Cork City Ireland
The Irish Republic's second city is a bustling, zesty, highly individual place, quite different from Dublin in appearance and atmosphere. Though it lacks the capital's Georgian uniformity, it makes up for the defect in visual variety, mixing the romance of mock Gothic outlines with the moderation and proportion of the classical style.
Dublin is flat, and Cork is hilly. Dublin has a somber tone; Cork is as variegated, light and dark, as its local stones. And while Dublin, as capital, was burdened with an alien tradition of subservience, Cork cultivated a spirit of defiance that earned it the nickname Rebel Cork. It is a busy, assertive, self-made place where Jack is as good as his master and frequently tells him so.
The making of Cork was the river Lee, which flows not only through but in and around the city as it approaches its great estuary. In its valley it formed a great marsh with islands that became, as in Venice, the foundation of the town and the source of its Gaelic name, Corcaigh, meaning a marshy place. The first settlement was, as might be expected, a little Gaelic monastery founded in the 6th century by an obscure but beloved abbot bishop named Barra of the Fair Hair, or Finbarre.
The history of Cork Ireland and car hire
The monastery, on a hill south of the river where the present St. Finbarre's Cathedral stands, grew in power, and it was probably its reputation for wealth that enticed the Vikings in their longboats up the estuary and through the sinuous marsh. The Vikings first founded a trading post here in the 8th century and within 50 years they had fortified one of the islands to become the right and tight little city of Cork.Today, most of the visitors to Cork hire a car from the airport, and leave their longboats at home.
In time, the Vikings became subjects of the Gaelic prince of the area, MacCarthy Mor, but they nevertheless maintained a degree of independence in their island city under their own jarl (ruler) until the Norman invasion in the 12th century forced them to switch allegiance. In the turbulent centuries that followed, the inhabitants of Cork City acquired a reputation for independent mindedness even to rebellion.
King John (as prince) gave them a charter in 1185, they were back under the MacCarthys by 1195, and they were given a more prestigious charter by the king in 1199 and another new one in 1241. But in 1495 they nearly seized the Crown itself when they received the pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck, and escorted him to England to proclaim him King of England and Lord of Ireland.
While Dublin's monuments are castle and parliament house and the homes of the great nobles, Cork within its island walls has shops and warehouses and banks. It was essentially a trading town and still is. In the 18th century, it became the great supply port for the American colonies, sending out beef, bacon, and butter, and during the Napoleonic Wars it was the larder of the British army and navy. Gradually, rows of houses began to rise along the winding creeks between the islands and at last Cork expanded beyond its walls and up the sides of the river valley.
As the merchants made money, they developed an appreciation of civilized amenities. Cork silver and glass became tasteful and elegant. A Cork school of painters developed; the neoclassical subjects of James Barry and Robert Fagan, the townscapes of Nathniel Grogan, and the historical panoramas of Samuel Forde and Damel Machse can be admired in the Crawford Municipal art Gallery.
The 19th century wordsmiths met in drinking pubs and debating societies and produced a circle of essayists and port Including William Magman, a Johnsonian schoolmaster and satirist, and Francis Sylvester Mahony Father Prout), a mocking ex-priest, both of whom scored high points in the the literary reviews when they emigrated to London, and a gentle lynch poet, J. J. Callanan, who died young in Lisbon. The 19th century also produced some distinguished architecture in Cork.
First the brothers Pam, James and George Richard, pupils of John Nash came from London and built bridges, jails, a courthouse, some lovely town houses with gentle Regency bow fronts, and the delightful Gothic fantasy Blackrock.Cork in the 20th century is chronicled in the short stories of Sean O'Faolain and Frank O'Conor, both natives. It is still a workaday city; shops, warehouses, and factories are part of Its fabric. But it is also a good talking town, a great eating out town, a sports mad tow. During the War of Independence (1919-21) Cork saw a spring of nationalistic fervor, losing two mayors and many public buildings to the cause.
Since then, it has withstood the worst assaults of modern tourism, though its cramped island site has given it some real traffic problems, which the city's 136,000 inhabitants manage to live with in their own spirited way: They are a most competent people whose response to good fortune and bad is a mocking laugh and a musical burst of anecdote.
Things to do in Cork Ireland
The north slope of the river valley is dominated by the tower of St. Anne's Church, better known simply as Shandon steeple. Cross the river and climb the tower to an outside balcony. The city is spread below ,he flat marsh area with its busy streets surrounded by what Edmund Spenser called The spreading Lee, that like an island fayre enclosed Corke with his divided flooded.
The Lee here forms a north channel and a south channel, and between them IS the compact central island known as the flat of the city. Patrick Street, or St. Patrick Street, the maIn artery crossing the island, was itself once an open river channel, as were. The Grand Parade and the South Mall.
In the 18th century ships could still be seen afloat In these channels, but by 1800 the waterways had been turned into thoroughfare for the traffic on foot, hoof, and wheel that crowded into the city's business distinct. Quieter, more reflective parts of Cork are the slopes that rise to the south and north of the central island.
The Gothic towers of St. Finbarre's Cathedral and the graceful Gothic quadrangles of the university are on the south slope, and churches, convents, and hospitals are to the right and left on the north slope.
Things to do in Cork
The flat of the city is the hub of activity in Cork, and a walk. along Paric Street (affectionately called Pana by residents) and its subsidiary artiness is as traditional an activity as the European evening promenade. Going east to west, the walk is properly done on the left path for a view of the better-preserved right side of the street with its delicately bow fronted 18th-century houses (the left side had to be replaced when British troops burned the street in 1920).
Patrick Street leads to the Grand Parade, which runs straight to the south channel of the river and has some traditional weather slated bow fronts remaining from the 18th century.At the south channel, the Grand Parade meets the South Mall, now the financial district. Here, a few characteristic merchants' houses remain from the days when the South Mall was still an open waterway. Doors at street or water level opened onto basement storerooms so that boats could be unloaded easily, and high outside steps led up to the merchants' living quarters above their shops. Walking is the best way to see the flat of the city. Numerous bridges span the Lee's still flowing channels providing access to the north and south banks.
Cork monuments and places to visit
Father Matthew Statue This memorial to Father Theobald Matthew, the Apostle of Temperance, is the work of the celebrated 19th-century Irish sculptor John Henry Foley, who also created the monument to Daniel O'Connell in Dublin and was one of several artists responsible for the Albert Memorial in London. Father Matthew, a superior of the Capuchin order in Cork, was known not only for his crusade in the cause of temperance but also for his work among the poor, especially during the mid19thcentury famines. The statue is a central point of reference in Cork City. Patrick St. at Patrick Bridge.
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery Cork is housed in a red brick building put up in the early 18th century as the city's custom house, the gallery contains a select collection of works by painters of the 20th-century Irish School: Orpen, Lavery, and Yeats; a good representation by artists of the earlier Cork School: Barry, Grogan, Forde, and Maclise; and some fine examples of Cork silver and glass.
Church of Saints Peter and Paul Cork opened in 1868, this excellent Gothic Revival church by E. W. Pugin is typical of Cork in its casing of red sandstone and its dressing of white limestone. Off Paul St. Coal Quay Market This outdoor flea market is open for business daily except Sundays, not on the quays but on a street running from the Grand Parade to Coal Quay. No longer colorful and not exactly sweet-smelling, it takes place in front of a market building with good classical frontage, now privately owned. Corn Market St.
City Market Cork sells fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat including local specialties such as drisheen (blood pudding or blood sausage) and tripe are displayed and sold in a stylish late18thcentury market arcade under a castiron and glass roof (also referred to by locals as the English Market, reflecting its origins). When the market is in full swing, daily except Sundays, the scene is animated and the stallholders are full of Cork esprit and chat.
Entrances off Patrick St., Princes St., and Grand Parade. Court House The Pain brothers designed this stately building with Corinthian porticoes in 1835. Sir Walter Scott, among others, admired it. Washington St.
South and North Main Streets When Cork was still enclosed by walls, its main gates were at the South Gate Bridge and the North Gate Bridge. Between the two ran the spine of the medieval city, worth walking today for its atmosphere redolent of food and house wares shops.
The much altered 18th-century Protestant Christ Church (South Main St.) is on the site of a medieval parish church that dated from the Normans and was probably the church in which Edmund Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle, his Irish bride, in the 16th century.
Another of Cork's medieval parish churches (there were two) was off North Main Street, near which are also many lanes such as Portney's Lane that once housed merchants and craftsmen. Mercy Hospital When it was built in the 18th century, this was the Mansion House of the Mayor of Cork.
The handsome building with its Italianate front is the work of Daviso de Arcort, the Sardinian architect, best known as Davis Ducart; the good stucco ceiling inside is by Patrick Osborne of Waterford. The building is now a hospital. Open to the public during patient visiting hours. Henry SI.
Holy Trinity Church The church of the Capuchin friars, also known as Father Matthew Memorial Church, dates from the I 830s. Internally, it is a charming Regency Gothic creation by George R. Pain. The lantern spire by Coakley is a graceful later addition enhanced by the riverside setting. Father Matthew Quay.
The North bank of Cork
St. Patrick's Bridge - This mid-19th century connection is a very satisfactory classical construction in white limestone. The view from the bridge upriver over the city's churches, convents, and other institutions and downriver to the ships is quintessential Cork. Patrick's Hill, a precipitous street housing fashionable doctors, leads up the north bank from the bridge and it's worth the climb for another view over the city.
St. Anne's Church, Shandon -The quaint pepperbox tower of this Protestant church, built from 1722 to 1726, is the symbol of Cork. Shandon steeple rises in square tiers to its cupola and weather vane crowned by a golden fish. As in the old jingle Red and white is Shandon steeple. Party colored like the people, it has two red sides and two white sides, a combination that is a signature of many Cork buildings.
From the top of the steeple, the source of the color scheme is apparent in the river valley: one slope of red sandstone and an opposite one of silvery white limestone. The Shandon churchyard is the last resting place of Francis S. O'Mahony, a fitting spot because it was he, under the pen name Father Prout, who wrote The Bells of Shandon, a song that made both bells and church famous.
St. Mary's Dominican Church Kearns Deane, a member of the prominent family of Cork architects responsible for several of the city's classical buildings, designed this church with the solid portico in 1832. Inside is a tiny carved ivory Madonna of 14th-century Flemish origin. Pope's Quay.
St. Patrick's Church represents a flurry of construction in the classical style took place in early19thcentury Cork. One good example is this church by George R. Pain (1836) at the foot of the handsome hillside suburbs of Tivoli and Montenolte. The elegant lantern is modeled on the Temple of the Winds in Athens. Lower Glanmire Rd.
South Bank of Cork and airport car rentals
Airport car rentals can be pre-booked from most airports in Ireland including Dublin, Knock and Belfast.Red Abbey - Nothing is left of the abbey of the canons of SI. Augustine except the tower of its church, the solitary relic of the early Cork monasteries and, indeed, of medieval Cork. When the Duke of Marlborough besieged the city in 1690, he put a cannon on the tower and directed his fire at the city walls across the south channel of the Lee.
Before leaving the spot, walk around the corner to Dunbar Street for a look at St. Finbarr's South, known also as South Chapel, an unusually early (1766) Catholic church (there are very few 18th-century Catholic churches in Ireland) with an altar of 249 pieces added by John Hogan, one of the most important Irish sculptors of the last century. Off Mary St. Elizabeth Fort The massive curtain walls are all that remain of a 17th century fort that once housed the Cork garrison. Today, a modern police station stands incongruously within the walls.
Off Barrack St. .' St. Finbarre's Cathedral Though somewhat foreshortened on Its confined site _ where the city's patron saint chose to put his monastery m the 6th century this Protestant cathedral is considered a brilliant essay in French Gothic by William Burges, an English architect who also designed Cardiff Castle and the quadrangle. of Yale University. It was built between 1867 and 1879 to replace an earlier church, which itself replaced a medieval church damaged in the siege of 1.690. (A cannonball found 40 feet above the ground in the tower is a reminder of that siege.)
Burges three spires are most successful and his interior detail is rich and inventive. Bishop St.University College - The main quadrangle is a gem of 19thcentury collegiate architecture (reminiscent of the colleges at Oxford) by Thomas Deane and his partner Benjamin Woodward. Later additions do not quite match the previous high standard, but the Honan Chapel, architect James J. McMullen's 1915 revival of 12th-century Irish Romanesque style, has interesting exterior details and is stuffed with treasure: stained glass windows, embroideries, tabernacle enamels, and a joyous mosaic floor.
Fota Island is an ornamental estate that belonged to the Smith Barry family, once Earls of Barrymore, is now owned by University College Cork. Its centerpiece, Foa House, was built in the 1820s by Sir Richard Morrison, who created some of Ireland s finest neoclassical interiors, and it stands today as a splendid example of Regency architecture. The rooms are fully furnished with Irish pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries and decorated with rich period wallpapers and curtains.
Most notable are the Irish landscape paintings, dating from the 1755 to the 1870s and constituting the most comprehensive private collection of its kind. O the grounds of the estate are an arboretum, a bee garden, and a wildlife park including giraffes, zebras, ostriches, antelopes, and other endangered, species covering 70 acres of parkland, woods, and lagoons.
Blarney Castle and the famous Blarney Stone, which belonged to the MacCarthys, dates from 1446. Although other parts of it were demolished, the massive square keeps, or tower, With a battlement parapet, survived centuries of sieges by much notorious attackers as Oliver Cromwell and William III.
The word 'blarney' originated With Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, a diplomat who was well known in the court.of Ehzabe.th I for hiS fair words and soft speech. Blarney has come to mean the ability to deceive Without offending. Set in one of the castle walls is the stone that supposedly confers this gift on those who kiss it (leaning over backwards from the parapet).
Also on the grounds is Blarney Castle House, a baronial mansion open to the public, and the Rock Close, a garden of ancient trees and stones, reputedly of druidic origin. The Blarney Castle Estate is open daily year-round except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Dublin is flat, and Cork is hilly. Dublin has a somber tone; Cork is as variegated, light and dark, as its local stones. And while Dublin, as capital, was burdened with an alien tradition of subservience, Cork cultivated a spirit of defiance that earned it the nickname Rebel Cork. It is a busy, assertive, self-made place where Jack is as good as his master and frequently tells him so.
The making of Cork was the river Lee, which flows not only through but in and around the city as it approaches its great estuary. In its valley it formed a great marsh with islands that became, as in Venice, the foundation of the town and the source of its Gaelic name, Corcaigh, meaning a marshy place. The first settlement was, as might be expected, a little Gaelic monastery founded in the 6th century by an obscure but beloved abbot bishop named Barra of the Fair Hair, or Finbarre.
The history of Cork Ireland and car hire
The monastery, on a hill south of the river where the present St. Finbarre's Cathedral stands, grew in power, and it was probably its reputation for wealth that enticed the Vikings in their longboats up the estuary and through the sinuous marsh. The Vikings first founded a trading post here in the 8th century and within 50 years they had fortified one of the islands to become the right and tight little city of Cork.Today, most of the visitors to Cork hire a car from the airport, and leave their longboats at home.
In time, the Vikings became subjects of the Gaelic prince of the area, MacCarthy Mor, but they nevertheless maintained a degree of independence in their island city under their own jarl (ruler) until the Norman invasion in the 12th century forced them to switch allegiance. In the turbulent centuries that followed, the inhabitants of Cork City acquired a reputation for independent mindedness even to rebellion.
King John (as prince) gave them a charter in 1185, they were back under the MacCarthys by 1195, and they were given a more prestigious charter by the king in 1199 and another new one in 1241. But in 1495 they nearly seized the Crown itself when they received the pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck, and escorted him to England to proclaim him King of England and Lord of Ireland.
While Dublin's monuments are castle and parliament house and the homes of the great nobles, Cork within its island walls has shops and warehouses and banks. It was essentially a trading town and still is. In the 18th century, it became the great supply port for the American colonies, sending out beef, bacon, and butter, and during the Napoleonic Wars it was the larder of the British army and navy. Gradually, rows of houses began to rise along the winding creeks between the islands and at last Cork expanded beyond its walls and up the sides of the river valley.
As the merchants made money, they developed an appreciation of civilized amenities. Cork silver and glass became tasteful and elegant. A Cork school of painters developed; the neoclassical subjects of James Barry and Robert Fagan, the townscapes of Nathniel Grogan, and the historical panoramas of Samuel Forde and Damel Machse can be admired in the Crawford Municipal art Gallery.
The 19th century wordsmiths met in drinking pubs and debating societies and produced a circle of essayists and port Including William Magman, a Johnsonian schoolmaster and satirist, and Francis Sylvester Mahony Father Prout), a mocking ex-priest, both of whom scored high points in the the literary reviews when they emigrated to London, and a gentle lynch poet, J. J. Callanan, who died young in Lisbon. The 19th century also produced some distinguished architecture in Cork.
First the brothers Pam, James and George Richard, pupils of John Nash came from London and built bridges, jails, a courthouse, some lovely town houses with gentle Regency bow fronts, and the delightful Gothic fantasy Blackrock.Cork in the 20th century is chronicled in the short stories of Sean O'Faolain and Frank O'Conor, both natives. It is still a workaday city; shops, warehouses, and factories are part of Its fabric. But it is also a good talking town, a great eating out town, a sports mad tow. During the War of Independence (1919-21) Cork saw a spring of nationalistic fervor, losing two mayors and many public buildings to the cause.
Since then, it has withstood the worst assaults of modern tourism, though its cramped island site has given it some real traffic problems, which the city's 136,000 inhabitants manage to live with in their own spirited way: They are a most competent people whose response to good fortune and bad is a mocking laugh and a musical burst of anecdote.
Things to do in Cork Ireland
The north slope of the river valley is dominated by the tower of St. Anne's Church, better known simply as Shandon steeple. Cross the river and climb the tower to an outside balcony. The city is spread below ,he flat marsh area with its busy streets surrounded by what Edmund Spenser called The spreading Lee, that like an island fayre enclosed Corke with his divided flooded.
The Lee here forms a north channel and a south channel, and between them IS the compact central island known as the flat of the city. Patrick Street, or St. Patrick Street, the maIn artery crossing the island, was itself once an open river channel, as were. The Grand Parade and the South Mall.
In the 18th century ships could still be seen afloat In these channels, but by 1800 the waterways had been turned into thoroughfare for the traffic on foot, hoof, and wheel that crowded into the city's business distinct. Quieter, more reflective parts of Cork are the slopes that rise to the south and north of the central island.
The Gothic towers of St. Finbarre's Cathedral and the graceful Gothic quadrangles of the university are on the south slope, and churches, convents, and hospitals are to the right and left on the north slope.
Things to do in Cork
The flat of the city is the hub of activity in Cork, and a walk. along Paric Street (affectionately called Pana by residents) and its subsidiary artiness is as traditional an activity as the European evening promenade. Going east to west, the walk is properly done on the left path for a view of the better-preserved right side of the street with its delicately bow fronted 18th-century houses (the left side had to be replaced when British troops burned the street in 1920).
Patrick Street leads to the Grand Parade, which runs straight to the south channel of the river and has some traditional weather slated bow fronts remaining from the 18th century.At the south channel, the Grand Parade meets the South Mall, now the financial district. Here, a few characteristic merchants' houses remain from the days when the South Mall was still an open waterway. Doors at street or water level opened onto basement storerooms so that boats could be unloaded easily, and high outside steps led up to the merchants' living quarters above their shops. Walking is the best way to see the flat of the city. Numerous bridges span the Lee's still flowing channels providing access to the north and south banks.
Cork monuments and places to visit
Father Matthew Statue This memorial to Father Theobald Matthew, the Apostle of Temperance, is the work of the celebrated 19th-century Irish sculptor John Henry Foley, who also created the monument to Daniel O'Connell in Dublin and was one of several artists responsible for the Albert Memorial in London. Father Matthew, a superior of the Capuchin order in Cork, was known not only for his crusade in the cause of temperance but also for his work among the poor, especially during the mid19thcentury famines. The statue is a central point of reference in Cork City. Patrick St. at Patrick Bridge.
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery Cork is housed in a red brick building put up in the early 18th century as the city's custom house, the gallery contains a select collection of works by painters of the 20th-century Irish School: Orpen, Lavery, and Yeats; a good representation by artists of the earlier Cork School: Barry, Grogan, Forde, and Maclise; and some fine examples of Cork silver and glass.
Church of Saints Peter and Paul Cork opened in 1868, this excellent Gothic Revival church by E. W. Pugin is typical of Cork in its casing of red sandstone and its dressing of white limestone. Off Paul St. Coal Quay Market This outdoor flea market is open for business daily except Sundays, not on the quays but on a street running from the Grand Parade to Coal Quay. No longer colorful and not exactly sweet-smelling, it takes place in front of a market building with good classical frontage, now privately owned. Corn Market St.
City Market Cork sells fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat including local specialties such as drisheen (blood pudding or blood sausage) and tripe are displayed and sold in a stylish late18thcentury market arcade under a castiron and glass roof (also referred to by locals as the English Market, reflecting its origins). When the market is in full swing, daily except Sundays, the scene is animated and the stallholders are full of Cork esprit and chat.
Entrances off Patrick St., Princes St., and Grand Parade. Court House The Pain brothers designed this stately building with Corinthian porticoes in 1835. Sir Walter Scott, among others, admired it. Washington St.
South and North Main Streets When Cork was still enclosed by walls, its main gates were at the South Gate Bridge and the North Gate Bridge. Between the two ran the spine of the medieval city, worth walking today for its atmosphere redolent of food and house wares shops.
The much altered 18th-century Protestant Christ Church (South Main St.) is on the site of a medieval parish church that dated from the Normans and was probably the church in which Edmund Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle, his Irish bride, in the 16th century.
Another of Cork's medieval parish churches (there were two) was off North Main Street, near which are also many lanes such as Portney's Lane that once housed merchants and craftsmen. Mercy Hospital When it was built in the 18th century, this was the Mansion House of the Mayor of Cork.
The handsome building with its Italianate front is the work of Daviso de Arcort, the Sardinian architect, best known as Davis Ducart; the good stucco ceiling inside is by Patrick Osborne of Waterford. The building is now a hospital. Open to the public during patient visiting hours. Henry SI.
Holy Trinity Church The church of the Capuchin friars, also known as Father Matthew Memorial Church, dates from the I 830s. Internally, it is a charming Regency Gothic creation by George R. Pain. The lantern spire by Coakley is a graceful later addition enhanced by the riverside setting. Father Matthew Quay.
The North bank of Cork
St. Patrick's Bridge - This mid-19th century connection is a very satisfactory classical construction in white limestone. The view from the bridge upriver over the city's churches, convents, and other institutions and downriver to the ships is quintessential Cork. Patrick's Hill, a precipitous street housing fashionable doctors, leads up the north bank from the bridge and it's worth the climb for another view over the city.
St. Anne's Church, Shandon -The quaint pepperbox tower of this Protestant church, built from 1722 to 1726, is the symbol of Cork. Shandon steeple rises in square tiers to its cupola and weather vane crowned by a golden fish. As in the old jingle Red and white is Shandon steeple. Party colored like the people, it has two red sides and two white sides, a combination that is a signature of many Cork buildings.
From the top of the steeple, the source of the color scheme is apparent in the river valley: one slope of red sandstone and an opposite one of silvery white limestone. The Shandon churchyard is the last resting place of Francis S. O'Mahony, a fitting spot because it was he, under the pen name Father Prout, who wrote The Bells of Shandon, a song that made both bells and church famous.
St. Mary's Dominican Church Kearns Deane, a member of the prominent family of Cork architects responsible for several of the city's classical buildings, designed this church with the solid portico in 1832. Inside is a tiny carved ivory Madonna of 14th-century Flemish origin. Pope's Quay.
St. Patrick's Church represents a flurry of construction in the classical style took place in early19thcentury Cork. One good example is this church by George R. Pain (1836) at the foot of the handsome hillside suburbs of Tivoli and Montenolte. The elegant lantern is modeled on the Temple of the Winds in Athens. Lower Glanmire Rd.
South Bank of Cork and airport car rentals
Airport car rentals can be pre-booked from most airports in Ireland including Dublin, Knock and Belfast.Red Abbey - Nothing is left of the abbey of the canons of SI. Augustine except the tower of its church, the solitary relic of the early Cork monasteries and, indeed, of medieval Cork. When the Duke of Marlborough besieged the city in 1690, he put a cannon on the tower and directed his fire at the city walls across the south channel of the Lee.
Before leaving the spot, walk around the corner to Dunbar Street for a look at St. Finbarr's South, known also as South Chapel, an unusually early (1766) Catholic church (there are very few 18th-century Catholic churches in Ireland) with an altar of 249 pieces added by John Hogan, one of the most important Irish sculptors of the last century. Off Mary St. Elizabeth Fort The massive curtain walls are all that remain of a 17th century fort that once housed the Cork garrison. Today, a modern police station stands incongruously within the walls.
Off Barrack St. .' St. Finbarre's Cathedral Though somewhat foreshortened on Its confined site _ where the city's patron saint chose to put his monastery m the 6th century this Protestant cathedral is considered a brilliant essay in French Gothic by William Burges, an English architect who also designed Cardiff Castle and the quadrangle. of Yale University. It was built between 1867 and 1879 to replace an earlier church, which itself replaced a medieval church damaged in the siege of 1.690. (A cannonball found 40 feet above the ground in the tower is a reminder of that siege.)
Burges three spires are most successful and his interior detail is rich and inventive. Bishop St.University College - The main quadrangle is a gem of 19thcentury collegiate architecture (reminiscent of the colleges at Oxford) by Thomas Deane and his partner Benjamin Woodward. Later additions do not quite match the previous high standard, but the Honan Chapel, architect James J. McMullen's 1915 revival of 12th-century Irish Romanesque style, has interesting exterior details and is stuffed with treasure: stained glass windows, embroideries, tabernacle enamels, and a joyous mosaic floor.
Fota Island is an ornamental estate that belonged to the Smith Barry family, once Earls of Barrymore, is now owned by University College Cork. Its centerpiece, Foa House, was built in the 1820s by Sir Richard Morrison, who created some of Ireland s finest neoclassical interiors, and it stands today as a splendid example of Regency architecture. The rooms are fully furnished with Irish pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries and decorated with rich period wallpapers and curtains.
Most notable are the Irish landscape paintings, dating from the 1755 to the 1870s and constituting the most comprehensive private collection of its kind. O the grounds of the estate are an arboretum, a bee garden, and a wildlife park including giraffes, zebras, ostriches, antelopes, and other endangered, species covering 70 acres of parkland, woods, and lagoons.
Blarney Castle and the famous Blarney Stone, which belonged to the MacCarthys, dates from 1446. Although other parts of it were demolished, the massive square keeps, or tower, With a battlement parapet, survived centuries of sieges by much notorious attackers as Oliver Cromwell and William III.
The word 'blarney' originated With Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, a diplomat who was well known in the court.of Ehzabe.th I for hiS fair words and soft speech. Blarney has come to mean the ability to deceive Without offending. Set in one of the castle walls is the stone that supposedly confers this gift on those who kiss it (leaning over backwards from the parapet).
Also on the grounds is Blarney Castle House, a baronial mansion open to the public, and the Rock Close, a garden of ancient trees and stones, reputedly of druidic origin. The Blarney Castle Estate is open daily year-round except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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