Belvelly Castle

Belvelly Castle

Great Island Road bridge, County Cork

Belvelly Bridge is a triple-arch hump-back road bridge over the Belvelly Channel. Built 1803

Belvelly Castle next to the Great Island Road bridge, the only road bridge connecting Fota Island to Great Island (on which the town of Cobh is situated).

Fota House and Gardens

Fota House, Fota, Cork

Banana plants in the borders at Fota

Fota House & Gardens

The Frameyard at Fota. See the tajinaste, native of Tenerife.

Gardners' accommodation at Fota

The Orangery at Fota

Kitchen at Fota House

My great-grandmother's address at the time of her marriage was given simply as, "Fota" and there will have been nothing on the island, other than this estate. Could she have been a servant there? My gran used to talk about her and her mother baking cakes "for the big house". Could this be where she meant? It's also possible that my 2x great-grandfather worked for the estate as a gardener. 

Cobh

Casement Square, Cobh

Pearse Square, Cobh

Commodore Hotel, Cobh

It wasn't photo taking weather by any means while we were in Cobh.

Workhouse, Cork

Entrance block to what was the Workhouse in Cork

Madden’s Buildings in Blackpool, Cork

Madden's Buildings, Co. Cork

We were given to understand that a couple of my great-aunts may have ended up in the workhouse in Cork, but after a whole day squinting at microfiche records at the Cork Records Office in Blackpool, Cork, we drew a blank. As the reason they were supposedly sent there was because they'd, allegedly, committed the deadly sin of begetting children outside of marriage, I'm now fearing worse that they ended up somewhere like Magdalene Laundries. Currently they're dead ends. 

My great-uncle died, from TB, in the Workhouse Infirmary in Cork in 1926.

My 2nd great-grandmother may have died in a similar house to those shown. We saw one of these listed for sale. It was described by the estate agent as having a "two piece bathroom": i.e. a toilet and basin (out back) with no bath, nor shower. No doubt even that was a huge improvement from when they were new! 

Christ Church, Rushbrooke

Christ Church Rushbrooke Cobh

Interior of the Sanctuary at Christ Church Rushbrooke Cobh

The Jones Family Church Lodge Rushbrooke at Rest, at the Old Church Cemetery (Cobh). 

Cobh (Queenstown as it was), Cork, where my great-grandfather, David Jones, had been Sexton of Christ Church, Rushbrooke: where he married the second time to my great-grandmother and where all eleven of his children were baptised.