Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)
The Queen Elizabeth 2 flagship of the Cunard Line left Cork Harbour last Thursday evening just after 6pm. She is pictured here turning in Cork Harbour just seconds before she increased speed and left the harbour for good.

THE world’s most famous cruise liner departed Irish waters for the last time amid a poignant farewell waved by 3,000 specially embroidered white hankies. The commemorative hankies were distributed yesterday afternoon by Cobh Tourism, so the huge crowds gathered on the Cork Harbour town’s quays could offer a traditional farewell to the 40-year-old Queen Elizabeth 2. The liner will return to her home port of Southampton, before she sails to Dubai next month for her conversion into a floating hotel.
The QE2 was not named after Queen Elizabeth II, who launched her in 1967, but after the previous Queen Elizabeth, which in turn was named for the Queen Mother. Thus, as Roman numerals are always used for monarchs, the Arabic numeral “2″ is used in the ship’s name to distinguish her from the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Further, when Queen Elizabeth II launched the ship in 1967 she referred to it as “Queen Elizabeth the Second” however, the ship is normally called Queen Elizabeth Two, not The Second, for the same reason.
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