Jay Lloyd's Getaway: Ireland
If you're thinking Irish this weekend, KYW's Jay Lloyd suggests an Ireland getaway timed to the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking disaster.
By Jay Lloyd
In the port city of Cobh, on the Cork coast of Ireland, a visitor can reflect on the timeworn "message in a bottle," written by a 19-year-old emigrant on his way to an America he never reached.
It was a simple goodbye. Cobh (pronounced "cove") was the last port reached by the RMS Titanic before its fatal iceberg collision.
Three years later, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed off nearby Kinsale (top photo).
Now, artifacts and memorials to both events are focal points of travel to County Cork, where locals prefer Murphy's Stout to Guinness.
Restaurants, brilliant coastal scenery, and Irish legend abounds. The county is also home to Blarney Castle, where, as local lore suggests, a kiss planted on the fabled Blarney Stone endows the kisser with newfound eloquence.
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I first saw Cobh 53 years ago, in the waning days of the great fleet of transatlantic ocean liners. It still holds the vibrancy of a port city and the charm of an Irish village.
US Airways flies from Philadelphia to Dublin. Then, take a train or rental car to Cork.
