We were delighted to have local historian Barry O’ Mahony to visit the school recently. He came and entertained us all with wonderful Cork history. We were amazed to learn about the Kinsale Giant, Patrick Cotter. He was born in 1761 and when he was fully grown he was 2.5m tall! Come into the classroom to see more of the work we’ve done to follow up on this amazing biography.
Imagine a real giant walking into school!
Barry had a life-size drawing done to give us an idea of how tall Patrick Cotter would be if he walked into the class. Can you see the photo of a hand in the picture? That’s a real-life size photo of a model taken from a plaster cast of the giant’s hand. It was huge! Here’s a close-up of the hand:
It’s hard to believe this is the true size of someone’s hand!
Barry also told us the story of Anne Bonney, one of the real Pirates of the Caribbean. She was from Cork too! Here is the flag of Captain Jack Rackham, on whom Jack Sparrow was based. Jack Rackham’s nickname was “Calico Jack” and he and Anne had many pirate conquests in the waters around Jamaica. She was a tough woman by all accounts!
Captain Jack’s pirate flag.