Cork
County Cork is located in the South West of Ireland, it is the largest of all the Irish counties. It has rich farmlands, river valleys with the wild sandstone hills of the west, and best of all is the splendid coastline by the Atlantic into great bays and secret shelters,rocky headlands and long soft golden sands.
Cork City is Ireland's third city after Dublin and Belfast, and has always been an important seaport. It started on an island in the swampy estuary of the River Lee.
Today the river flows through Cork city in two main channels, so you find yourself mostly crossing bridges.
Lots of the main streets are built over channels where ships nuzzled their anchor-chains a century ago. Along the South Mall, you'll see large gateways at street level, under steps leading to a higher main door. These were once boathouses, when merchants arrived at their warehouses by water.
St. Finbarr is the founder and patron saint. He founded a monastery in the seventh century where St. Finn Barre's Cathedral now stands, and it grew into an extensive and wealthy establishment. It attracted the attention of the Viking sea-pirates who raided and burned the infant city, but returned in later years to settle and trade. The Anglo-Norman invasion in 1172 resulted in both the Danish lords and local McCarthy chiefs having to submit to Henry II, but Cork has always had a reputation for independence and stubborn resistance and it came to be known as "Rebel Cork".
