Day One-Cork City
Arrive into Cork Airport or Shannon airport where you will be met by your driver/guide and escorted to your waiting motor coach to begin your tour of Ireland’s second city (or the “real capital” of Ireland, as its inhabitants like to call it!). Transfers can also be organized for any agents arriving directly into Cork airport.
Check into your city centre hotel and this afternoon you will enjoy an orientation tour of Cork City. Built on a marsh, the city proper is inter-laced with winding canal and river, which give it a distinctly European air. The River Lee divides the city in two and is perhaps best reflected in the well-patterned architectural development incorporating the best of old and new. Although a busy industrial city, it is also an important shopping centre. The principal streets are lined with fashion houses and department stores stocking quality Irish goods.
Across the Western road is the entrance to University College Cork. The buildings are styled after the Tudor Gothic period and visitors can walk the corridors in the path of famous people such as George Boole, whose Boolean Logic has become the basis of modern day computer science. Your tour will then continue to the magnificent St. Finbarr's Cathedral , designed in mini-Gothic style by William Burgess and built on the site of St. Finbarr's original settlement (606 AD). This Early French Gothic structure is built proportionately to scale and features highly ornamented, beautiful mosaic work and rich carvings. William Burgess was obsessed with all things medieval - witness the detail - the soffits, gargoyles, birds and beasts, the rose-window, and the multitude of ornate carvings. The present building replaces two earlier churches and was completed in 1870.
Following the road back to the river, cross over the bridge on to the South Main Street, and on your left is the Beamish and Crawford Brewery. This brewery building is recognisable by its half-timbered Tudor frontage and interesting cupola, weathervane and clock. This is the home of Carling Lager and local Beamish Stout (milder and fuller than Guinness). A little further down the South Main Street turn right to the Grand Parade. The City Library is on your right and at the end of the Grand Parade by the river is the National Monument. This memorial commemorates the Irish Rebels of the 1798 and 1867 Uprisings. Surrounding the Maid of Erin, leaning on a broken cross, are four of Ireland's leading patriots - Thomas Davis, Michael O'Dwyer, O'Neill-Crowley, and Wolfe Tone. It includes the crests of the four provinces of Ireland - Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Ulster.
Nearby, also beside the river, is a War Memorial to the dead of two world wars, in particular the Royal Munster Fusiliers. In the 1st World War or 'Great War', more Irishmen per head of population died in Flanders than other participating nations. The Hiroshima Memorial, an uncarved granite stone, lies nearby.
Turn left to the South Mall; this street is the business and financial centre of Cork, containing many interesting buildings. Many have steps leading from what was once an open flowing river channel, with boat houses below at street level. Houses No. 53 and 74 South Mall are two examples of houses built with Dutch brick which arrived in Cork as ballast on board ships trading with Holland.
At the end of the South Mall looking across the river from Connolly Hall is the City Hall. Constructed from large limestone blocks the City Hall was opened by President Eamon De Valera in 1936. The funds were provided by the British Government in reparation for the burning of the original city hall by English Crown Forces on December 20th/21st 1920 during the Irish War of Independence.
Continue then to Patrick Street until you come to Academy Street turning off to the right; at the top of Academy Street to the right is the Crawford Art Gallery. Located in Emmet Place the Crawford Gallery houses old masters and modern Irish artists. The northern portion dates from 1724 (facing the Opera House), It was formerly the city's Custom House when ships could enter the square where the Opera House Fountain sits today. The right wing was designed by Richard Hill and added in 1866 - a faithfully copied "marriage in stone".
Turn left into the Paul Street area; a former back street now tastefully converted into a thriving shopping area with restaurants, boutiques, craft and bookshops, in the heart of old Cork. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a beautiful 19th century Catholic church in an ornate neo-Gothic style - call in to quietly experience another world! The Paul Street area has many French associations........ being part of the Old French Quarter. The Huguenots were French Protestants forced to flee their own country because of persecution in the 17th century. In Cork they congregated in Paul Street, French Church Street, and Carey's Lane. In French Church Street services were performed in French into the present century.
As native Catholics were prevented by the Penal Laws from becoming involved in trade, the French settlers filled the vacuum as wholesale merchants, beef and butter exporters, tallow-chandlers, brewers and coopers. Follow French Church Street or Carey's Lane back down to Patrick Street and cross over into Princes Street where the entrance to the English Markets is located. This thriving covered market with its variety of stalls selling goods and fresh produce dates to a Charter of James 1 in 1610. The present building, 1786, was damaged by fire in 1980 and was refurbished by Cork Corporation to an award-winning design by T.F. MacNamara, the City Architect. Foodstuffs peculiar to Cork may be purchased here. The Drisheen is a mixture of dried sheep's blood and herbs made up like puddings in skins, but of considerable length. Crubeen are pig's feet boiled 'with the hoof on'. Troters are sheep's feet boiled in water!
You will then travel to nearby Blarney, where people the world over have stopped at this internationally known tourist centre to kiss the Blarney Stone which traditionally imparts the ‘gift of eloquence’ on all who kiss it. The famous Stone is located just below the battlement in Blarney Castle, built in 1446. In order to kiss the Stone, it is necessary to hang ones head downwards over the battlements having climbed 110 steep steps by the original spiral staircase to the summit of the castle.
To visit Blarney Castle is to step back in time, and feel the enchantment of a long and heroic past. Here is one of the great historical sites of Ireland, renowned throughout the world. The view from the entrance gate sets the scene immediately, with fine vistas of parkland crowned by Blarney castle rising up in its entire ancient splendour, framed by clumps of trees.
En route back to your hotel you will stop to visit the Cork City Gaol. The Cork City Gaol in Sunday's Well, was designed to replace the old Gaol at the Northgate Bridge in the heart of the city. The old gaol was nearly 100 yrs. old, on a confined site, overcrowded & unhygienic. In 1806 an Act of Parliament was passed and monies levied locally to allow the building of a new City Gaol. The first site chosen was at Distillery Fields - an area prone to frequent flooding!! This fact, and enlightened thinking that hilly, airy sites were best for containing gaol fever probably influenced the change to the present site. The new Cork City Gaol opened in 1824 & was reported as being "the finest in 3 Kingdoms". In 1870 the west wing was remodelled into a double-sided cell wing & in 1878 under the General Prisons (Ireland) Act, the Gaol became an all-female prison which it remained until male anti-treaty supporters were incarcerated in 1922/1923. The Gaol closed in August 1923, with all remaining prisoners either released or transferred to other gaols. The top floor of the Governor's House was used as a radio broadcasting station by the national radio station - Radio Eireann (now RTE) from 1927 until the 1950's. From 1923 to 1993, apart from the foregoing, and some storage use of the exterior grounds by the Dept.
Posts & Telegraphs, the Gaol complex was allowed to become totally derelict until its innovative restoration and reopening to the Public as a visitor attraction in 1993.