Kinsale
I run out of superlatives when I describe Kinsale: quaint, charming, pretty, and full of history. My slide show gives an idea, in pictures, why this town sings to me.
Historic Kinsale Walking Tour
The Battle of Kinsale
It's September 1601, and 26 Spanish ships with large masts sail into the Bay of Kinsale. With 12 foot tides every 12 hours, the force of the tides can move a ship when there is no wind. The prevailing wind is from the southwest. With the wind at your back, your ship is well suited to avoid cannon shots because you are sitting low in the water. This is the prime back door for a surprise entry into England. The Spanish wait and hope to be joined by Irish Chieftains.
The sun is shining on the Spanish empire. Spain and Portugal have been united for about 60 years, the Inquisition is going strong, gold, silver, and spices from the silk road are continuing to pour in allowing for the imposition of taxes and tariffs. The pope has given these lands and trade routes to Spain and Portugal. England, ignores the grants. He who controls the spice routes, controls life and money from taxes. Spices are critical to preserve meat and it is widely believed that nutmeg is a cure for the plague. In fact, at this moment in history, nutmeg is more valuable than gold. (Venetian doctors use masks with large, long noses which they stuff with nutmeg and other spices to avoid the plague when they are treating patients).
England poses a powerful threat to Spain. She has no allegiance to the pope, she refuses to cede her power through marriage (it is said Elizabeth I learned to turn down marriage proposals in nine different languages). Elizabeth encourages privateers in pirating Spanish ships. Spain, however, being a Catholic super power, feels a moral obligation to support the Irish Catholics. Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell, two Irish Chieftains, are poised to become high king of Ireland. The stage is set . . .
The Spanish drop off 3,000 soldiers who are successful in entering the walled city of Kinsale. They expectantly wait for 7,000 Irishmen who are marching south from the north in a bitter cold wind. Elizabeth gets word of the battle and dispatches troops from Dublin. On Christmas Eve 1601, the battle begins. The English are camped 8 miles outside the city. A siege ensues for some ten weeks. The Irish are hoping to break the siege, but they never meet the English on the battlefield. Bitter guerrilla warfare ensues. At least 1,200 Irishmen are killed in battle and may more are injured and succumb to their injuries. The Irish and Spanish are defeated. O'Neill and O'Donnell lose their lands and flee the country. The English begin resettling Ireland with English and Scottish Protestants setting up hundreds of years of future conflict. The Spanish sail away home.
The sun is shining on the Spanish empire. Spain and Portugal have been united for about 60 years, the Inquisition is going strong, gold, silver, and spices from the silk road are continuing to pour in allowing for the imposition of taxes and tariffs. The pope has given these lands and trade routes to Spain and Portugal. England, ignores the grants. He who controls the spice routes, controls life and money from taxes. Spices are critical to preserve meat and it is widely believed that nutmeg is a cure for the plague. In fact, at this moment in history, nutmeg is more valuable than gold. (Venetian doctors use masks with large, long noses which they stuff with nutmeg and other spices to avoid the plague when they are treating patients).
England poses a powerful threat to Spain. She has no allegiance to the pope, she refuses to cede her power through marriage (it is said Elizabeth I learned to turn down marriage proposals in nine different languages). Elizabeth encourages privateers in pirating Spanish ships. Spain, however, being a Catholic super power, feels a moral obligation to support the Irish Catholics. Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell, two Irish Chieftains, are poised to become high king of Ireland. The stage is set . . .
The Spanish drop off 3,000 soldiers who are successful in entering the walled city of Kinsale. They expectantly wait for 7,000 Irishmen who are marching south from the north in a bitter cold wind. Elizabeth gets word of the battle and dispatches troops from Dublin. On Christmas Eve 1601, the battle begins. The English are camped 8 miles outside the city. A siege ensues for some ten weeks. The Irish are hoping to break the siege, but they never meet the English on the battlefield. Bitter guerrilla warfare ensues. At least 1,200 Irishmen are killed in battle and may more are injured and succumb to their injuries. The Irish and Spanish are defeated. O'Neill and O'Donnell lose their lands and flee the country. The English begin resettling Ireland with English and Scottish Protestants setting up hundreds of years of future conflict. The Spanish sail away home.
The Bay develops into a thriving ship provisioning port. This is one of the last stops on the one to six month voyage across the Atlantic. Provisioning coopers are critical. Alcohol is added to barrels of water to kill bacteria, dry bread and cheese are loaded on board and eggs are rolled in butter to preserve them. In order to find the trade winds, you would sail south until the butter melted, then you should run into the trade winds.
Kinsale provided the plot for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which is based loosely on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish privateer who stopped in Kinsale in 1703 and was marooned on an island off Chile for four years. It was a fortunate marooning because Selkirk's shipmates perished in a storm.
Kinsale provided the plot for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which is based loosely on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish privateer who stopped in Kinsale in 1703 and was marooned on an island off Chile for four years. It was a fortunate marooning because Selkirk's shipmates perished in a storm.
On May 1, 1915, the Lusitania is sunk just 20 miles off the coast of Kinsale during WWI. It was hit by a German torpedo and sunk in just 18 minutes. This helped turn American public opinion against remaining neutral during the war. The Germans claim the ship was carrying munitions justifying their torpedo hit. National Geographic will be running a program in July or August 2012 examining the various theories behind the sinking.
The Courthouse/Museum houses many artifacts. It was the site of the inquest into the sinking of the Lusitania. On the front of the building is the tax code - you could be taxed simply for exposing a chicken! The museum features a "Man Trap" - no my single girl friends, this was not a way to capture the man of your dreams - this was a way to capture poachers. Inside the museum (no photos allowed), I discovered the most beautiful handmade black velvet coat with intricate bead work that women traditionally wore during times of bad weather, or threw on over clothes when they didn't want to get all gussied up to go outside (like our modern day yoga or lounge pants - but this is beautiful!)
The Courthouse/Museum houses many artifacts. It was the site of the inquest into the sinking of the Lusitania. On the front of the building is the tax code - you could be taxed simply for exposing a chicken! The museum features a "Man Trap" - no my single girl friends, this was not a way to capture the man of your dreams - this was a way to capture poachers. Inside the museum (no photos allowed), I discovered the most beautiful handmade black velvet coat with intricate bead work that women traditionally wore during times of bad weather, or threw on over clothes when they didn't want to get all gussied up to go outside (like our modern day yoga or lounge pants - but this is beautiful!)
Charles Fort
Our local guide, Padraig, greets us at the mosaic map inside the star shaped twelve acre Charles Fort. Constructed between 1670 and 1680, the Fort is in use until the Irish win their independence and the British abandon the Fort in 1923.
The Fort is attacked once; by land, not by sea and was defeated once during the Williamite war of 1689-90 when Catholic Stuart King James II was seeking to regain the throne from William of Orange. He marched on the fort with French troops and showed the vulnerability of the star shaped fort under attack by land. Ultimately James II lost the war in July 1690 (Battle of the Boyne) and he deserted his Irish supporters causing them to refer to him as James da Turd. This loss set the Irish up for hundreds of years of human rights violations which ultimately led to The Troubles from 1960-2000's.
The soldiers assigned to the fort were not sitting around over a pint of Guinness, listening to Trad and having a Craic. Life was hard. Soldiers were not encouraged to marry and those who did marry did not receive extra rations. Wives and children toiled in the laundry. Once sons reached the age of eleven, they were forced to enter the service. If a husband was killed in battle, a wife had six weeks to find a replacement husband or be kicked to the streets with her children. Paidrig told of one wife who was burying her husband. A sergeant proposed to her at the funeral and she burst into tears; not because she was mourning her husband, but because she had just accepted the marriage proposal of a corporal.
During WWI, about 3000-5000 British and Irish soldiers were quartered here. The volunteers were encouraged to join the army with tales of travel, excitement and adventure, "Meet ancient and interesting people in distant lands and kill them." Between 27,000 and 47,000 Irishmen were killed in WWI. Soldiers returning from this war found a different Ireland. The war of independence broke out - the Black and Tans from WWI were sent in to fight; engaging in torture, murder of civilians and other atrocities. In 1921, the war ended and in 1922, the civil war started in southern Ireland. Ultimately, the fort was set on fire and burned for three days. The Irish remained neutral during WWII and the fort was abandoned until the late 1960's/early 1970's when hippies treated it as a commune.
The Fort is attacked once; by land, not by sea and was defeated once during the Williamite war of 1689-90 when Catholic Stuart King James II was seeking to regain the throne from William of Orange. He marched on the fort with French troops and showed the vulnerability of the star shaped fort under attack by land. Ultimately James II lost the war in July 1690 (Battle of the Boyne) and he deserted his Irish supporters causing them to refer to him as James da Turd. This loss set the Irish up for hundreds of years of human rights violations which ultimately led to The Troubles from 1960-2000's.
The soldiers assigned to the fort were not sitting around over a pint of Guinness, listening to Trad and having a Craic. Life was hard. Soldiers were not encouraged to marry and those who did marry did not receive extra rations. Wives and children toiled in the laundry. Once sons reached the age of eleven, they were forced to enter the service. If a husband was killed in battle, a wife had six weeks to find a replacement husband or be kicked to the streets with her children. Paidrig told of one wife who was burying her husband. A sergeant proposed to her at the funeral and she burst into tears; not because she was mourning her husband, but because she had just accepted the marriage proposal of a corporal.
During WWI, about 3000-5000 British and Irish soldiers were quartered here. The volunteers were encouraged to join the army with tales of travel, excitement and adventure, "Meet ancient and interesting people in distant lands and kill them." Between 27,000 and 47,000 Irishmen were killed in WWI. Soldiers returning from this war found a different Ireland. The war of independence broke out - the Black and Tans from WWI were sent in to fight; engaging in torture, murder of civilians and other atrocities. In 1921, the war ended and in 1922, the civil war started in southern Ireland. Ultimately, the fort was set on fire and burned for three days. The Irish remained neutral during WWII and the fort was abandoned until the late 1960's/early 1970's when hippies treated it as a commune.
Pub Crawl
We head out for another evening in a pub. Eli Lily manufactures Prozac here and Pfizer manufactures Viagra here. No wonder Kinsale is referred to as "Happy Valley" by the locals. We all loved the ditty sung in the pub by a local called "The Pfizer Riser"!