Adventures in Ireland: The Final Chapter-Cobh!
The setting for Book 3 and what I got wrong about it in Book 2...
Visiting my characters’ hometown: Cobh!
As soon as we finished being tattooed, we hopped in the car and made the three hour trek south to County Cork.
I was all jittery because we’d be spending an entire day in the small harbor town of Cobh—hometown to Ollie Dunne and his brother, Jack.
If you’ve read Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships, you’ve already met Ollie —the hot-headed Irish chef who quits the Serendipty at the start of the book and has a contentious relationship with Jo’s BFF and chief stewardess, Nina.
My second book, Luck and Last Resorts, is Nina and Ollie’s story, so I had to learn a lot about Ollie while writing it.
One of the things I learned, and what most people don’t know (seeing as Luck and Last Resorts isn’t out until August), is that Ollie has a younger brother who never left Ireland. That brother is Jack Dunne, one of the protagonists of Potential Book 3.
I never planned to write a book about Jack. And I certainly never planned to make him a POV character. But by the time I finished writing the one scene Jack was in for Luck and Last Resorts, he’d absolutely stolen my heart and there was no turning back.
Cobh is only featured in one chapter of Luck and last Resorts, so I was able to make do with Google Earth (what did authors do before Google???).
But Potential Book 3 takes place ENTIRELY in Ireland…a place I had never been.
Why did I choose Cobh as Ollie and Jack’s hometown?
To be completely honest, I just searched “coolest small towns in Ireland” on YouTube and Cobh was one of them. I loved that it was the last port of call for the Titanic before it sank, and really thought it could be an interesting motif to play with in Luck and Last Resorts.
I’ve been working on Potential Book 3 for months, and it’s been a real challenge to feel grounded writing a book that takes place in a town I have never been. And now that I’ve been to Cobh, I can safely say that it was EXACTLY what I needed. I’m feeling a lot more confidence in writing about pubs and Ireland and Cobh in general. And the people of Cobh are absolutely LOVELY!
Cobh was absolutely the highlight of the entire trip. Even Marco agreed. It was so strange to arrive at a place I had spent hours researching and writing about. It felt so familiar, and yet there were so many little details I could never have known if I hadn’t seen them in person.
Here’s a useful little map of Cobh.
The most prominent and striking feature of Cobh is St. Colman’s cathedral. It towers above everything else, and you can see it from almost anywhere in Cobh. Pictures truly can’t do it justice.
Cobh has two free parking lots, so we parked in the lot right behind the cathedral and set off on our walk around Cobh. We arrived at 9:30am and didn’t leave until around 6pm. And in total, we walked over 8 miles! It was freezing and windy, but so beautiful.
Our first stop was to walk downhill (Cobh is basically a giant hill and a harbor) to the Waterfront Promenade, which is the main setting for the chapter that takes place in Cobh in Luck and Last Resorts.
It was so surreal to walk down the streets that I had written about. Everything was even more beautiful than I could’ve guessed.
On our way to the waterfront we walked down West View and saw The Deck of Cards, which is simply a row of colorful houses all squashed together on a hill. They’re called The Deck of Cards because they’re said to be like a house of cards—if the bottom one came tumbling down, so would all the rest.
We grabbed this photo from the little park that is across the street from the houses. But a local told us that if you go around the park to where there is a wall and hold your phone above the wall, you’ll get the best shot of it with Colman’s Cathedral.
After snagging a shot of Cobh’s most Instagrammable spot, we continued our way downhill, passing beneath the arches of the library and tourism office (I had no idea about the arches and would’ve screwed that up in Book 3), which opened up into Casement Square. We popped into a coffee shop in the square and then headed over to the Waterfront Promenade, more specifically John F. Kennedy park. (They really love JFK in Ireland. We saw photos of him everywhere! Even in pubs.)
Casement square and the library.
JFK park was so much bigger than I thought it would be! I found THE BENCH (for those of you who have read an early copy of Luck and Last Resorts, you know what I’m talking about. For the rest of you, you’ll just have to find out what I mean in August.) THE BENCH is the saddest bench in all of Cobh, in my opinion.
Something I didn’t note in Book 2 that I totally should have? There are a TON of windmills that you can see on the islands in the harbor from THE BENCH. Nina totally would’ve said something about it if I’d known…oh well.
Another feature of the park I didn’t mention in book two is Heartbreak Pier—the pier the passengers who boarded the Titanic used when they left Cobh for the Titanic. I didn’t know it would be visible from THE BENCH, but it would’ve been the perfect little note to add if I had known.
After exploring JFK Park, we headed next door to The Titanic Experience. I almost didn’t grab tickets for it because I thought it might be too touristy for my purposes, but I am SO glad I did.
If you are ever in Cobh you absolutely must check out The Titanic Experience. I learned so much and it was really interactive and enjoyable. When you arrive, you get a “boarding pass” for an actual person who boarded the Titanic at Cobh. At the end of it, you find out if your passenger survived or not. (I survived, Marco didn’t!)
I enjoyed it so much, that I think I’m going to have Jack take Raine there in Book 3.
Afterwards, we wandered around Cobh. I think we covered almost every square inch. It was Tuesday, and most places were closed, but it was actually great because there weren’t many tourists (the cruise ships don’t start coming in until around April—good fact to know!) and we had plenty of time to chat with locals and get a sense of daily life there.
I stopped into the Tourism Office and the two women I met there were SO helpful to me when I told them I was writing a book that took place in Cobh. Really, everyone I spoke to about why I was there was super friendly and open to talking with me.
My absolute favorite stop we made in Cobh was Kelly’s Bar! This is a pub right across the street from the waterfront. As soon as we were greeted by Steve, our charismatic young bartender, Marco and I looked at each other and said “It’s Jack!”
Steve was incredibly friendly and answered all my questions. He gave me some great insight about working at a pub and living in Cobh. Something We stopped in there around 2pm and he told us to come back at 5pm because that’s when the regulars stop by (interestingly enough, Cobh is much more lively after 5pm during the off season, because that’s when the locals return from work and hit the pubs/shops!).
We did return at 5pm, and it was such a lively fun setting filled with locals.
Steve says that when the book becomes a movie, he wants to be played by Vin Diesel.
After our second stop at Kelly’s, we headed back to Cork. I was sad to leave Cobh, but absolutely exhausted from the 8 miles we walked!
Our final day in Ireland was spent exploring Cork City and preparing for our return home. It was a lovely end to an incredible trip.
So, did I get what I needed from my visit to Cobh/Ireland?
Absolutely! It was truly the perfect day. I soaked in as many details as I could, and visiting the pubs and various attractions around Cobh, chatting with the locals, it was even more useful than I could’ve dreamed. I’ve already started adding in details from my research to Book 3 and am feeling a lot more confident about tackling this book!
And that concludes my Adventures in Ireland!
Thank you so much for sticking around. It has been fun to hear from you all throughout my trip. Now that I’m home, I am really missing Ireland! I loved it even more than I expected and hope to head back some day.
I’m hoping to finish this initial draft of Book 3 by May 1st, so I can spend the summer revising it. I hope I’ll get to share this book with you all, and not in the too far future!
AH! I was literally thinking last night (after falling down a Titanic rabbit hole - yay ADHD) that I needed some SGR Ireland updates! Best way to kick off Monday!