet, is also buried there. I found his grave just within the confines of the remains of the 17th century church on the site. Born in Blackhall, Co. Kildare he is now best remembered as the author of the 19th century classic poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore’. He was a rector with the Church of Ireland and was based in Donaghmore, County Tyrone until 1820 when for health reasons moved to the south of France. He later returned to Ireland, moving to Cobh where he died at the age of 31 in 1823 from consumption, a disease we now know as tuberculosis, a common cause of death at the time. As I walked around the cemetery another unusual connection jumped out at me. I came across the grave of the Antarctic explorer Robert Forde. A native of Bandon, Co. Cork he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16 in 1891 and rose to the rank of Petty Officer first class. In 1910 he joined Captain Scott’s second expedition to the Antarctic from 1910 to 1913, serving with fellow Irishmen Tom Crean of Annascaul, Co. Kerry and his Cork compatriot Patrick Keohane. After returning from the Antarctic he served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, eventually returning to Cobh in 1920. On the 50th anniversary of his death in March 2009 a fine memorial was unveiled to him on the promenade in Cobh facing out to Cork Harbour with a bronze plaque showing him in his polar garb. One final grave which drew my attention was that of Jack Doyle, the boxer, actor and singer known as ‘the gorgeous gael’. His star shone brightly but briefly in the thirties, particularly in America where he made a number of films, but sadly he descended into alcoholism and at his death in 1978 in London he was effectively a pauper. However, he was never forgotten by the natives of Cobh who with the assistance of the Cork Ex-Boxers Association brought his remains back to Ireland and they rest again in the old church cemetery in Cobh in a graveyard replete with history.

Cobh - Emigration - Heritage Centre

I sat at my desk this evening to write of a recent trip to Cobh, gateway to the Americas. It was for me a journey of discovery revealing as it did the evocative nature of Irish history. But as I sat poised to commence the article my eye fastened on a small, somewhat battered green card lying on my desk. Eighty seven years ago that card was sold for the sum of two shillings guaranteeing its purchaser a reserved seat for the Grand Popular Concert in the Town Hall, Athy, on St. Patrick's Night 1910. The Concert was given by the members of the "Athy Pierot Troupe" including Miss Stanford Campbell and Mr. Sealy Jeffares. Songs, choruses, instrumental selections and national dances were on offer for those attending. I have no knowledge of Miss Campbell or Mr. Jeffares or indeed any other member of the "Athy Pierrot Troupe", all of whom have undoubtedly passed away, almost certainly forgotten and unremembered. As they performed on the Town Hall stage that night they were possibly the most talked about group of individuals in the town. Their time is now long passed and their lives have disappeared unmarked and without leaving a trace in our own time.

I had a similar sense of loss as I travelled last week on the road between Cork and Cobh. At times the road narrowed between old stone walls which could have been there for over 100 years and it was then that thoughts crowded in on my mind of emigrants who once made the same journey. I could imagine them travelling with heavy hearts but as the harbour of Cobh came into view their tired faltering steps quickened in anticipation of the adventures that lay ahead. I thought also of the 37 young orphan girls sent from Athy Workhouse to Australia between 1849 and 1850. They were part of the 4,000 or so exported from Ireland under the Orphan Emigration Scheme introduced by the English Government following the Great Famine in order to reduce the number of children in Irish Workhouses. Those young girls probably travelled the same road as I did but they were destined never again to return to their homeland.

I paid a visit to the Heritage Centre located in the old Railway building of the harbour town which told of the origins, history and legacy of Cobh under the general title of the Queenstown Story. I have previously written of Ellis Island, New York, where the Irish emigrants of a later generation were to disembark for health and other checks before being allowed on to the mainland. In the post Famine years most emigrants from Ireland travelled to Canada ending up in Gosse Island which served as a receiving station for those crossing the Atlantic. The Irish travelled to America and Canada from many Irish ports but Cobh is fixed in most of our minds as the departure point for the greater number emigrating from this island. We will never know how many Athy men and women looked upon the towering spires of St. Colman's Cathedral in Cobh as their ships sailed over seas. The personal stories of the thousands who have left this area over the last 150 years cannot now ever hope to be told. All that may now remain, perhaps laid aside and forgotten, are mementos of a time and of a place which can never be reclaimed. Letters, cards and personal effects of the emigrants are like the ticket for the St. Patrick's Night Concert in 1910, a nostalgic reminder of another forgotten age.

The Queenstown Story as related in the Heritage Centre failed to catch my imagination despite the enormous advantages which the wealth of Cobh's historical links should have gained for it. I did not come away with a sense of the awfulness which must have attended the coffin ships and the convict ships which sailed from Cobh. The story of Irish emigration is a sad but inspiring one which gives enormous opportunity in its telling for the rich tapestry of history to be unfolded in its most lucid colours. That opportunity was not seized in the Cobh Heritage Centre and while I came away satisfied enough with what I had read, heard and seen I still long for a more dramatic retelling of a story in which people from my area of Co. Kildare played a part.

The importance of a Heritage Centre in a designated Heritage Town can perhaps be over emphasised. For instance in Cobh there was obvious neglect visible in the grass infested roads and pathways and in the poor state of many shop fronts. Athy could well take to heart the lessons to be learned from this and ensure that its shop fronts, street furniture and road signage complement and support its heritage status. Our Heritage Centre will be ready towards to end of the Summer and it is perhaps now we should be reviewing the need to replace the ugly road signs around the town. Time also to get rid of the E.S.B. sub-stations erected in Barrow Quay and Woodstock Street in the 1930's and time indeed to take away the unsightly poles on our streets and put the overhead wires under ground.

The site of our new Heritage Centre, the ground floor of the Town Hall, this week began to take on an appearance it last had over 100 years ago. It was once an open area which provided shelter for the Town Market and as the walls later built to provide meeting rooms are pulled down we can more easily visualise the market as it was at the beginning of the last century. Here was the centre of commercial life in 18th and 19th century Athy and as we head into the second millennium we are reshaping the building yet again confirming its status as the cultural centre of our town.