If Ireland were ever invaded, Cork would likely be the last
place to fall. Instead of Battle: Los
Angeles, it would be Battle: Youghal
and you can be sure that local resistance would be tough. Cork is the original
rebel county, holding out against the shampoo-loving Vikings when everywhere
else in the country fell.
On the flipside, if ever a county were to secede from the
Republic and declare independence, it would also most likely be Cork –
feasibility studies on how it would sustain itself financially are rumoured to
have already been carried out. But that’s Cork for you and that’s why we love
them. Or part love, part hate, anyway. And the feeling is mutual.
The thing about Cork is that they often consider themselves
quite different from everywhere else. As one of their patron saints, Roy Keane,
once said, ‘Corkman first, Irishman
second’. And to be fair, you can sometimes understand why. I mean, Cork city
is about as far away from Dublin as you can get. And the wild, rugged and
really quite wonderful west Cork is nearly as far away from Cork city as you
can get. So that’s pretty far away! And while it might not be the most populous
county in Ireland, it sure is the biggest, so no wonder its people sometimes
view the place as less a county and more a sovereign region in its own right,
the People’s Republic of Cork. But we let them go on this; after all, this is
the first place in Ireland the potato was planted. That has to be worth
something.
No comments:
Post a Comment