Ireland, Day 7: Youghal, Mall, Wall, and all

On this fine day we headed back East up to Youghal. Youghal is the hamlet that Kati’s Great-Grandfather hailed from. Situated on Youghal Bay, in between the River Blackwater and the Atlantic, Youghal is an old town, first serving as a winter camp for Viking raiders. Over time, a permanent settlement was established by the Vikings and local Irish. Though it changed hands multiple times, as did most land in Ireland, it served as a prosperous seaport with ties to British and Dutch trading factions. Sir Water Raleigh was at one time a major land owner and mayor. Additionally, Cromwell (BOOO!!) spent his later winters on the island there (Youghal was a pro-Cromwell town, but we all can’t be winners).

Currently, Youghal serves as a weekend getaway for the local populous of Counties Cork and Waterford, an active fishing enterprise, and great place to own a boat. Many of the medieval charms of the city remain, in two city gates, a town hall which was known as The Mall, a large portion of the landside curtain wall, and the remnants of the two local Priories (now schools). One odd thing I found in the town is that the local Catholic Bishop and the townspeople actually (and willingly) erected a Catholic Church prior to the Catholic Emancipation (fairly early for the area). However, they did follow local law (at the time) that required such buildings o’awesome to be located off the main city streets. (It still ends up being on the same street as the college and the Church of Ireland, but whatever helped the Protestants sleep at night.) Another is that the cemetery of the Church of Ireland is built into the curtain wall, even though some of the graves date back far enough to when it was still a necessary function.

Youghal was, unfortunately, not all happy times. A group of Irish Brotherhood members were hung in Youghal, from the windows of the Clock Gate (one of the remaining, which served as a gaol or prison). Youghal also felt some of the famine’s blight, losing over half its population to the American Immigration in the mid-1800’s. But, things are looking up, as we only saw one pay toilet.

Personally, the beach was one of the best features to me…aside from the occasional smell of iron and fish…and various heavy metals. There was a substantial difference between low and high tide, so there were many rocks covered in clams, mollusks, barnacles, and other crustaceans. Located next to the lighthouse was a rock diving area, complete with diving board into 6 feet of water (at high tide) and possible doom. And, the customary middle school children smoking and taking hits of a bottle of cheap vodka…JUST LIKE AMERICA!!!!

Further down, the beach we walked on was the “official” beach…clearly the resort portion of town. Not much going on, as it was cloudy, raining, and generally rough water. But, you could see the old architecture from the ‘20s when people would take the train from Cork and get off right onto the beach. Happy days.

Our time in Youghal spent, we returned to Cork, again not damaging anything more than Kati’s sanity at my “driving like the locals.” We hit up dinner at a fine place called the “Four Liars Bistro,” named after clocks on a nearby church tower that all give a different time because some wooden numbers are thicker than others and hang up the hands, where we listened to some of the local rif-raf yell at a window across the street, only to see the occupant of said window walk up the street. Brilliant. We then took in “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” a fine movie based on the book. It started a bit slow, but overall was a pretty good flick. If not for the damn Tweens sitting behind us, I really would have liked the place.

We walked back to the hotel in the rain, checking out which Mass to hit up in the morning. The winner was St. Augustine’s, a church that is not so much a church as a building….but that is another tale.

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