Cobh County Cork
Cobh, pronounced Cove, is a Victorian seaside town on Great Island in Cork Harbour whose combination of the extraordinary cathedral of St Colman dominating the town from the hillside above, the colourful terraces of Georgian and Victorian houses rising in tiers from the waterfront and the profound historical associations with Irish emigration and the Titanic make it one of the most emotionally resonant and most visually distinctive harbour towns in Ireland. The town was for over a century the principal point of departure for the millions of Irish who emigrated to America, Australia and elsewhere, and its identity is inseparable from the experience of departure and loss.
The Queenstown Story in the old railway station provides one of the most moving and most comprehensive accounts of the Irish emigration experience available anywhere, drawing on the stories of those who left from this harbour during the Famine emigrations of the 1840s, the mass emigrations of the late nineteenth century and the twentieth-century departures to tell the story of what emigration meant for the individuals and the communities who experienced it. Cobh was the last port of call of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 and the final port of departure for 123 passengers who did not survive.
The Cathedral of St Colman, one of the finest and most ambitious examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Ireland, dominates the town from its elevated position and provides a backdrop to the harbour that is recognisable across a wide area of Cork Harbour. The 49-bell carillon in the cathedral tower is the largest in Ireland and its regular performances provide an unusual musical soundtrack to the town.