Cllr McCarthy: Large Scale Visitor Centre with a Maritime Theme Needs to be Pursued
Press Release:
An update on the development of a large-scale visitor attraction for Cork City has been given to members of Cork City Council. Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has long been an advocate of a large-scale visitor attraction in the city’s dock’s area; “I have regularly called for something to be done with the old Odlums building on South Docks, which has much character and is just sitting there being allowed to decay. It seems there is more willingness in the last few months to develop a maritime-themed visitor centre”.
Last year a process of engagement continued with the elected members and leadership team of Cork City Council, facilitated by Fáilte Ireland and tourism experts. All wished for the development of an iconic, family friendly visitor attraction that reflects the maritime heritage of the City.
In recent months, the site of the former bonded warehouses of the city’s historic custom house has been identified as one possible location for such an attraction. As part of their plans for the site Tower Holdings expressed their wish to develop a heritage facility and Cork City Council officials have been working with the company to explore possible funding sources.
An application has been submitted to Fáilte Ireland under its “Platforms for Growth” capital investment programme which seeks to support major new visitor attractions of scale. Authentically located in the historic bonded warehouses, the project would deliver an interactive, immersive visitor experience that shares the unique story of a people and place connected and shaped by their relationship to the sea, from past to present to future. It will also look outward to a world that has influenced the city and which it, in turn, has influenced. The attraction would feature a strong infusion of science and technology, looking not just at the past but also integrating the present and future, partnering with third level institutions to present pioneering maritime research which could address global issues.
The application process involves multiple stages and has been highly competitive, attracting the largest number of applications ever received by Fáilte Ireland. The Cork City maritime heritage attraction application has now been approved to progress to Stage 3 of the application process, where applicants must demonstrate the commercial potential, economic viability and financial sustainability of the proposed attraction. It is still an ongoing competitive process and Failte Ireland envisage that only a small number of strong applications will be brought forward following the Stage 3 process.
Cllr Kieran McCarthy highlighted: “It is great the there is a proposal for the bonded warehouses, which are almost two hundred years old and for me are important to mind. I wouldn’t like the city’s north and south docks be fully developed with their rich history of the Docklands consigned to just a footnote in Cork’s past. There are layers and layers of docklands, which need to be explored”.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 28 November 2019
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 28 November 2019
Kieran’s New Book, 50 Gems of West Cork
There were two words – raw and epic – which constantly came to mind as my 400cc scooter motorcycle traversed the roads and byways of West Cork whilst researching this new book in the past year. Both words came to mind as I felt almost swallowed up on my small bike disappearing on routeways, which duck and weave through hollowed out rock scarred by glaciation movements 20,000 years ago or parked up on coastal beaches where the folding of the rock can be seen from near the origins of the universe.
This new book, 50 gems of West Cork, builds on a previous publication called West Cork Through Time (Amberley Publishing 2015), which explored the fascination by post card makers one hundred years ago of West Cork in its scenery, its culture and its people. This new book returns to some of those sites chosen and details new ones exploring how these key sites became the focus of attention and development – and how their stories, memories and the making of new narratives were articulated in an attempt to preserve an identity and/ or communities locally and nationally at sites or to create new identities and communities.
Several sites in this book came into being in the fledging years of the Irish Free State where tourism and story-telling about the nation’s history were highlighted or some sites were created from the burgeoning boom time of 1960s Ireland, where the focus was on developing industry and recreational amenities. For example, the promotion of areas such as Inchidoney Island for more tourism was driven by the Irish Free State’s Irish Tourist Association (ITA), which was established in 1925 to market the young Irish Free State as a tourist destination internationally. Small resorts along the West Cork coastline were developed simultaneously at sites such as Courtmacsherry, Glandore, Bantry Bay, Glengarriff and Berehaven.
The title book explores 50 well-known gems of the West Cork region. It brings their stories together in an accessible manner. It is not meant to provide be a full history of a site but perhaps does try to provide new lenses on how heritage is looked at and the power of narrative construction and collective memory in West Cork. The book takes the reader from Bandon to Dursey Island, from Gougane Barra to the Healy Pass.
Researching West Cork, the visitor discovers that each parish has its own local historian, historical society, village council, sometimes a library, tidy towns group, community group and business community who have inspired the collection of stories, the creation of heritage trails and information panels, and the championing of a strong sense of place and identity. Relics from the past also haunt the landscape with prominent landmarks ranging from Bronze Age standing stones to ivy clad ruined houses and castles, churches and old big houses, to beacons, cable cars and lighthouses. All add to the narrative of the spectacle that is West Cork.
The origins of the beautiful towns of the West Cork can vary from medieval times to the early twentieth century. On walking around them what is particularly impressive is the nineteenth century fabric, which make for very photogenic spaces to capture. There are old and colourful shopfronts, old narrow laneways and streets, ornate water pumps, cobbled surfaces, historic market places, eye catching churches as well as two hundred year-old bridges and older bridges. These latter traits define the look of and layer with stories much of West Cork’s towns. For example, on a sunny day as the sun sets, the colourful shopfronts of Bandon’s Main Street with its stone-built fabric bridge are illuminated.
Where much is written down and attempts made at compiling local histories in West Cork, there is a need to compile the macro historical picture of West Cork. Certainly, the work of Fáilte Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way has been key in bringing many threads of stories together, kickstarting long forgotten traditions and empowering communities to present their story to the visitor. In particular, this book draws on the brilliant Irish Newspaper Archive where the past editions of the Cork Examiner and the Southern Star are digitised and provide much information at different points of a site’s evolution. With a building, statue or a view, looking closely at the human detail can reveal nuances about how places are seen and understood and ultimately can be championed going forward into the future.
In all, this book comprises a myriad of stories of different shapes, patterns and colours just like a painter’s palette of colours. Every site or gem presented is charged with that emotional sense of nostalgia – the past shaping and inspiring present thoughts, ideas and actions. However, this book only scratches the surface of what this region has to offer. West Cork in itself is a way of life where generations, individuals and communities, have etched out their lives. It is a place of discovery, of inspiration, a place of peace and contemplation, and a place to find oneself in the world. What’s the best way to see West Cork – travel through it, sense it and enjoy it!
50 Gems of West Cork by Kieran McCarthy is available in good Cork bookshop.
The book is being launched at a book signing by Kieran in Waterstones, St Patrick’s Street, Saturday 30 November, 3-5pm. All welcome.
Captions:
1025a. Front cover of 50 Gems of West Cork by Kieran McCarthy
1025b. Main Street, Bandon, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 19 September 2019
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 19 September 2019
Tales from 1919: An Independence War Intensifies
One hundred years ago, British forces attempted to re-emphasise their control over the country, often recoursing to random reprisals against republican activists and the civilian population. An unofficial government plan of reprisals commenced in early September 1919. In Fermoy 200 British soldiers looted and burned the principal businesses of the town, after one of their members – Private William Jones – a soldier of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry who was the first British Army death in the campaign had been killed in an armed raid by the local IRA on 7 September 1919.
Meanwhile in Dublin, the Michael Collins’ IRA Squad continued its campaign of killing Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) intelligence officers. Established in July 1919 the Squad’s campaign was based on information gleamed by an active web of spies among sympathetic members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) G Division and other vital divisions of the British administration
Continued local and regional agitation by the IRA led to the 10 September 1919 proclamation signed by the Viceroy, Chief Secretary suppressing Sinn Féin Clubs. The proclamation also covered Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan, and the Gaelic League. The County of Cork and the City of Cork was focussed on as well as seven other districts – Dublin City, County Dublin, Tipperary South Riding and North Riding, Limerick City and County Limerick, and County Clare. The proclamation declared such association to Sinn Féin to be dangerous, and they were accordingly prohibited and suppressed. Within days a proclamation was spread to prohibition and suppression within thirty-two counties and six county boroughs of Ireland of Dáil Éireann. The order was signed by the Chief Secretary and General Sir Frederick Shaw, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Ireland.
The Cork Examiner details that on 12 September members of the Cork RIC, accompanied by parties of military, left Union Quay Barracks moving to enforce the Order issued for the suppression of the Sinn Féin and other organisations. The Sinn Féin clubs in the city were visited between 9am and 12noon, at which the police carried out a very exhaustive search of the rooms at each centre, with soldiers with fixed bayonets stood at the door. The police were also armed, some with carbines and others with revolvers.
The raids were not altogether unexpected by Sinn Féin Clubs in Cork, and in most cases anything that was deemed advisable to remove from the rooms of the clubs had been removed shortly after the issue of the proclamation.
The north side of the city was the first district to receive RIC attention, and the only articles they thought worth taking from premises there were six haversacks. The Shandon Street Sinn Féin Club, Coburg Street Sinn Féin Club, and rooms at Watercourse road were carefully searched, and a visit was also paid to the shop of a Mr D Curtin in that district.
The Thomas Ashe Club, which was situated on Charlotte Quay (now Fr Mathew Quay), came in for an exhaustive inspection. It was after 12noon when the party reached it. The soldiers, about twenty in number, ranged themselves along the hall leading from the door to the stairs, and with fixed bayonets waited until the police had completed their examination of the contents of the rooms. Here a dummy rifle, one of a dozen, was taken possession of, together with a number of membership cards. The flooring of a small apartment used as a bathroom was torn up, but there were no finds. The apartments occupied by the caretaker, Mrs Horan, next received attention, the bedding being carefully examined without result. Mrs Horan was reminded by the search party that the Sinn Féin organisation had been proclaimed, and she was ordered to remove her furniture as speedily as possible.
The Grand Parade Club at 56 Grand Parade, which was the headquarters of the Sinn Féin party in Cork, was searched about 11am. About twelve soldiers in charge of an officer, and a number of police searched the premises. There was no one on the premises at the time, and the doors of the rooms, which were locked, were broken open. The search occupied about an hour. Soon after the soldiers and police had withdrawn members of the club arrived, and one of them at once wrote and placed on the window a card bearing the words, “Business as Usual”.
Whilst the inspection was in progress, the doors of the rooms were damaged in the forced opening. A half-dozen dummy rifles which had been stored in a room on the second storey remained untouched, but the picture of Thomas MacDonagh, who was executed in 1916, and that of Joseph McGuinness, MP, were removed from the walls and destroyed. A different party visited the Cumann na mBan rooms on the South Mall.
Over an hour’s stay was made at the premises of Mr Wickham, tinsmith, Merchant’s Quay, the search proving futile. Another house visited was that of Mr Lucy, vintner, Pembroke Street, was the same result.
The residence of Mr Liam De Róiste, MP, was amongst the houses searched by the police and military. They spent a considerable time in the house and took with them a number of Sinn Féin pamphlets. Among other houses visited were those of Mr Patrick Corkery, Friar Street, and Mr Sean O’Sullivan, Abbey Street. Nothing, however, of any consequence was declared to be found.
Captions:
1015a. Former site of 1919 Cork Sinn Féin Headquarters, 56 Grand Parade (pictures: Kieran McCarthy)
1015b. Protruding building onto present Fr Mathew quay above red cars is the site of the former Sinn Féin Club of 7 Charlotte Quay
Kieran’s September Historical Walking Tours
Saturday 21 September 2019, Stories from Blackrock and Mahon, historical walking tour with Kieran, meet at entrance to Blackrock Castle, 11am, (free, 2 hours, finishes near railway line walk, Blackrock Road).
Sunday 22 September 2019, The Battle of Douglas, An Irish Civil War Story, historical walking tour with Kieran, from carpark and entrance to Old Railway Line, Harty’s Quay, Rochestown; 2pm, (free, 2 hours, finishes near Rochestown Road).
Pictures, Blackrock Village Festival, 7 September 2019
Always a great annual festival; well done to the organisers and volunteers.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 21 March 2019
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 21 March 2019
Tales from 1919: The Fever Pitch of Politics
Mid-March 1919 coincided with support for Sinn Féin at fever pitch. In May 1918 Eamon DeValera had been re-arrested and imprisoned but in February 1919 he escaped from Lincoln Gaol, England. In April, he replaced Cathal Brugha as head of Dáil Éireann. In Cork the release of Tadgh Barry and Peadar O’Hourihane as political prisoners from British prisons led to vast public support on the streets whilst the visit of the Speaker of the new Dáil Éireann, Cathal Brugha brought a national vision to locations like the southern capital.
12 March 1919, Tadgh Barry and Peadar O’Hourihane arrived into the Glanmire Terminus (now Kent Station). Tadgh had spent ten months interned first at Usk and afterwards in Gloucester prison. Cork born he was a staff writer on the Cork Free Press (1910 to 1916) a paper which acted as a competitor to the Cork Examiner and its news stories on the Irish Parliamentary party. He later wrote for the Southern Star. Tadgh was a founding member of Sinn Féin in Cork and was a leading voice in the Cork branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union through their pamphlet Voice of Labour. He was a founding member of the Cork corps of the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and became an officer alongside Tomás MacCurtain and Sean O’Hegarty. He was interned arising out of false claims that he was involved in colluding with Germany (the German Plot) and planning another national rising.
Skibbereen native Peadar O’Hourihane, a Gaelic League activist for 17 years, had been interned in Birmingham Prison. He was a writer, poet, political activist and editor of the Southern Star. He was a staunch supporter of the Irish language and one of the founders of the Gaelic League.
On the evening of 12 March contingents of Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan, and Boy Scouts accompanied by five bands, marched to the terminus and escorted them to the Grand Parade where a public meeting was held. The station gates were closed with a large force of police being on duty inside the entrance. Only a number of friends of Tadgh and Peadar were allowed enter, which included Terence McSwiney. They proceeded to a wagonette in the station yard and were driven to the meeting place. Large crowds assembled along King Street (now MacCurtain Street), Bridge Street, St Patrick’s Street to a platform on the Grand Parade.
Tadgh Barry, who was enthusiastically received, said that had he had not done anything to deserve the reception given him. He congratulated Cork on the great advances it had made in the previous ten months and the news he received of the progress of the national fight in Cork made him prouder of his own rebel city. He congratulated Cork on the rescue of Donnacha McNeilus. He hoped that progress would be continued for they had a long way to go yet; “we have a big programme before us, but there is no fear of the future, and as the prison walls could not hold DeValera no more could England hold Ireland”.
Peadar O’Hourihane addressed the meeting in Irish and English. His focus was on the Irish language giving his view that the Irish language was necessary for the upbuilding of the nation and was a work of great importance for them all. In the local elections forthcoming at the time he called for as far as possible people to be selected and elected.
On 23 March 1919, Cork City Hall was filled to capacity when an address was delivered under the auspices of the Cumann Eamonn Uí Lortáin Sinn Féin by Mr Cathal Brugha, Speaker, Dáil Éireann. There was also a short musical concert at which the Irish Volunteer Pipers’ Band participated with range of local singers. Amongst those on the City Hall platform was Tomás MacCurtain who presided as well as Bishop Cohalan, Rev Father Cahalane St Finbarr’s West, Professor Stockley, Captain Collins, Thomas Dowdall, Terence McSwiney, Alderman Meade and Tadgh Barry.
Mr Brugha speaking in Irish said that although he was often in Cork that it was the first time addressing an audience in Cork City. He opened his speech commenting on the Irish language and calling for a concerted effort to save Irish in the Irish-speaking districts. “The language is the heart of the nation”; he noted. The future of Ireland, he detailed, was “dependent on the Peace Conference and American President Wilson’s call on the rights of small nations”.
Mr Brugha’s principal pitch at the meeting was the encouragement of Irish citizens to invest in the form of a new Irish Stock Exchange that Dáil Éireann wished to champion. In 1919 he noted no small Irish industries were quoted on the English Stock Exchange and that this “discouraged people making investments for they had difficulty in realising the value of their money as the industry was not quoted”. They intended to make use of the millions of money lying on deposit in Irish banks. Most of the money was invested out of Ireland. They had worked out a scheme to make use of the millions of pounds on deposit in Irish banks. They would ask the people to allow them the use of the money to invest. They would try to make a bargain with one of the banks and if they could not, they would start a bank of their own. When they got the use of the money they would give it out to “some competent people of good character” who would undertake to run or start Irish industries in the country.
Kieran is also showcasing some of the older column series on the River Lee on his heritage facebook page at the moment, Cork Our City, Our Town.
Captions:
989a. Tadgh Barry, c.1919 (source: Cork City Museum)
989b. Cathal Brugha, c.1919 (source: Cork City Library)
Cork Bridges and Funding 2018
Cork City Council Press Release, 1 December 2018:
Three of Cork’s most important heritage bridges are to undergo either restoration or significant maintenance works this year.
St Patrick’s Bridge:
Cork City Council, in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), is to begin preliminary works on the repair and rehabilitation of the iconic St. Patrick’s Bridge next week.
This bridge is representative of 19th century design and construction and its restoration will be sympathetic to these values as well as to its unique heritage and historical importance. It is expected that the €1.2 million works will have minimal impact on pedestrian and traffic movement and will be undertaken in two phases.
SSE Airtricity Utility Solutions Ltd. has been selected by Cork City Council to undertake phase 1 preliminary works and they have appointed renowned Italian lighting restoration specialists, Neri to complete the project. Neri has worked extensively in Dublin including on lighting restoration at O’Connell Bridge. The existing four heritage standards (lamp columns) on St Patrick’s Bridge will be removed during the week commencing February 5th and an additional four standards, currently in storage, will be sent to Italy for repair and restoration.
This will involve returning the columns to their original unpainted bare metal state, repairing weather damage, protecting and repainting the standards. As part of this process, moulds will also be created to make additional duplicates columns. Upon completion, the 12 restored/replicated standards will be returned to the bridge in September complete with new lantern heads with LED fittings where they will be remounted just as when the bridge was first built. In the interim period, six standard temporary lighting columns will be put in place to help illuminate the footpaths during darkness.
Cork City Council is in the process of issuing a tender for phase two of the works which it expects will begin in early May. This phase of the works involves the removal of all vegetation and algae from the bridge, the cleaning and repair of all stonework and the re-pointing of missing or defective masonry joints. Proposed works also include the replacement of the footpath and carriageway surfacing together and new road markings. Existing traffic lights, elevation and architectural lighting and directional signage will also be upgraded.
It is expected that all works to St. Patrick’s Bridge will be completed by mid October.
St Vincent’s Bridge:
A tender is also due to be launched next month for critical maintenance work on St Vincent’s Bridge which connects the North Mall and Sunday’s Well to the junction of Bachelor’s Quay and Grenville Place. Detailed design to assure the continued usage of this bridge is being progressed. As part of these works, lighting on the bridge will also be improved.
Daly’s Bridge:
Refurbishment works will also begin on the iconic Daly’s Bridge in September this year to repair extensive corrosion and damage.
A tender has been launched seeking consultants to undertake design and civil works preparation. It is intended to award this contract by the end of next month. A contract for the civil works will be tendered in the coming months with a programme of works likely to start on site in September. The Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport is funding the project.
Dragon of Shandon Parade, 31 October 2017
Pictures from the Dragon of Shandon, 31 October 2017 – another really super spectacle by the organisers, Cork Community Art Link.
McCarthy: Display Viking Age Cork
The recent extensive finds of Viking age houses at the event centre site at the former Beamish and Crawford site has prompted local historian Cllr Kieran McCarthy to call for all remaining ground plans of such houses to be placed under a glass floor, and to be incorporated into the centre’s architectural plans.
Cllr McCarthy noted: “It is clear that the archaeologist and his team present have done a super job in excavating and recording the site but more thought needs to be done to showcase the finds. This is where the city began its life on the marshy islands. We saw in the 1970s what happened in Dublin on Wood Quay whereby material was excavated but ultimately buried over; and it is still a regret by the academic community in Dublin. Very successful models of incorporating Viking Ages timbers can be seen under glass floors in the Jorvik Viking centre in York in England and across Europe on other heritage centres”.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 14 September 2017
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 14 September 2017
The Wheels of 1917: American Sailors on Cork Streets
In early September 1917, a coast to coast call for military men was made across the United States of America. The calls strove for a quarter of a million men to enlist in the American forces on battle fronts in Western Europe. They were asked to gather at the mobilisation camps. In the first week of September up to 30,000 men were paraded in New York. They were drawn from 26 States and the district of Columbia. This division, which was sent off to France, represented more than half of the states of the United States.
Over the two years between 1917-1919, thousands of US naval personnel would be stationed in Cork Harbour and Bantry Bay, engaging in the war against German U-boats and seeking to ensure convoy security. In September 1917 in Queenstown (now Cobh) according to the diary of American Naval Commander Joseph Knefler Taussig, there were eight American destroyers – Wadsworth, Porter, Shaw, Ericsson, Jacob Jones, Paulding, Burrows, and Sterett – all helping to convoy merchant ships in the Irish sea. Their wide web of facilities in the county by war”s end comprised sites in Cobh, Passage West, Haulbowline (now the Irish Naval Service headquarters), Ringaskiddy, Aghada, Bere Island, Berehaven and Whiddy Island. Aside from their storage and barrack sites, the Americans also set up training areas, recreational centres and a hospital.
The hundreds of sailors involved in these ships were quite the celebrity in the harbour and in the city. In July 1917, the officers of the Cork County Cricket Club wrote to the US embassy in London offering their pavilion and grounds at the Mardyke to the Americans should they need them. The very offer led the commanders of two of the Cobh-based vessels, the USS Melville and the USS Trippe, to think about staging a baseball match between their respective crews. it was decided to use it to raise funds to support the local Queenstown War Workers fund. It was played on a midweek July afternoon before a crowd of 3,000 people. There were many American sailors among them, but the majority were local onlookers.
In addition, some newspaper reports (Cork Examiner & Evening Echo) noted that hundreds of young women each night were drawn to Queenstown to mix with those sailors on shore leave. That was enough to raise the tempers of some sidelined local men. In the city on Monday 3 September 1917 a party comprised of young boys hissed and jeered at American sailors whom they chanced to meet. It started in King street (now MacCurtain Street). American sailors accompanied by young girls attracted the attention of a number of young fellows, who immediately vented their resentment by jeering. They followed the sailors and girls until quite a large crowd gathered and the girls and sailors parted. They passed another number of Americans, and the crowd directed their efforts against these. The crowd followed and jeered at them to the Lower Glanmire Road Railway Bridge. Here the police intervened, and moved the crowd back towards King Street. Near the Coliseum an American sailor, standing in the portico of the theatre, was the centre of attention. It transpired he was attacked by a group of youngsters.
The police continued to move the crowd along King Street, down Bridge street, and on to Patrick’s Bridge. By the time the activity had dwindled somewhat and matters were quieter. But a group of juveniles, bearing a Sinn Fein flag in front, crossed over the bridge in the direction of Bridge Street, where the police were in force. They had not gone, far when the police, with batons in hand, charged them. The party ran down Pope’s Quay, and some stones were thrown, amidst shouts of “Up Dublin” and “Up the Huns”.
Following the city incident, the American sailors were forbidden to come into Cork City. With restricted shore leave in Queenstown there was a number of disturbances there involving American sailors and local civilians. The civilians displayed ill-feeling towards women from Cork City who had been travelling to Queenstown each night to meet the sailors. Police in Queenstown reported several incidents of disorder, but these mostly arose from the Americans arguing among themselves whilst on shore leave. Lively behaviour and a few isolated “scraps” were reported, but there were no assaults or damage to property. Local police confirmed that the glass door of a public house on King Street was broken by a party of American sailors. It is not known if the incident occurred owing to an accident or resentment on being refused drink after authorised hours.
Tensions were heightened on Saturday 8 September 1917 when a Cork labourer was killed during disturbances involving an American sailor at Queenstown. The Haulbowline man, Fred Plummer, was struck by the sailor with a closed fist, his head hitting the concrete flagged footpath of the beach. Plummer was unconscious when taken to Queenstown General Hospital, where he subsequently died from what an inquest found to have been a fracture of the skull.
To highlight the social history of the American Navy in Cobh in 1917, an exhibition has been researched and prepared by archaeologist and historian Damian Shiels. It is designed and produced in association with Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh and is on display till 17 September. It is entitled Portraits: Women of Cork and the U S Navy 1917-1919 and explores the marriage of some American sailors and Cork women. There is also some great information on this era on display in Cobh Museum.
Captions:
912a. American Sailors at Queenstown now Cobh in 1917 (source: Cobh Museum)
912b. U S Sailors patrolling streets of Queenstown (source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington)
