History & HERITAGE UNITE
WHETHER YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE IRISH EMIGRATION STORY, TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS, LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE ILL-FATED TITANIC AND LUSITANIA OR SIMPLY IMMERSING YOURSELF IN HISTORY, COBH HERITAGE CENTRE IS WELL WORTH A VISIT.
This informative and sometimes emotive experience is situated within Cobh’s beautifully restored Victorian railway station, a building with its own unique story.
Because so many people from Ireland’s past traveled through Cobh, visitors to the heritage center can learn about the stories of these emigrants, over three million of whom emigrated from here. Many were forced to leave due to the famine, many left in search of a new life in a land of opportunity and many more had no choice, being transported as convicts to Australia or forced labor in British colonies in the West Indies.
The Irish Emigration Story relates the maritime, naval and military history of the area and the fortification of the harbor with forts such as Haulbowline, Spike Island and Fort Camden. It takes visitors on a journey of exploration of the lives of millions who left Ireland from the 1600’s right through to the 1950’s. Tales of the early emigrants to Virginia, the Carolinas and Canada; the forgotten Irish who endured forced labor in the Americas and the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania are all explained in a variety of interesting and artistic ways.
Throughout the exhibition there are individual stories to be found such as that of Jeremiah Burke and the message in a bottle from the Titanic. Learn about Margaret Drury and her voyage on a convict ship to Australia, and of course Father Frank Browne who took the last photographs of Titanic as it journeyed from Southampton to Cobh. He was directed to disembark early from the luxury Atlantic voyage in the port of Cobh by his bishop. Disappointing at the time for Father Frank but what a lucky man!
This is a moving, educational, interesting and evocative experience which enables visitors to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors who left these shores and whose last sight of Ireland was the town of Cobh.