‘letters of a deceased person’ (religious visions after a meal in cork)

the day before yesterday horsemouth mainly sat about and read - sometimes there was sun (in which case he was out on the patio toasting himself). he did some shopping but he’s rapidly come to the conclusion he doesn’t have time to eat it all before he goes (see you only have to show horsemouth a bargain and he’s off - aldilidllidl aldilidllidl).

as others saw us: cork through european eyes is a book on what visitors thought of cork that leaves out british writers (and the normans - excepting bernard de clairvaux, and the vikings). in this it prefigures the post-brexit city, forget about fishguard, forward to bilbao and santander. it’s side-by-side original text and translation (so there’s half the book horsemouth can’t read and comment on).

brother marcus, an irish monk, writes, in 1149 in latin and in ratisbon bavaria, of the impious knight tnugdal who dies for 3 days and then comes back with stories of hell and a noticeably improved attitude, noted german travel author (and gardener) hermann von puckler-muskau’s letters of a deceased person is an account of his journeys through ireland in 1828. bernard de clairvaux our earliest visitor (1090-1153 ad) writes of the miracles of st. malachy.

broadly the visitors are a snobby bunch (complaining of the beggars and the lack of anything to see) - the french (including de toqueville) blame the british and imperialism (when not applauding the prisons), the germans, dutch, czechs and scandanavians (mostly) blame the irish and the want of protestantism. sometimes the grand houses and thoroughfares and shops are to their taste (sometimes not). all praise the situation of the town (in the arms of the lee river, in the valley) and the natural advantages of the harbour and the bay.

victorian cork is a giant slaughterhouse and buttery sending first salted and later tinned beef (and cannon-fodder) to the british army all over the world (now there’s some lucrative contracts me boys). the food all goes for export, the merchants of cork get rich, the poor in the countryside starve and save for emigration or sign up. like dublin there’s a huguenot community.

in the 20ies there’s the agitation for home rule and the border war - the black and tans murder one mayor of cork, burn down half the centre of town as a reprisal for a bomb thrown at one of their armoured cars, a second mayor (terence macswiney) dies on hunger strike in brixton jail. he becomes a hero to galician nationalists. it was events by these that probably helped strengthen henri beraud’s hatred of the english - in the second world war he wrote for vichy newspapers and after it was sentenced to death by de gaulle (later commuted to life imprisonment).

eventually there are trade shows and factories on the road to cobh.