From On an Irish Jaunting-Car through Donegal and Connemara (1902)
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AFTER the Limerick fair was over I left for Cork, and arrived there just in time to see the race for the International Cup, presented by Lord O'Brien and won by the Leander crew, of London. There were a hundred thousand people on the banks of the river Lee to see the race, and, strange to say, Cork went wild over an English victory.
She sat and drove on a low back car
Next day I visited the Cork Exhibition. It had, like all minor exhibitions of the kind, pyramids of manufactured articles, including the making of various commodities by machinery on the spot. But there were a good concert band and a fine restaurant. I also dropped into the Supreme Court and heard the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland stop the court proceedings to read aloud a telegram from Emperor William, as well as his reply, in regard to the result of the boat-race. Imperial and Milesian "taffy" flowed freely in both. Truly, Ireland is the land of sport!
Later on I attended the Cork steeplechase. There were five events on the card; the jumps were difficult, and one horse was killed, while two or three others met with accidents.
I suppose as we are now on the last lap, it would hardly be fair to Cork and Queenstown to pass them over without noticing them historically, so, if the reader will pardon me, I will take up a little more of his time to sketch briefly the salient features of these two very interesting and ancient towns.
