From South to North - sun all the way Cork.

For a long time Ireland is a place I have known about through my studies, my love of the music, the occasional bombing in London and in John's case, my love of the late Mr Green, but the actual country/countries I did not really fancy visiting on my own till recently then I kept meeting lovely Irish people, a nice friend returned to Belfast and Brexit made the people of Northern Ireland go from being an unappealing stereotype to being of interest.  Who were the people who voted to stay but want to be a part of a people who voted to go.    It seemed like time to find out, and given that Ryanair is Irish is both very simple and very cheap.  I decided to go from the south, Cork to the north, Belfast, via a return visit to Dublin and given that the sun shone throughout the visit,  it turned out to be a brilliant thing to do.

6 days is clearly not enough time to get to know a place, especially one as complex as Ireland, but lots of interesting thoughts floated up.

The first night I only had time to walk a short way into town. On the corner of the street where my hostel was there were the groups of men hanging around who looked like they were migrants just starting out in life in Ireland, and who were making friends with each other.    In the centre of town despite the closed but prosperous looking central street a soup kitchen for locals was just dispersing.  The town looked unremarkable but potentially promising.


Cork has a  lovely river. The first morning there there were loads of office workers spilling out of the modern blocks along the banks of the Lee (certain familiarity there given that is one spelling of my local river) and all having morning coffee in the sun. It took me back to days working at the GLC that sense of camaraderie, everyone was very jolly, looking out for each other, smartly dressed, it felt a very positive start to the day.     Many of the workers in the cafes were European sounding, but there were also people of colour working in the shops too, including a lovely lad with a thick Irish accent who asked if I wanted regular Barry tea to have with my Chai Masala brownie.     At the University students sat around in the sun as they do everywhere and just looked interesting whilst the lads jumping in the river looked like a scene out of something that FrankMcCourt  would have written. ]

  On the Second evening I felt comfortable enough in Cork to step into a local hostelry and listen to some live music, whilst on the last day I even went to the theatre on my own there.  It just felt a very nice comfortable place. 

All around were posters, yes/no (change the abortion rules) and one or two people were still sporting badges showing their support for the Yes vote.Many of the cafes were really nice looking and I had a lovely lunch ensconced in the English market.  The Elizabeth fort was of interest to someone who has taught about the Tudors while the presence of  Countess Markievicz  who was housed  for some time at the County Gaol, which  made it an appealing venue for my last morning.  And the radio museum tiny though it is made me realise how important Ireland has been in the history of a medium still close to my heart.

 I would be happy to return and get to explore the countryside around about, but this time round it was time for a very comfortable train journey up to Dublin.