The Cork Passport

Normally, of course, any regular traveller to Ireland would not need a separate passport to enter County Cork. But for one day, on the 16th October, visas will be handed out at the rebel county borders in exchange for a donation to various Cork charities.

Why, you ask? Because 16th October will become Cork Independence Day, coinciding with the birthday of Michael Collins, who was born near Clonakilty, Co. Cork on 16th October 1890 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Collins_(Irish_leader) and World Food Day.

In fact, the entire week of 14th - 20th October is Cork Rebel Week in Cork http://www.corkrebelweek2013.com/what-is-rebel-week, and forms part of a much larger celebration taking place throughout 2013 in Ireland called "The Gathering" http://www.thegatheringireland.com/.

The idea is to invite both those who have left Ireland and those who have never been to experience Irish culture, tradition, business, sport, etc and have fun throughout the Emerald Isle.

As part of the build up to Cork Rebel Week, the organisers have thought up all sorts of activities to promote the celebrations; the Cork Passport is just one of these activities. Here's what it says on the Cork Rebel Week webpage:

So, Pop the Cork decided to get involved.

Cork Rebel Week, or CRW for short, devised a point system for anyone who wants a Cork Passport. All you have to do is earn 1000 points by performing certain activities and you can claim your Cork passport. Here's how it works:

On 3rd April I quickly added up my points and discovered that I had 850 points.

• 500 for international travel documents terminating in Ireland
• 250 for pre-registering for my Cork Passport
• 100 for sharing a CRW status on my Facebook page or Twitter

Only 150 points shy of the required 1000. I had already been in Cork for 3 weeks and had posted loads of stuff about the city on various social media channels and I was sure that the guys at CRW would award me the missing 150 points.

I posted about it on the Pop the Cork Facebook page... no reply.
I posted about it on the CRW Facebook page... no reply.
I tweeted about it... no reply.

Damn! These guys are tough. They don't just hand out Cork Passports for free.

I needed a plan.

I went back to the points table for inspiration, and there it was: "Picture of yourself with one of the CRW ambassadors...". I looked up the ambassadors, and Pat O'Connell's name jumped out at me.

I have already spent a lot of time in the English Market, just because it's a great place to hang out and watch people (that sounds a bit weird), and I knew the place where Pat worked. Then it dawned on me that Pat was the guy in the famous photo of the Queen when she visited Cork last year (2012).

"Well", I thought, "If the Queen can get in a shot with Pat, I should be able to as well".

But I wasn't satisfied with just a simple photo of me and Pat. Oh no.

The guys at CRW had made me wait. They had lulled me into a false sense of security that I had some clout because they had retweeted and favourited my tweets a few times. They had lead me on!!!

Revenge would be sweet.

I decided that I should wear my "Rebel County" T-shirt in the photo with Pat thereby scoring even more points to take my total clear over the 1000 mark. But there was more...

A few days previous, I had heard of a special chocolate bar called a "Langer bar". "Langer" is a slang term specific to Cork, the definition of which I will not go into here. Nevertheless, this chocolate bar, named after such a purely Corkonian word, is only made and sold in one shop in Cork. It is the Corkonian Willy Wonka Golden Ticket of chocolate bars.

With this bar in hand, my rebel county shirt on my back and Pat O'Connell by my side, I would shatter the record for most-points-in-a-single-photo.

Alas, it was not to be. The Half Door Sweet Shop, the only shop in the universe to sell the "Langer bar", was closed every time I managed to make it there. Disappointed, but not broken, I soldiered on to the English Market.

Pat was busy at work when I arrived. I explained why I was there and asked if he wouldn't mind taking a photo with me. He graciously obliged, and we took a few shots. He was a great sport and laughed through the whole thing. I told him I was the Queen's cousin and that she said it was ok to take photos with other English people, too.

So, here it is. Perhaps not a record-breaker, but definitely a high-scoring Cork-Rebel-Week shot.

Those CRW guys must be wondering what hit them.