Wordless Wednesday, almost: Then and Now: Cobh, County Cork

Looking at photographs from the past can give us a sense of how things have changed over time. So too, sometimes it allows us to see an old adage in action, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. Thanks to copyright free images of old on the National Library of Ireland Flickr page, together with photographs I have taken, we can have a glimpse of past and present together. In today's post, we are in the village of Cobh (pronounced Cove), once known as Queenstown, in County Cork.  Although these images were not taken from exactly the same angle, we can still see the way in which the Cathedral of St. Colman evolved, with the addition of the spectacular spire. Although construction of the cathedral began in 1868, it took a full 47 years and three different architects, E.W. Pugin, G.C. Ashlin and T.A. Coleman, to complete the work. The spire was the last major piece of construction, and it was not completed until March of 1915. Notice too that some of the same buildings in the village still stand.

Photograph dates to the 1890s. (Click on the image to link back to the NLI photo stream.)

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