Join me on his A-Z journey into A SENSE OF PLACE where I reminiscence on places that are connected with my family history or are part of my own personal memories.The lInk here is extremely tenuous.
Q is for Queenstown - on the south cast of County Cork, Irealnd. The locality, which had had several Irish-language names, was first called Cove ("The Cove of Cork") in 1750.
It was renamed Queenstown in 1850 to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria. This remained the town's name until 1920 when, with the foundation of Eire as the Irish Free State, it was renamed Cobh.
Queenstown/Cobh was the departure point for the millions of Irish people who emigrated to North America during the 19th and 20th centuries.
A statue (above) on the waterfront commemorates this leaving of Ireland. It depicts Annie Moore and her brothers. Annie was the first person to be admitted to the United States of America through the new immigration centre at Ellis Ireland, New York on 1 January 1892.
On 11 April 1912 Queenstown was the final port of call for the he ""Titanic" as she set out across the Atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobh#History]
My link with Queenstown/Cobh is very tenuous. In September 1966, I returned home from a year in the USA, travelling aboard the Cunard liner "Sylvania" from New York, calling at Boston and Cobh before reaching Liverpool. The ship, small by today's cruise ship standards, was very quiet and I was lucky to get a cramped 4 berth cabin all to myself. Goodness knows how 4 adults could have managed in the space, without someone being perched on top of their bunk. Commercial jet planes services were hitting the transatlantic shipping and the Liverpool-New York sailings were axed in Novmeber after my return. Still I enjoyed this experience and had my first glimpse of Ireland with dawn over Cobh.
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This town is on my list of must-do. I suspect my dad's grandmother and her family emigrated from there, but I'm still not absolutely sure. Just too many Mary Theresa Sheehans in Ireland at the time!
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