Irish passengers will follow historic footsteps cruising from Cobh

It started with the potato famine, and during a hundred years from the 1840s, more than 2.5 million men, women and children emigrated from Ireland through the harbour at Queenstown, near Cork.
They are commemorated by the statue (above) on the quayside of what is now called Cobh. It depicts Annie Moore and her two brothers, who left for America in 1891. On January 1, 1892, Annie became the first immigrant admitted through Ellis Island in New York harbour, where a similar statue stands as a symbol of those who made the same journey.
The Irish version stands outside the Cobh Heritage Centre, which also marks Ireland’s links with two tragic liners – the Lusitania, which sank off nearby Kinsale Head in 1915 after being torpedoed by a German U-boat, and the Titanic, which weighed anchor in the harbour for the last time before setting out across the Atlantic in 1912.
The town, with its striking cathedral, is growing in popularity as a cruise ship call, from where passengers visiting for the day can take excursions to kiss the Blarney Stone, tour the English Market in Cork, or taste the whiskey at the nearby Bushmills distillery.
Next year the port will become a place of embarkation once again, as MSC introduce itineraries on the 60,000-ton MSC Lirica which allow passengers to board and disembark in Cobh, instead of having to fly to England or further afield to start their holidays.
Lorenzo Diamantini, the line’s Director of Sales for Ireland and Northern Ireland, says: “We have experienced incredible growth in the Irish market over the last three years. By positioning one of our ships in Cork we can give many more local passengers the opportunity to experience the superb itineraries on offer.”
The two itineraries which start and finish in Cobh are August 15-26 and August 26-September 5 from Cobh to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Heligoland, South Queensferry, Invergordon, Stornoway, Kirkwall, Oban, Dublin and Cobh. The season starts with a cruise to Cobh which leaves Hamburg on August 7, and ends with a three night voyage from Cobh to Amsterdam departing September 5.
Speaking of Titanic, if you have 12 minutes to spare, you could do worse than watch this video trailer in which the people of Belfast look forward to next year’s opening of the Titanic Belfast exhibition being built in the Harland & Wolff shipyard – graphically described here as the Cape Canaveral of 100 years ago.