Cobh

Cobh ; To Cóbh ; Cobh
Coordinates	51 ° 51 ′ N , 8 ° 18 ′ W Coordinates: 51 ° 51 ′ N , 8 ° 18 ′ W
Symbols
	coat of arms
	coat of arms
	Motto ; "Statio Fidissima Classi"
Basic data
Country	Ireland
province	Muenster
county	Cork
ISO 3166-2	IE-CO
height	47 m
surface	895 km²
Residents	12,347 (Census 2011-04-10)
density	13.8 Ew. / km²
Telephone code	+353 / 91
Website	www.visitcobh.com (English)
	Cobh by the sea side with St. Colman's Cathedral

Cobh / koːf / ( Irish An Cóbh [ ən 'koːf ], German ' the cave ' , English the Cove ; also Queenstown ) is a port city in County Cork in the south of the Republic of Ireland with 12,347 inhabitants (2011).

Cobh is located on the southern bank of the "big island" ( The Great Iceland ) at one of the world's largest natural harbors, the Cork Harbor , and ferries ( Passage West connected) and a bridge to the mainland.

Cobh is now a getaway for visitors from Cork City and for the passengers of many cruise ships that moor in port. Despite some prosperous new development areas in the hinterland, the place has remained largely unaffected by the enormous economic development and industrial settlements in the region from the 1990s and has retained its typically Irish character.

history

The place was first mentioned in 1750 under the name Cove ("the Cove of Cork"), in 1849 it was renamed Queenstown on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit . In 1922, with the independence of Ireland, the English name Cove was finally changed to the Irish spelling Cobh .

From the end of the 18th century, the village developed into a naval base during the Napoleonic Wars. Cobh's beginnings as an emigration port also fall during this period. From here around 2.5 million of the total of six million emigrants left their Irish homeland between 1848 and 1950.

The first steamship between Ireland and England started in Cobh in 1838. Furthermore, from 1921 to 1939 Cobh was seven times the port of destination of the Wheat Regatta , a race of windjammers on a cargo journey from Australia to Europe, which was organized to achieve faster journeys of the cargo ships. During the First World War, Queenstown was the base of the British and American navies. Today the port is a rapidly growing container port and (along with Dublin ) one of two ports in Ireland that can handle all five types of cargo shipping.

The history of Cobh (then Queenstown) is closely linked to two major shipping disasters :

During her maiden voyage, the RMS Titanic was in the roadstead off Queenstown on April 11, 1912 . It was the last port she called before her sinking.
The passenger ship RMS Lusitania was torpedoed on May 7, 1915 on the voyage from New York to Liverpool 40 kilometers away from the Old Head of Kinsale by the German submarine U 20 and sank quickly. The survivors were taken to Queenstown. Almost 300 of the approximately 1200 victims were rescued; well over a hundred dead are buried in Clonmel Cemetery.

Worth seeing

The picturesque picture of the place is characterized by its hillside location - combined with some very steep streets - and numerous brightly painted houses.

The town is dominated by the neo-Gothic St. Colman's Cathedral , located high on the slope , seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Cloyne . The church has one of the largest chimes in the British Isles, with 49 bells, and the only carillon in Ireland.

The Cobh Heritage Center is a museum dedicated to the history of the Irish diaspora and its influence on the development of modern Ireland.

The Cobh Museum is a small city history museum in the Presbyterian Church.

The Titanic Trail takes the visitor to all the places and buildings that millions of emigrants traversed before they embarked.

170 victims of the Lusitania disaster are buried in the idyllic Clonmel Cemetery (also known as the Old Church Cemetery ), one mile north of the village . There is also the grave of the famous Irish boxer Jack Doyle and that of Napoleon's personal physician on St. Helena, James Roche Verling .