We stopped in Cobh, at least in part, because it was the last port of call for the Titanic. We wanted to go there to tell our grandson, Henry, about it. Cobh was also the departure point for 2.5 million Irish people who emigrated to North America between 1848 and 1850. We saw a sign that said Cobh was a "Tidy Town" winner in 2021 and I can see why. Cobh is still a very tidy town.

The name “Cobh” was curious to me. This village was established in the 1750's as a Royal Navy port and known as the "Cove of Cork" or just Cove. When Queen Victoria visited here in 1849, they changed the name to Queenstown. It stayed that way until 1920 when the local council decided to change the name back to Cove. But they decided to use the Gaelic spelling for Cove which is Cobh. But Cobh has no meaning in Gaelic and the town’s name is still pronounced Cove.

Parking was a frequent issue for us in Ireland. I was surprised how often it was difficult to find a parking place in many of the town centers that we visited. I had a problem finding parking in Cobh as well. When I finally found a place and pulled in, right in the center of town, I felt pretty lucky. Then I looked up at the sign. I turned to Vicky and said, "Have I mentioned that most people call me Doctor Bosworth?" But then a car pulled out across the street and I moved across and parked there.

The Titanic didn't dock right in Cobh. There are islands right offshore and it would have taken a lot of time to maneuver into the port. So they just sent in two tenders and some smaller boats to drop off and pick up passengers and luggage from Cobh. Below you can see the area where the tenders for the Titanic made their stop in Cobh. 123 passengers boarded the Titanic at Cobh but only 44 survived the sinking.

The building on the right above is the Titanic Experience or the Titanic Museum.

We must have passed through four or five "Tidy Town" winners on our drive around Ireland. I never heard about the annual contest, so I don't know what to say about it. But I will say that every one of the winning towns that we passed through was tidy and impressive.

We visited the Heritage Center Museum in Cobh. It was a fantastic museum, and I wish we had more time to spend there. I learned a great deal about Cobh but even more about Ireland as a whole. The photo below was at the entrance to the museum. They also had some delicious hot chocolate.