Housed in the former Victorian Railway Stations main hall, (a single line to Cork still adjoins the…read moremain building). The heritage centre, complete with it's own genealogy centre, tells the story of the estimated 2.5 million people that left these shores from this very spot forever. Although this itself is roughly a third of the number that left all Ireland in a century of emigration that really began with the 1846 famine, Cobh was to be the single most important port of departure.
Cobh is literally pronounced cove, and is indeed the cove of nearby Cork, although it was named Queenstown from 1849, until the time when it's original name was revived in 1922.
The Queenstown story is very well presented, I liked the recreation of life on board a ship from steerage bunks to upper decks, and clearly an awful lot of thought & imagination has gone into creating an environment that will appeal to everyone from easily distracted children through to American tourists, although some might say there is no disparity between the two!
For transatlantic liners, departing English ports like Liverpool or Southampton, Cobh was always the last port of call before heading west. Many familiar large ships would have anchored just a couple of miles offshore, with smaller tender vessels ferrying passengers to & from the quayside here. The most famous of all of them of course was RMS Titanic.
At 1.30pm on Thursday 11th April 1912 Titanic sailed after a 2 hour visit to take on just 123 passengers to bring her total complement up to 2206, 1517 of which were to drown with the ship 3 days later.
There is a famous photograph taken by a Father Frank Browne, one of 7 passengers to have disembarked from the ship here, that frames this small exhibition, the last image of a legendary ship. However I was left wanting more here than the exhibition could ever provide.
The museum is much better about another ill fated 4-funneled liner, RMS Lusitania. The Lucy as she was nick-named was torpedoed in 1915, just up the coast from here of Kinsale, with a loss of life almost on the same scale, (a small number of the victims were buried in the nearby cemetery).
One of my favourite exhibits was the old phone kiosk of the period, where by picking up the receiver you can listen to tape recordings of both witnesses to the tragedy & survivors. Also because there are personal belongings on show recovered from the wreck, these prove to be a more persuasive reminder of human tragedy than the Titanic exhibit with only it's words & photos.
If you're interested in the Lusitania, seek out my review of nearby Kinsale Tourist Office as well.
Overall this is a very impressive experience, particularly thought provoking on the 19th century mass exodus from Ireland. It will easily absorb you for an hour or two's visit, if not there's an extremely well stocked gift shop & coffee & snack bar!
However it's only when you're outside, gazing out beyond the statue of Ellis Island Annie & her brothers, far out to sea, & recall those millions whose last sight of their homeland this was, that you begin to get a true sense of perspective on the place.
