Cork Harbour's association with infamous ships like Titanic and
Lusitania ensure its place in world maritime history. While such
tragedies are heavily documented, the story of the modern evolution of
the second-largest natural harbour in the world and its trade has
received less attention. The Royal Navy's long and extensive association
with Cork makes it unique among Irish harbours, an association born of
the necessity to protect trade in a growing world of ever-expanding
ships and increasingly global enterprise. The trade of the world's most
powerful empire instigated the development of Cork harbour as a military
hub, and the intensity of that development ebbed and flowed for
centuries. The commercial development of the harbour proceeded in tandem
with its military evolution, and each was driven and facilitated by the
other. Cork's overall development was greatly impacted by the political
and military consequences of Britain's increasing prominence on the
global stage. The expansion of the British empire, and Britain's
periodically turbulent interaction with Ireland, also left their mark on
the harbour we know today. Beautifully illustrated with new and archival
images, Cork Harbour examines all these interacting themes to outline
not only the events that shaped the harbour's rich history, but the
complex context in which those events occurred.
