Despite the weather, the day was a great success. The Dawn Princess will return to Cobh on Sunday 24th July 2011 on another World Cruise. After a one year break, Cobh Tourism and the See You in Cobh committee are looking forward to planning the “Second Australia Day in Cobh”!

One Round the World Cruise passenger on the Dawn Princess, Sheree Clem posted on her blog:  http://clemsworldcruise.blogspot.com/

I wanna go home……back to the home of my ancestors, back to Ireland, how quaint was this special place called Cobh. I fell in love instantly, even though it was raining and cold (16c), however, we Aussies did take credit for the sunshine in the late afternoon. There is so much to tell you about Cobh that I intend preparing several blogs for this exceptional port of call. The Cobh Tourism bureau deserves the highest praise for their coordinated efforts. The whole township of Cobh, its people, made us Aussies returning to the shores of Ireland feel like we were most welcome visitors. Every shop front window had an Aussie display, from flags to surfboards to kangaroo and koalas, aboriginal art, boomerangs etc. Even the local real estate agent had 3 large photos in their window of the Opera House, Ayers Rock, and the Sydney Harbour bridge, each had the real estate spiel attached underneath and were for sale, how original is that! The Irish – they’re selling our Opera House! Could explain why many of us ended up in Van Deimans land in the first place.

As we sailed away thousands of ‘Cobhians’ lined the harbour streets to wave farewell, many waving Aussie flags, and we on board were waving just as wholeheartedly with our newly found Irish flags. We felt privileged to receive the traditional quayside send off by the Cobh Confraternity Band mixing repertoire such as Waltzing Matilda and Anchors Away was just brilliant. Well done Band Director…. We’ll done Cobh.