Cork

The lonely cliffs of western County Cork, in the Republic of Ireland, offer an undisturbed habitat for a variety of rare flowers. Temperatures here are mild, and there is a high average rainfall.

The small fishing port of Union Hall, County Cork, Ireland, looks out over its harbour. Nearby are secluded beaches that attract visitors with their panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean. It was in this village that Jonathan Swift wrote the poem ‘Carberiae Rupes’, in 1723.

A weather-worn fishing boat belies the tranquil waters seen in Kinsale, County Cork; these seas, off the southwestern coast of Ireland, can be rough and dangerous. The harbour at Kinsale was an English naval base until the 18th century.

Sandstone outcrops with an east-to-west alignment form the rugged cliffs, deep bays, and long inlets of County Cork on Ireland's southwest coast.

Southeast of Skibereen in County Cork, Castletownshend is one of the most southerly settlements in Ireland. This village was the birthplace of the Irish novelist Edith Somerville (1861–1949).

This castle in County Cork, Republic of Ireland, is owned by the Townshend family. It stands in wide grounds facing south and has its own quayside overlooking the waterfront. The main building dates from around 1650, with two towers added 100 years later.

Largest county of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Munster; county town Cork; area 7,460 sq km/2,880 sq mi; population (2002) 447,800. Cork is mainly agricultural, but there is some copper and manganese mining, marble quarrying, salmon farming, and river and sea fishing; industries include chemical, and computer hardware and software. There are natural gas and oil fields off the south coast at Kinsale. Angling is a popular sport, and tourism is concentrated in Kinsale, Bantry, Glengarriff, and Youghal; one of the most popular visitor attractions is the 17th-century Charles Fort, Kinsale. Cork is rich in Christian and pre-Christian antiquities.

The coastline off County Cork in the west is composed of a number of rocky and mountainous peninsulas and deep bays; Sheep's Head, Mizen Head, and the Beara Peninsula (which forms the boundary with County Kerry) are particularly noted for their dramatic scenery. Cork's largest coastal inlet is Bantry Bay, where there was an important oil terminal (no longer in use), and its towns include Blarney, Cobh, Fermoy, Mallow, Youghal, Macroom, Bandon, Skibbereen, and Clonakilty. The west is mountainous, and there are also two mountain ranges running across the centre of the county, separating its two main rivers, the Blackwater and the Lee.

Historical features There are round towers at Cloyne and Kinneigh, and Cork has over 40 ecclesiastical foundations and over 300 castles. Among the more ancient remains are forts, megalithic tombs, stone circles, and stones inscribed in ogham characters, the ancient Irish alphabet.

In 1602 an Irish lord and clan chief of South Munster, Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, was asked to recognize the crown as the legitimate granter of lands, rather than the clan chief system of tenure; he sent flattering messages to the English commander, Lord President Carew, appearing to agree; it became evident that he had no real intention of agreeing to the demands, and Carew became the laughing stock of the royal court in London. According to legend ‘Blarney’ thus came to refer to flattering talk intended to deceive; the Blarney Stone, set in the wall of the 15th-century Blarney Castle, 8 km/5 mi west of Cork city, is traditionally believed to give powers of persuasion to anyone who kisses it.

Edmund Spenser composed the first half of The Faerie Queen at Kilcolman Castle near Doneraile, during his service as secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland. The Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins (1890–1922) was born at Woodfield, 6 km/3.5 mi west of Clonakilty.

The ill-fated Titanic made its last port of call at Cobh in 1912; and the ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Kinsale in 1915.

Physical Geologically, the county is formed of limestone and brownstone, a type of sandstone. Its coast is irregular and deeply indented, especially in the west. There are many harbours (including Youghal, Kinsale, Courtmacsherry, Cork, and Glandore) and bays (including Clonakilty, Ballycotton, Rosscarbery, Roaring Water, and Dunmanus); the bays in the west are particularly rocky. Islands off the coast include Sherkin, Clear, Dursey, and Bear Islands, and there are many more in Cork Harbour, including Great, Little, Haulbowline, and Spike Islands.

The Rivers Blackwater and Lee rise near the Cork–Kerry border and constitute the natural drainage for most of the county. Close to the source of the River Lee near Inchigeela is Lough Allua, a large freshwater lake. As well as mountains in the west, there are the Slieve Mikish, the Caha, and the Shehy Mountains in the southwest on the Cork–Kerry border. One of the two mountain ranges that run across Cork separates the Rivers Bandon and Lee, the other the Rivers Lee and Blackwater. In the west of the first of these two ranges, in the Derrynasaggart and Boggeragh Mountains, is Caherbarnagh, (682 m/2,238 ft), the highest point in Cork. Fastnet Rock, off the southwest coast near Baltimore, is the most southerly point in Ireland.

The climate is mild, the prevailing winds from the southwest and west making the atmosphere warm and generally moist.

Agriculture Cork is a rich agricultural county, with several agricultural colleges. There is a great variety of soil types, such that different districts employ different agricultural systems, and grow different crops. The main crops are sugar beet, wheat, barley, potatoes, and oats. The meat and dairy industries are the principal ones in the county; cattle are raised extensively, and pigs, sheep, and poultry are also important.

cork

Light, waterproof outer layers of the bark covering the branches and roots of almost all trees and shrubs. The cork oak (Quercus suber), a native of southern Europe and North Africa, is cultivated in Spain and Portugal; the exceptionally thick outer layers of its bark provide the cork that is used commercially.

Cork

Third-largest city in Ireland; port and county town of County Cork, important industrial and trading centre on the River Lee, at the head of the long inlet of Cork harbour, 21 km/13 mi from the sea; population (2002) 123,100. The lower harbour, at Cobh, can berth liners. The city has breweries, distilleries, container ports, and iron foundries. Other industries include cars, chemicals, food processing, oil refining, pharmaceuticals, pottery, steel, and tanning; manufacturing includes rubber and metal products, and computer hardware and software. St Fin Barre founded a school and an abbey here in the 7th century. The area was subsequently settled by Danes, who were in turn dispossessed by the Normans in 1172.

Cork has retained a tradition of learning; University College, founded in 1845 as the Queen's University Cork, became the University of Cork, part of the national University of Ireland in 1909. There is a Protestant cathedral dedicated to St Fin Barre, the city's patron saint, and a Roman Catholic pro-cathedral of St Mary and St Fin Barre (built in 1808). There is also an art gallery, an art school with an international reputation, a museum, and an airport 6 km/4 mi from the city centre. The city hall opened in 1937.

Location and economy The nucleus of Cork is built on an island formed by two arms of the River Lee, known as the North and South channels; the rest of the city spreads in all directions. Large suburbs have developed, particularly since 1946. Many of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are sited at the Little Island industrial estate between Cobh and Cork (Ringaskiddy).

Cork's principal imports are animal feed, coal, fertilizers, fruit, maize, machinery and spare parts, oil, rock containing phosphate (used to make fertilizer), iron pyrites (used to manufacture sulphuric acid), rubber, salt, steel, timber, and wheat. The principal exports are bacon, butter, clay, confectionery, eggs, malt, meat, livestock, oil products, poultry, and computer hardware and software. A natural gas field off Kinsale serves Cork City; the gas is also piped north to Dublin.

Cork harbour The harbour at Cork is the most important on the south coast of Ireland; it is studded with islands, and its shores are wooded. The lower harbour is at Cobh; the upper harbour at Cork can provide berthage for certain vessels at all tides. Cork harbour is administered by a harbour board, comprised of members of the local authorities and commercial, employers', and labour organizations. Crane facilities are provided, and most quays have rail connections.

Architectural features The only monument of the Middle Ages still standing in Cork is the tower of the Red Abbey, an Augustinian foundation. The Cork skyline is dominated by the steeple of Shandon Church (built 1772). Most of the interesting buildings date from within the last 200 years. The customs house (1818), occupying a commanding position overlooking the river; the Courthouse (1835); the Cork Savings Bank (1842); the former Mansion House (now the Mercy Hospital), erected in 1767; and the County Hall (1965) are the most notable. Many of Cork's buildings are constructed in a local limestone, which is unusually pale in colour, and was also used for the stone quays.

Churches Cork has several interesting churches, many in the 19th-century Gothic style. The Church of Ireland St Fin Barre's Cathedral, a magnificent Neo-Gothic cruciform structure built between 1863 and 1878, is said to occupy the site of an ancient 6th-century church of St Fin Barre. The original buildings were demolished after the siege of 1690 and another church was erected which in turn was replaced by the existing cathedral, an imposing building in French Gothic style designed by William Burges. Its three high spires are a familiar Cork landmark and it contains some fine stone carvings. The peal of eight bells were cast by Rudhalls of Gloucester, England. The pro-cathedral of St Mary and St Fin Barre (1808) was built in a pointed Gothic style, also on the site of an older church. The 18th-century church of St Ann's, Shandon, has a remarkable tower with two sides finished in white limestone, and two in red sandstone; it is famous for its bells, which are immortalized in the song ‘The Bells of Shandon’. The church of St Peter and St Paul (1866) is regarded as one of A W N Pugin's best works.

Of the many other churches in Cork, the most notable include Holy Trinity, run by the Capuchin Fathers, and erected in 1832 to commemorate Fr Matthew, the Apostle of Temperance; St Finnbarr's South (1766), which contains the Dead Christ by Hogan, an eminent Cork sculptor; St Patrick's (1836); St Vincent's at Sunday's Well; Christ the King (1931) at Turner's Cross, a good example of functional architecture; the Augustinian church in Washington Street; the Franciscan church (1953) in Liberty Street, an outstanding 20th-century interpretation of the Byzantine style; and the Honan Chapel (1916) in the university grounds, which is modelled on Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, a 12th-century masterpiece in an Irish version of the Romanesque style.

History In the 9th century the Danes devastated the settlement that had grown up around St Fin Barre's foundation. After their arrival in 1172, the Normans built walls around the city. William III took the city after a siege in 1690. During the Anglo-Irish War 1919–21 the Black and Tans caused considerable damage to the city centre. Cork was also an important strategic centre during the Irish Civil War (1922–23).