The first event this morning was an orientation session (“Hi, I’m Randy from Boise Idaho…”, Here’s what’s going to happen this week. Here are maps, Books, Handouts that you will find interesting. Here’s your listening device. Now let’s test them.  Stuff like that).  The session was scheduled for 9:30 so Cheryl and I decided that we could sleep in a bit (or at least try – we haven’t been able to get a full night’s sleep thus far.) so we didn’t set an alarm.  We woke up at 9:05.

Throwing on clothes and getting downstairs to slam a bit of breakfast took us to exactly 9:30.  From now on we’ll set an alarm.

Following the orientation (about 10:45) we returned to our room to finish getting ready for the day.   We met Steve and Billie in the lobby, repleat in our rain gear, at 11:30 for the short walk back to the Idaho Cafe for lunch.  I mean, when you are in Cork where else are you going to eat?

The Idaho Cafe is a small, very traditional Irish cafe serving typical Irish dishes for breakfast and lunch.  Their only connection to Idaho is that one of the owner’s relatives (I think it was a brother-in-law or cousin or such) had been to Idaho and learned that the word Idaho is an indian term that means “sunrise over the cliffs”.  Since that is what it looks like when the sun peeks over the buildings in the morning they thought the name was appropriate. We disabused our poor waitress of their understanding of the origin of our state name.  She was, however cheerful and very friendly and we enjoyed our potato-laden lunch (except for Billie who celebrated quintessential Idaho food with a quesadilla).

We returned to the hotel in time to catch the bus for the second event of the day – the trip to Cobh.  It’s pronounced “cove” however, the word cobh isn’t gaelic for cove. But, then, they explained that they are Irish so they aren’t going to let a little detail like that bother them.

Arriving at Cobh we began our tour at the Cobh Heritage Centre. Since Cobh has the second largest natural bay in the world (behind Sydney) it has been a major maritime center thruought history. The Centre featured significant displays covering three of those periods – the period of emigration spurred by the Irish Potato Famine,

The sinking of the Lucitania just off shore from Cobh, and the Titanic (Cobh was its last port of call before beginning its trans Atlantic crossing.

Our tickets had the names of passengers who had passed thru Cobh at some point.

Following our time in the museum we wandered up the hill to the local hotel where we were given a lecture on the potato famine – it’s causes, the politics and the role they played in causing and exacerbating it , the resulting death and mass emigration of millions of Irish, and the lasting impact it has made on the Irish people even to this day.  Heavy stuff. (Insert highly political statement about how the attitudes of the British government toward the Irish at that time compare to the attitudes of the current US Administration toward everyone who hasn’t “drunk the cool-aid”.)

Following that we took a short walking tour of Cobh (Did I mention it was raining?)

where our guide talked about the history and significance of the port, the sinking of the Lucitania

The Titanic, and such. He also talked about (and we heard) the carillon in the Cathedral.

The continuing significance of the port today can be seen in its role in the latest Irish cash crop:

Following the walking tour we returned to the museum where we met our dinner hosts.  Dinner this evening was served in family homes.  They divided us up into groups of four and Steve, Billie, Cheryl and I enjoyed a very nice Irish Stew and Apple Strudel (with fresh whipped cream) served by Theresa.  Following dinner conversation over a friendly cup of tea she returned us to the bus for our trip back to Cork.

That’s today in a nutshell.  Tomorrow we spend the whole day on the bus as we tour the Ring of Kerry and visit a sheep farm in Kinsale.

Tomorrow we see them.  Tonight we count them. Till then: