‘Future of this town has to be in tourism’

EDDIE ENGLISH, who runs a sailing school in Cobh, has no doubt about it: People in Cork city and county have a “chip on their shoulder” when it comes to his home town.

“The place isn’t ever given a chance. I know a friend who, way back when we left college, got a job in the bank and over the years was moving up the ranks. He was given the possibility at one point of being a branch manager in Cobh. Should have been a great promotion but straight away, he wasn’t looking forward to it. Because, you see, it was Cobh.”

Cobh, also known as the Great Island, is about 14km from Cork City. The only way to enter the town is via Belvelly bridge, which connects the island to the mainland. Beside the bridge is a 13th-century castle and one of the Martello towers that remain around the coast. Built during the Napoleonic Wars as an early warning system, bonfires lit on top of a tower were visible to the next, more inland tower and so a message could be spread that an invading fleet was on its way.