I WAS BORN in Dublin but I came to Cork as a young man to work with the Simon Community and then joined the Navy and served for 23 years, in the meantime marrying a local girl. I stayed ever since.
When I retired from the Navy I set up Titanic Trail walking tours. I left school at 15 and had always hankered after college so I went as a mature student and got a first class degree in history. I’m currently finishing my PhD, and the walking tours fit in well around my academic research.
I get up at 7.30am and do two or three hours on my PhD before checking mails and bookings. I do an 11am tour that you don’t have to book and a 2pm one you have to book.
Some mornings I’ll have to change the routine if a cruise ship is in. We get 50 a year here and half of them organise a two-and-a-half hour tour of the town with me, which is great fun.
I've no trouble talking about Cobh for two-and-a-half hours. I could go on for two-and-a-half weeks, there's so much history here. We have everything from early monasticism to Vikings and Normans, Cromwell, the Famine and beyond. Even locals are amazed just what a rich history we have. The ships that picked up Alexander Selkirk, for example, the basis for Robinson Crusoe, came via Cobh. Some 25 per cent of all convicts from the UK and Ireland that were shipped to Australia came through here.
This year I launched guided walking tours of Spike Island, a huge source of joy to me. I campaigned for years for the opening up of the island as a tourist amenity. It was only a prison from 1985 to 2004 and should never have been turned into one. When I look at it I see the monastery it originally was, plus the star-shaped fort it became. It was also a convict depot during the Famine, when convictions quadrupled between 1845 and 1847 as people stole food to survive.
It is wonderful that everyone can now go over and learn about its history. It’s pretty rough at the moment so people have to stay with their guide but eventually people will be able to go over and picnic there and just enjoy it.
Most days in summer it will be 6.30pm before I’m off the island and I’ll hop in a taxi home. The taxi drivers always think it’s funny that I walk all day for a living but I won’t walk home.
- titanic-trail.com
- In conversation with Sandra O'Connell