I Am A Celebrity!

Sunday, June 7, 2026

2019 - Cobh, Cork and Blarney Castle

Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

COBH WAS established as a seaport for the British Royal Navy in the 1750's and was known as "The Cove of Cork." Renamed Queenstown in 1849 in honor of a visit by Queen Victoria, it remained so-named until 1920, when - during the Irish War of Independence - the town was reverted back to Cobh (a Gaelicisation of the English word: "cove"). It is a pretty little quintessential Irish village, with colorful gothic architecture which remains primarily a seaport.

Cruise Port - Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

ST. COLMAN'S Cathedral, the cathedral of the Diocese of Cloyne, sits at the top of the hill overlooking the village and the port, and the steeple, at 300 feet, is said to be one of the tallest buildings - and is the tallest church in Ireland. Built in the late 19th century the neo-Gothic building is imposing and beautiful. Its height makes it a challenge to photograph, but it beckons to the photographer and I sure tried.

St. Colman's Cathedral - Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

LOOKING AT most of my photos of Cobh, you can see that the cathedral plays a dominant part in almost all aspects of the town's landscape.

St. Colman's Cathedral - Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

ON APRIL 2, 1912, The Titanic, the world's largest and to date most extravagant Ocean Liner, left Belfast, Northern Ireland on her first passenger - carrying voyage. She would sail to Southampton, England, where the White Star Line terminal was. From Southampton, she would sail briefly across the English Channel to Cherbourg, France where she would pick up additional passengers and then in just a couple short hours, set sail again, for Queenstown, Ireland. Then on April 11, 1912, she again set sail, this time for her final destination: New York in the U.S. We all know she never made it. Because at one time, Cobh was a major shipbuilding location, and was and remains an important Irish port for transatlantic voyages (primarily cruise ships these days), the town played a major historical part in the Titanic story. Personally, after having visited both the Belfast and the Cobh "Titanic Experience," I prefer the Cobh version. It is much smaller, less "Disney," and in my view - a more moving experience.

The Titanic Experience Exhibit - Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE "DECK of Cards," is another semi-famous view in Cobh. A series of row houses make their way down the hill, with brightly colored paint adorning them. The "classic" view is the row houses with St. Colman's steeple in the close up background. Finding the location to make this shot was a bit of a challenge. I spent a couple hours walking all around it from up hill and down. I made a few other shots, but I ultimately found this one when a lady on a back street stopped to "chat" and I asked her what she knew. She told me about a park directly across the street. I had seen the park entrance, but is had never occured to me that the view would open up from street level in this park. It does!

"Deck of Cards" Row Houses - Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THIS VERY walkable little town is as photogenic a place as I can remember anywhere. It is little wonder that most of my memorable photographs were made in Cobh.

Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THIS PORT was an overnight stay for us, and on our second day, we found our way with private transportation to the famous Blarney Castle, and then back home by way of Cobh. There is a really cool little train from the Cobh village to Cork, which we took back to the ship. But for the morning, our destination was Blarney Castle, where we had entrances tickets at a set time.

Blarney Castle - County Cork, Ireland

THE BIG deal most people associate with Blarney Castle is the famed "Blarney Stone." The stone has a multi-storied history, depending on which story (if any) you might choose to believe. I won't rehash it all here, but it is probably worth asking your favorite "AI" chatbot these days. What I will say is that it has been widely said over the years that to "kiss the Blarney Stone" will bestow upon you the "gift of gab." The word "blarney," thought to be a term and meaning coined by Cormack McCarthy, lord of the surrounding lands and builder of Blarney Castle, connotes a kind of facetious flattery, often designed to mislead or stall. O.k. Two things:

to "kiss the Blarney Stone" will bestow upon you the "gift of gab."

FIRST, IF you ask anyone who knows me well, I am pretty well bestowed with the "gift of gab," though hopefully lacking the facetious part. 😇 So, as Bill Murray said in Caddyshack: "I have that going for me." Already. Don't need any help.

Waiting to "Kiss the Blarney Stone" - Blarney Castle - County Cork, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

SECOND, AND perhaps the truly decisive reason for me: I am not really high on putting my mouth on a stone built into a medieval castle that has also been kissed (and who knows what else) by millions of other humans. For that very same reason, I enthusiastically abstained from kissing the Basilica Cistern Medusa Heads in Istanbul when we visited back in 2013. 😓 The stone is part of the parapet wall and in order to kiss it, participants must lie on their back and lean way down off the main wall, while being held by the proprietors of the castle. Nope. But it really was astounding how many people stood in line for as long as an hour for the "privilege." As they say these days: "you do you."

Residence - Blarney Castle - County Cork, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

IN SPITE of the Blarney Stone hype, it really is a beautiful site and a majestic castle with some superb architecture both in the castle and some of the outbuildings.

an even more commercially corpulent retail and restaurant area immediately adjacent to the castle

THE GROUNDS were - likewise - beautiful, with flower gardens, woodland paths, and even an apiary. And, of course there is the obligatory commercial shops at the exit. And an even more commercially corpulent retail and restaurant area immediately adjacent to the castle that resembles something of an outlet mall. Want trinkets? Overpriced and underwhelming food. They have it there.

Linehan Confectionery - Cork, Ireland (the linked YouTube in the narrative below is pretty interesting)
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

WE TOOK a taxi to Cork, where our driver dropped us off at the reknowned Linehan Confectionery, and introduced us to the owner. Afterward, we walked around for an hour or so, before finding the train back to our cruise port in Cobh. Cork is what, based on my medium sized sampling, I would call a pretty typical city in the Republic of Ireland. Originally the site of a monastery, it was conquered and build by the Vikings near the end of the first century. The second largest city in the Republic, Cork is also the county seat for County Cork. Situated on the River Lee, you can actually take a "ferry" from Cork all the way back to Cobh (though it looks like a fairly long journey). I didn't really make very many memorable photos in Cork. As usual, though, color and shape drew my attention to this shot of the row houses lining the river.

Rowhouses on the River Lee - Cork, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

WE WOULD say good bye to Ireland for now. We would be back by cruise stop again. I have to say I absolutely love Ireland, its people, its culture and its beautiful landscape (both natural and man-made). We spent a full 10 days on the ground there in 2014, seeing - in addition to Dublin - Galway, Limerick, and a few much smaller towns. But probably my single most memorable place in the country is Cobh. I truly hope we have another chance to spend some time in this really great corner of Ireland. It is a true mix of village, seaport, and agricultural lands. My shot of the lighthouse as we sailed into the port in the early morning may best capture the spirit I felt there.

Cobh, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

Sunday, May 31, 2026

2019 - Liverpool and The Beatles!

Port of Liverpool - Liverpool, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL SURPRISED me. I blogged about it on my LightCentricPhotography Blog back in 2019, shortly after this visit. There is a brief history of the city there. We knew it was the where the Beatles started; all 4 of the "fab four" growing up there and finding their way together. So it made total sense that we plan our visit around that theme. We hired a "Fab Four Black Taxi" tour for most of the day, and we followed the youthful lives of John, Paul, Ringo and George.

"The Cases" sculpure - in front of the Liverpool School (of performing arts) for boys - John and Paul both attended at various times
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

IN THE 2019 blog post, you will find a link to the James Corden "Carpool Karaoke" episode where he picks up Paul McCartney at his boyhood home in Liverpool, and then covers essentially the same route that we followed with our very knowledgable tour guide: Eddie.

Downtown Liverpool, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

OTHER THAN the Beatles, I didn't think there was really much to see in Liverpool. I was wrong. England's 5th largest city, and an important commercial port during WWII, Liverpool was the primary entry point for U.S. Soldiers joining the "European Theatre." At one point in history it was England's largest financial center. There is a bustling commercial - industrial complex there today, as well as some splendid architectural examples - primarily Victorian and Georgian, with a smattering of Gothic, Neo-Classical and even some Art Deco buildings in areas. It has a lively bar scene, and we have sampled a few of them. In 2023, we made another port stop there, where we repeated our Beatles Tour (with some friends we now travel with frequently who are very much music fans - so we had to do it). Much had changed during the 4 years between.

Mural of Ringo on the side of the Empress - 2023
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

IT DOESN'T make a lot of sense to me to re-hash our Liverpool Beatles Experience here. When I migrated my primary LightCentricPhotography Blog here to Google Blogger, I was having some "admin" issues with my prior host (Wordpress.com). Primarily, I was running out of space for my images, and so I tried to set up a couple "archive" blog sites to move the older blogs to. But eventually, that got old, as I needed to set up a second archive site only very shortly after the first, so I moves it all over to Blogger which has not presented the limitations my prior host did (and where I had already established this blog. As the link above demonstrates, I am able to link back to the old ones (for now). I think the link above covers it pretty well and would suggest you follow that and read it. The second link to my 2023 blog recounting of our second visit: not so much. For reasons I cannot explain, the text is there, but no photos. I will make just a quick summary here, as it mainly showed changes from a couple of the long-established spots.

The Empress Pub - Adjacent to the Admiral Grove entrance - owned by the Starkey Family for many years
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

FOR MANY years, the pub on the corner of Admiral Grove, just a short walk from Ringo's "pink house" boyhood home, "The Empress," looked like the image above. Colorful, but a traditional English Pub. It was not open when we visited, but it certainly looked like a fun place. Like so much of the world, the 2019 Pandemic caused the Empress to close. Sometime in 2022, it was purchased and turned into a small hotel. The first floor remains a museum to the Starkey family and their connection to the Beatles. The exterior is - as you can see - wildly different looking today.

The Empress - Post Pandemic
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

THE OTHER major change since our 2019 visit was Strawberry Fields. It was not open for visitors in 2019, but in the ensuing years, a major visitor center with a cafeteria and souvenir store was added. There is now a modest admission and some nice exhibits to the Beatles. I give that some coverage when we get there - in 2013.

FROM LIVERPOOL, we sailed back again across the Irish Sea, to the southern coast of Ireland, and the picturesque and historical little seaport of Cobh.

Sunday, May 24, 2026

2019 - Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast

Antrim Coast - Northern Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

COUNTY ANTRIM in The Republic of Northern Ireland displays some of the best scenery the entire of Ireland has to offer. Bordered on its south by Belfast and the north by Portrush and Bushmills, it encompasses over half of the northeastern coast, showcasing some of the world's most dramatic seacoast cliffs. Known for the Cliffs of Moher on the western side of the Republic of Ireland, the Antrim Coast easily rivals those views.

Launching basin for the Titanic - Belfast, Ireland
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

OUR DRIVER and guide picked us up at the cruise port and after a very quick stop on our way out of the port at the site of the building and launching of the Titanic, we headed for the coast.

WE MADE a handful of stops along the way, including a quick peek at some of the movie set that was was used for filming the Game of Thrones. Our driver did some private driving for some famous folks, including some of the actors for the series, and for another famous Northern Irish gentleman (another surprise he saved for us for the end of our day). Because he drove in and out of the movie set regularly, he had a pass, and our stop on the way out included a few minutes to get out and walk around the flooding basin and pump house where the Titanic was launched. A rare life opportunity. Since that time, the "Titanic Experience" Exhibition has been opened and the only way to get where we were for most people is to ride a little spectator train as part of the Exhibit.

WELL UP into the northern part of County Antrim is another famous movie set used by the Game of Thrones series when filming their grand entrance to the castle: "The Dark Hedges." It is pretty easy to see how it fits the medieval theme.

IT's NOT all movies and make-believe, however. One of the area's most popular tourist sites is the 13th century Dunluce Castle. Built out on a high promontory above the Irish Sea, overlooking the narrow strait between Ireland and Scotland, its only access is by bridge from the mainland coast. Steep cliffs surround the castle on all sides. All that remain today are the ruins of the castle, but they provide a pretty good idea of the historical structure, and amazing views of the Antrim coastline below.

WE STOPPED for a few minutes to walk around the grounds. If you are willing to pay the few $ for the admission, there are also bathroom facilities in the castle. Bathroom or not, I thought it worth it for the views (especially for photography).

FROM DUNLUCE Castle, we headed the short distance into the quaint and very picturesque village of Bushmills. You would be forgiven if you weren't aware that "Bushmills" was a village (rather than just the name of a famous bottle of Irish whiskey). The whiskey fanciers among us are generally aware of Bushmills Irish Whiskey. I didn't make the connection, however, that it was the distillery located in the village of Bushmills, and therefore Bushmills Distillery. The pretty little village is located right on the Bush River, which presumably provides the clear water used in making the whiskey. Part of our excursion included a tasting here, so we stopped. Bushmills holds the distinction as the oldest working whiskey distillery in the world. Though I have partaken every time I have visited Ireland, I have never been a huge fan of Irish Whiskey. I have, however, developed a taste for one Bushmills variety (I learned about it at the tasting) that is aged in old bourbon whiskey casks (Black Bush). The most fun experience was when I began to take a selfie of me in front of the bar in the vicinity of a 100 year old Bushmills bottle that had been recently discovered in excavations at the distillery. The bartender invited me behind the bar and allowed me to stand directly next to the bottle (holding it, however, was out of the question 😅).

FROM THE distillery, we headed toward the next attraction. An attraction, I must confess, I was underwhelmed by: The Giant's Causeway. The legend is certainly interesting, if a tall tale. The geology is much more fascinating. Some time in the Paleocene era (50 plus million years ago), volcanic erruptions drove basalt up from below the surface of the water, and astoundingly, created octogon shaped columns, side by side, well out into the ocean. The formation is at the edge of the narrowest part of the Irish Sea between Ireland and Scotland. Legend has it that there were 2 giants. Once was Irish and the other Scottish. The Scottish giant purportedly challenged the Irish giant to a fight and the Irish giant built the causeway so the two could meet. The rest of the story differs depending on who tells it.

MY UNDERWHELMED reaction is more perhaps to the way it is presented. Today the causeway and surroundings are owned by the UK National Trust, and the area is a UNESCO world heritage. But it has been set up as the quintessential tourist attraction, with a substantial admission (for what you get), gift shop and large entrance, and shuttles. It was the only place we visited that day that was essentially overrun with people. It was the least exciting stop we made in my opinion. Looking back, I didn't even make any memorable shots there.

ON OUR way back down the coast we stopped at one other spot that I thought was pretty cool: The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Our stop wasn't actually at the bridge, nor did we walk it. Our guide assured us that it was a rather long walk downhill to the mainland side of the bridge, and there was an admission as well as a generally long line to cross it. He took us to a viewpoint high above the bridge where we could see it (and photograph it). Then he popped open the rear of his SUV and handed us each a cold Guiness! I liked my shots from above.

WE HEADED back to Belfast, where we would make two more stops. One was part of the itinerary. The other was unplanned and was a kind of surprise from our guide that I foreshadowed at the beginning of this blog. We did not have time to do a tour of Belfast, or cover any of the areas made famous by the thirty years between 1968 and 1998 known as "the troubles." But we did make one stop - at the Peace Wall, where we took a few minutes to stop and sign it. Our guide had grown up during this period and had experienced it very closely first hand and he told us quite a few sobering stories during our day spent with him. It was meaningful, and I knew then that I really wanted to spend more time and learn more (we would do so when we stopped in Belfast again in 2023).

THE SURPRISE. At some time during the day, our guide asked if any of us were golfers. My brother in law and I were, and he mentioned that one of his driving assignments from time to time was driving local celebrity, Rory McIlroy when he was in town. It turns out, though, that he was something more than just a "driver." In fact, he knows Rory pretty well. And, he knows the club pro well also. He had us wait outside for a few minutes. I was assuming we would get to see the clubhouse. Maybe even have a drink in the bar. Instead, out comes the club pro and greets us. And then asks if we would like to see Rory's private trophy room? Seriously? 😀Um. Yeah! The photo below tells "the rest of the story." What a great way to finish a pretty amazing day! We headed back to the port. Tomorrow we would sail across to Liverpool. And another amazing day. The Beatles!