Cork, Lusitania and The Easter Rising/Rebullion

Memorial to all who perished in The Lusitania.  This is Cork.  This is located in the town square.

 A very pretty little seaside town, lots of pretty flowers, and lots of little pubs.

 A sidewalk memorial to those executed in The Easter Rising/Rebellion.  Their names are Capt Mick Leahy, Seamus Fitzgerald, Paddy Wheldon, Jack Stack, Joe Reid, Ernie Fowler, James O'Connell, William O Regan, Donald Healy, William Ralph, Bunny Reid, Liam Ahern, Jack O'Connell, also Pat Curran IRB, John Dowling ICA, Liam O'Brien IRB

The back of the stone.  If you look directly across the street, you'll see the ticket office which is directly in front of the long locked harbor where the Titanic departed from.

The Easter Rising, also called The Easter Rebellion started on Easter Monday, April 24th 1916, and ended on April 29, 1916.  It took place primarily in Dublin, but also in Meath, Galway, Louth, Wexford and Cork.

The Rebellion was against The British.  The leaders of the rebellion hoped for help from Germany since Germany was against The British in WWI.  They did obtain one shipment of firearms from Germany.  They also expected their fellow Irishmen to join them once the fighting started and they declared a free Irish State.  Most Irish did not support them.  There were approximately 1600 followers of the cause.  A small number easily handled by The British is a handful of days.

Somewhere around 2,000 were killed or injured during the standoff.  The leaders were than executed.  Once the leaders were executed The British continued with martial law, and arrest some 3,000 citizens they believe had been involved, or supported the rebellion in anyway.  Those arrested did not have any trials to determine their guilt or innocence.  The British sent about 1800 of those 3,000 to England where they remained prisoners, never having a trial.  The quick executions, mass arrests, and imprisonment turned many Irish against England.  This made those executed Martyrs of the Cause.

**These aren't my pictures, but my friends Jane's.  Her's were better than mine.

County Cork, St Colmans and Kinsale

 Inside a beautiful old Gothic Style Church, St. Colman's in The Port of Cobh. (Kinsale)  It's also known as Cobh Cathedral.  Construction of the church took 47 years.  I've found conflicting information about when it began, 1867 or 1879; however...I've found the 1867 date to be more universally used.  It's truly breathtaking with such detail in the carvings, and the colors in the stain glass windows.

 It's a Roman Catholic Church.  Again dates vary when it was completed, 1911 or 1915.  The spire is 100 meters and is hard to capture in a photo; as you can see.........we tried but failed.

 The tower houses either 42 or 49 Bell Carillon.  In one article, it said 42, making it the largest in Ireland; in another article it said 49, making it the largest in Europe.  In either case, it is beyond impressive.  Perhaps it once was 42 and is now 49?

Our selfie with the Church and the sea behind us.  Myself, my husband, and our very good friend, Jane.  The church sits on a very busy corner and narrow road leading up a very steep hill.  Beside the road is a dramatic drop off to the sea.

Across the street from the Church you see this dramatic site of little houses.  These houses are all built into a very step hill that falls away to the sea.  This site is quite unique for several reason.  It's steepness, the fact that the houses are all attached; and from what we were told...they hold each other up due to the construction of the chimney.  They're small, quite old, and very narrow.  The upper window also plays an importance structurally.

This photo is not one of mine, but one I found on the net, taken by Bjorn Christian Tiorrissen in 2012.  The site says the photo can be used, but to please give credit.  This professional obviously was able to capture the dramatic site far better than we could with our cell phones.

My picture shoes the back of the houses from the walkway across the street from St. Colman's.  This photo shows the front of the wee little houses with the church behind.  We didn't manage to get to the spot where this might have been taken.  But, isn't it gorgeous!