A limerick for every season

We left Killarney this morning and had about an hour and a half to get to Cork.

During our bus ride, my seat mate Karla, her sister Marilyn and I started writing limericks about various things on our time here. Our tour director Cathal had told us earlier that we could enter limericks for a little contest among us. Once we got started, we hit our stride and we ended up writing seventeen by dinner. (And we have a few more to turn in tomorrow morning already! I'll let you know if we win. Haha) Either way, we had some good laughs. 

Arriving in Cork, we had a quick walking tour in the city center to get or bearings for later today. Then we headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove and formerly named Queenstown) which is known for Titanic's final stop before its start toward New York. Once there, we had lunch and toured the Cobh Heritage Centre that focused on the millions of immigrants that left Ireland from this city to head to America, Canada, Australia or elsewhere. We were each given a ticket with a real person's name on it and during our time looking at the exhibits, we got to find out who our person was and if they survived their voyage. My person was Winifred Hull, who was on the Lusitania when it was hit by a German torpedo in 1915. She survived and it is because of her letters, we know details of the Lusitania's sinking. 

Statue of Annie Moore and her two brothers. She was the first person to be processed at Ellis Island. There is a matching statue of her there as well. 

The cathedral in Cobh

After Cobh, we drove to Midleton, home of the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery. There we got a group photo and had a guided tour of the facility. 

The microdistillery that just opened last year:  since whiskey has to be ages a minimum of three years, no product yet. 

Afterwards, we came back to Cork, checked in our hotel and headed back to city center for dinner. We ended up at Market Lane, which was absolutely delicious. I had beetroot risotto with melted Brie and onion tangles. Yum. And it was pink. :)

Then we found Oliver Plunket which was going to have live music from 10-midnight. A band called Drops of Green. We waited and only one guy from the band was there. The other three came in after 10:30 and the still had to set up and do a quick sound check. Late or not, the boys put on a good show and the locals and some of us (not me) even took a turn on the dance floor. So now it's late and we've got an early morning tomorrow to start our last full day in Ireland.