Lusitania commemoration.....

On the 7th May 1915 the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by U-20 approximately 15 kilometres due south of the Old Head of Kinsale. Of the nearly 2,000 passengers and crew, 1,195 lost their lives making it one of the greatest maritime tragedies of all time. 

The rescue efforts were co-ordinated from the nearby Royal Naval port of Queenstown (now Cobh). Many of the survivors and the recovered bodies of those who were lost were brought to Queenstown by local fisherman and others. On 10th May many of the dead were buried in mass graves in the Old Cemetery at Queenstown. 

Today that tragedy is commemorated in Cobh. This commemoration takes place on an annual basis and is organised by Cobh Tourism. It starts at the Old Church Cemetery where local historian, Jack Gilmartin, outlines the tragic events of that fateful day and in the days immediately afterwards. This is followed by another ceremony at the Lusitania monument in the main town square. 

Today, on the 98th anniversary of the ship's sinking, many hundreds attended. The ceremonies coincided with the visit of the Emerald Princess and as a result there were massive crowds in the town.

Here are a few pics of the ceremonies at the Lusitania monument:-

Liner Season kicks off in Cobh.....

Liner season has kicked off here in Cobh and there have already been three liners in....the first of 64 expected this season. This year there are some really large liners calling again, amongst them the 'Independence of the Seas,' 'Vision of the Seas,' 'Brilliance of the Seas,' 'Emerald Princess,' and the 'Caribbean Princess,' to name but a few. These magnificent ships are huge being anything between 10 and 15 stories high, the length of several football pitches, and carrying in excess of 5,000 passengers and crew. They are towns in their own right!!!

Over the next few days the 'Emerald Princess' and the 'Caribbean Princess' will be calling in. In fact, the 'Caribbean Princess' will be a total of nine times this year. For a full schedule of liner visits have a look at the Port of Cork's Cruise Schedule. Why not call to Cobh to see one of these awesome ships. They dock within metres of the town centre and are viewable from many vantage points. Why not avail of our Cruise Liner Special and stay the night before and watch these leviathans dock early the next morning. There is always a great buzz in town on the day these arrives and its certainly a great reason for visiting Cobh!!!

Titanic Experience - Project Titanic Cobh

Cobh is inextricably linked with RMS Titanic. On the 10th April 1912 the Titanic left from Southampton on her maiden voyage. Her first port of call was at Cherbourg, France before she left on the start of her transatlantic crossing. The following day the Titanic arrived at Cobh, then known as Queenstown, on the southern coast of Ireland, the final port of call for all liners crossing the Atlantic. Cobh, nestled on the shores of Cork Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the World, was the ideal last stop for liners plying the Atlantic. Here the Titanic, like many liners at the time, collected more passengers, provisions and the all important mail. Mail from all corners of the British Isles was collected by the Royal Mail, processed in transit, and shipped to Queenstown to meet the ocean going liners for onward transmission to the New World. With her business concluded at Queenstown, Titanic continued her journey leaving shore, land & civilisation behind her for the final time. Four days later that journey was to end in tragedy in the mid-Atlantic when Titanic struck an iceberg and over 1,500 passengers and crew were lost. The tragedy was the greatest of all maritime tragedies and even today the story of Titanic still captures the public imagination in a way that no other does!

Cobh hasn't changed much over the years and today the town is very much the same as when the passengers of Titanic would have seen it. The town is almost frozen in time and its Georgian and Victorian architecture is both unique and marvellous. Cobh cherishes this uniqueness and proudly exhibits its unique connection to Titanic and its unique maritime history. When you come to Cobh this history comes alive; you almost walk in the footsteps of the passengers of Titanic and those passengers of the liner golden age.

As part of your visit you will experience Cobh as Titanic passengers would have by taking part on the Titanic Trail. Through the Titanic Trail, noted historian and Titanic Trail creator, Dr. Michael Martin, offers a truly authentic Titanic experience. The entertaining and innovative Titanic Trail brings to life the story of Titanic, and the events in the town on the day the Titanic left her last anchorage to sail to her icy fate in the North Atlantic. The walking tour leaves from the steps of the Commodore Hotel every morning at 11:am throughout the year. In the summer months there is an additional tour at 2:pm in the afternoon.

Your stay will also include a visit to the Titanic Experience. This new visitor attraction has just opened in February 2012 and tells the story of those 123 passengers who boarded Titanic from Queenstown. Again, this attraction is open all year round. The Titanic Experience is housed in the original White Star Line offices through which the passengers were processed and behind which is the original pier from which the passengers departed on-board the tenders America and Ireland. It is literally across the road from the hotel and is no more than a minutes walk. The Experience brings the story of Titanic to life using innovative audio visual technology, holographic imagery and touch screen technology.

You can choose between a two or three day visit with accommodation in the Commodore Hotel. The Commodore Hotel is one of the many buildings that existed in Cobh at the time. In fact, the Queens Hotel, as it was then known, was built many years before having been one of the first purpose built hotels in the country. This hotel has witnessed most of the comings and goings of this historic port and is an ideal base for your visit. It overlooks the original White Star Line offices and its famous pier. In fact it boasts spectacular views of the Harbour itself. Modern day ocean going cruise liners, such as the Independence of the Seas and the Queen Elizabeth, pass directly in front of the hotel, almost within touching distance.

....and now all three, the Titanic Trail, the Titanic Experience, and the Commodore Hotel, have come together as Project Titanic Cobh to highlight the fact that Cobh is an exceptional tourism destination with a deep history, and a remarkable collection of visitor attractions that all bring the past to life and are available to the visitor all year round.

April is, however, a special month as this is the month when the tragedy of the Titanic is commemorated. Project Titanic Cobh has launched their first Programme of Events this year in what is to become an annual commemoration of Titanic's visit to Cobh. This series of events will take place during the first two weeks of April. It will also acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of other passengers who embarked from Queenstown in waves of migration during the 19th and 20th Century.

To date, over 50 events have been listed in the Programme with more to come. The Annual Titanic Commemoration, organised by Cobh Tourism, features on the 14th April, with a procession from the Old Town Hall to the Promenade. Here, to the tune of the 'Last Post & Reveille,' flowers will be scattered into the sea to commemorate those lost on the Titanic. A wreath laying ceremony at the Titanic anchorage at Roches Point is also planned for the day, under escort by the Irish Navy.

Other community groups and individuals will be putting on events of historic interest. Dr. Michael Martin, creator of the Titanic Trail, will deliver a lecture entitled 'Titanic - Selection and Survival' which explores some fascinating points about the disaster. Furthermore, O.N.E. (The Organisation of National Ex-servicemen and women) will be presenting the extraordinary story of the Cobh born WW1 aviator and inventor, Neville Florian Usbourne.

Food and beverage events and musical entertainment are all on the list. The Commodore Hotel will be running Titanic themed restaurant menus and afternoon teas between the 4th and 14th April and other local restaurants will also be presenting themed menus serving culinary delights of all things maritime. The Sirius Arts Centre has additional musical events in their programme and local bars have a great line-up of entertainment.

For younger visitors to Cobh, a special Arts Competition is being run by the Titanic Experience; full details can be found on the Project Titanic Cobh web site. Additionally, the season launch of the Cobh Town Train will take place on Saturday 6th April and is sure to keep the small ones happy.

Irish traditions will be brought to life, with displays of the fine art of crystal cutting at the Tregan Art Centre. Wake nights, traditional set dancing and music events will be taking place at the Commodore Hotel, the later being reminiscent of the below decks scene from the blockbuster movie, Titanic.

Another significant event for the calendar is taking place on Thursday 4th April, when the Sirius Arts Centre celebrates the 175th Anniversary of the SS Sirius crossing, from Cork to New York, the first motorised crossing in history, in 1838. A special exhibition on engineering excellence will be opened on the day. Cobh Museum will be having their season launch on the 8th April with two new exhibitions  'Leaving/Living,' which features stories of some extraordinary lives of Cobh people who left Ireland and 'Yesterdays Child,' an exhibition of toys from the past.

The RNLI also plan to put on a display on Saturday 13th April, with both the Ballycotton and Crosshaven lifeboats taking part. It is hoped that the Air Sea Rescue helicopter will also be able to attend.

Be part of the commemorative activities; visit Cobh in the first two weeks in April. If not you can still avail of our Titanic packages all year round. Two or three nights accommodation, in a seaview room, and one evening meal, to include the Titanic Trail guided walking tour, and entry to the Titanic Experience.

Great Food at the Commodore Hotel

Since Head Chef, Ger Duffy, took over the kitchens, here at the Commodore Hotel, the food has come on from strength to strength. The food was always good, but Ger has now brought it on up onto a higher level. With pride we can now say that our food is GREAT!!!

.....and it is down to the pride that Ger, and his team, take in their work.

Ger took over the kitchens at the start of the 2012 summer season. Since then he has changed the menus dramatically....but more importantly Ger has changed the cooking practices. Everything is made freshly. This now goes right down to the basics....even the chips are freshly made. Gone are the days when frozen chips were used. Ger recently invested in a potato peeler and all chips are now freshly made....and they are gorgeous!!! But then everything on the menu is now gorgeous....the steaks are fabulous, the fish and sauces are delicious, the veg is just right, the desserts are to die for. If you are planning to go out for a meal then you wouldn't go far wrong than trying our Captain's Table Restaurant or O'Shea's Bar & Bistro.

Of course Ger has a wealth of experience having worked in many of Cork's top restaurants over the last twenty years and it is great to see Ger bringing that experience back to the kitchen that he first started off in many moons ago.

So why not call down and try it out. You'll be guaranteed....

GREAT FOOD, GREAT VALUE, GREAT SERVICE.....

We also have a diverse range of menus for Parties. If you have a family gathering, party or celebration, whether its a birthday, christening, or whatever, then we can provide a menu to suit all occasions and all requirements. This can start from the simplest of finger food offerings or chicken baskets right through to a full blown sit down meal. Why not give general manager, Robbie Fitzpatrick, and his team a shout on 021-4811277, or send us an email on commodorehotel@eircom.net.

In the meantime, we'll leave you with a few pics of Ger and his crew busy at work in the kitchen....some of the finished product....and some of the happy punters!!!

Titanic Centenary Ball

Remembrance Day - a tale from the Somme....

THEIR NAME LIVETH FOREVER MORE....

On Remembrance Day it is appropriate to reproduce this story below, which in a small way, linked the Commodore Hotel to the Battle of the Somme in World War 1.....

A CORKMAN DIES ON THE SOMME

'September 1916 and the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division are engaged in the bloody advance across the Somme. They advance some 500 yards to take and hold enemy positions beyond the shattered village of Guillemont. Of the 2,400 men engaged in the advance some 1,150 fall. Among the advancing soldiers of the 16th Irish Division are men of the 7th Leinster Regiment.

After their advance, non-combatant labour battalions are sent into the battlefield to clear up the mess left by the fighting soldiers. They clear away abandoned trenching tools and wire cutters, discarded equipment and bits and pieces of dead soldiers. It is gruesome and arduous work. Among their number is an Englishman, Private George Wiles of the Royal Engineers. As he scurries across the blood soaked ground he comes upon a great crater and at the edge of it, "as if resting after a long walk" is the body of a well built soldier from one of the Irish regiments. The Englishman is struck by his noble posture, for the dead soldier was a big man. Even by modern standards he would be taller than average, by the standards of 1914-18 he was big indeed. The Englishman goes to the body. He has seen many such dead, too many, but he is touched by the sight of this particular dead Irishman. He takes his knife and cuts open the breast pockets of the fallen soldier. From the bloody and muddy mess he takes a letter sent to the fallen man from Ireland, from his wife in Queenstown, County Cork. He buries the fallen soldier and takes from the ruins of a nearby church a piece of rubble from the destroyed structure. There are ancient crosses cut into the stones, five such crosses, and he marks the grave of the fallen Irishman with the broken stone of the church.

Later the same ground, cleared by the labour battalions, would again become a blood soaked battlefield, pounded by artillery and fought over by opposing armies. The stone marked temporary grave of the Irishman would be lost. Forever lost and he, thereafter, would only be remembered by a name cut into the Somme memorial at Thiepval in Flanders.

Later still the Englishman, alone in his own trench, by candlelight, would write a powerful and moving letter to the grieving wife of the Irishman. He poured his heart into the letter, using all the paper he had. Ten pages would he write, in pencil, telling her how he found her dear husband and what he had done with his fallen body.

The dead Irishman was Christopher Cole, Private Cole of the 7th Leinster Regiment. He came from what was then Queenstown in County Cork. Before the war he had been the manager of the Commodore Hotel in Queenstown. He had seen the innocent civilian bodies being brought ashore in Queenstown and into the hotel in May 1915, after the sinking of the Lusitania. Perhaps it is that experience that caused him to join the Leinsters to fight in Flanders.

He was such a handsome man and his dear wife had, with considerable talent, drawn his pencil portrait from which, even after all this time, you can still sense his great size and presence.

The Englishman Wiles wrote of him that, "....I came across this fellow in a shell hole (a very large one) & passed him as I passed others that lay about & something struck me to go back and see him, as he lay there as if resting from a long walk. His statue marked me very much indeed he looked so smart & a lovely build,,," " I hope dear madam you will forgive me of taking liberties with your dear husband's body. But you can rest assured (I will give you my word of honour) that he is buried & I buried him the best I could. Not so well as some but better than thousands."

It is by any measure a touching act of an ordinary English soldier for a fallen Irishman, and it must have brought enormous comfort to the grieving widow. Indeed, until she received the letter, Mrs. Coleman from Cobh had no idea what had become of her husband. She had been advised he was missing after the September battles and desperate for news of her dear husband, had travelled to Dover in the hope that he would be amongst the wounded returning from the Somme into the network of military hospitals across the South of England. It was of no avail. She advertised for news of him in the Daily Herald again without response. The letter of course confirmed her very worst fears but it must also have been a source of great relief and it is clear that she was so appreciative of the kind words of Private Wiles that she replied to him asking if he was in need of anything that she could send him to ease the discomfort of life in the trenches.

After the war, or perhaps before it ended, the Coleman's left the Commodore Hotel and left Ireland altogether, emigrating to Canada, no doubt from a ship leaving from the quayside opposite their Cobh home. The ten page pencil written letter is now held by the surviving Coleman family, in Canada. No one has ever traced George Wiles.'

This indeed was a remarkable tale and was given to us a number of years ago along with a copy of the pencil  portrait of Christopher Cole. On the day that's in it today, it is fitting to retell it here once more!

Old World charm and elegance....

The Commodore Hotel exudes Old World charm and elegance. Having being built in the mid-nineteenth century it has a certain ambience that is a throwback to a bygone age. This was captured well by, a guest who stayed with us, posting a, warts and all, review on Google. We've reprinted it here, as we think he has described the hotel to a tee. Have a read.....

“Walking through the corridors of this once majestic hotel conjured visions of Victorian ladies taking afternoon tea and sea Captains with bushy sideburns sipping black rum as they prepared to set sail to exotic destinations within the mighty British Empire. Bell boys would be running up and down the regal staircase with the valises of weary travellers. I could envisage waitresses dressed in the black and white frilly uniform of the day, curtsying to the landed gentry as they gargled Mr Hennesseys finest and barked at their servants to check the horse and carriage outside the main entrance overlooling the harbour view. Filthy rich Americans would be reminiscing about how their ancestors left this battered island without a penny to their magnificent Irish names.

What wonderful times. Well maybe! I'm not sure they were so great for the bell boys servants and waitresses - but staying at this hotel does make you think of what was. Many years have passed through Cobh since then and have been swept out to sea. These years have also taken a little of the splendour of this hotel with them. The expression faded glory comes to mind but that would be a disservice to the diligent and helpful staff working here - friendly and welcoming. But you know - a little splendour still remains and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay here. The room was excellent clean and very comfy - I adored the bowed floor - but you know just think of how many people walked over that floor and indeed who - European royalty maybe - I'm not fussy.

I took a walk onto the roof garden and was taken with the enormous chimney stack with at least seventeen pots. Think of all those buckets of coal being carried to those rooms! Great views as well - particularly on a clear blue sky day.

The Commodore is pretty much a museum piece - but in a good way. A lot of the cornicing and original plaster work is still intact - the telephone booth doors date from beyond the Victorian era but are in working order. These are all great conversation pieces whilst relaxing in the well stocked bar with expensive blends of whiskey - which apparently only filthy rich Americans buy - crikey they're still here!! The breakfast was delicious - with a great choice. Unfortunately the coach party that was staying there all decided to come down for breakfast at the same time. It was all hands on deck including the duty manager who began to have tiny beads of sweat trickle down his neck whilst clearing tables as another group of elderly folk made their way through the throng.

Off street parking is cool and free ( a returnable deposit is required ) further down the street - remember this hotel was not built with the car in mind. On street parking has to be paid for during the day - but the first hour is free. There is also a disabled space outside the entrance of the hotel.

Try this hotel as I get the feeling that it may not be here in a few years. It is beginning to creak and crumble but thats part of its charm. I can see some young whipper snapper developer claiming that it will cost a fortune to restore and will have to be replaced with one of those dreadful boring so called trendy structures that are on display nowadays in every town in Ireland. May I suggest that you grab a piece of this old world charm and well worn elegance while you still can.”

A great review and description....the only clarification, though, is that we intend to be here for a long time yet, not just a few more years. Some whipper snapper just won't get the chance! The history, the people, the ambience...its just too sacred!!!