There's been a recent history of hospitality at The Cove, by the Beacon road in West Cork’s Baltimore, exemplified by this home/B&B called the Slipway – but hospitality wasn’t always the flavour of the day.

WEST Cork tourist harbour village, Baltimore, last weekend hosted the Pirate Festival to commemorate the sacking of Baltimore in 1631 — and now there’s a chance to ‘plunder’ a lot of retail trade in the bustling summer resort.

A play of the famed and bloody invasion by pirates, of a West Cork village in the 1600s will add another twist to the conspiracy theories about The Sack of Baltimore.

The beautiful West Cork village has an air of France about it, discovers Conor Power.