Way back when, Mike went to school in Baltimore, Maryland. And after spending 4 years living in the US Baltimore, visiting the original Baltimore – located not far from the SE tip of Ireland – would satisfy a curiosity. What about the location of the US city caused the founders to decide that they should name it after the Irish Baltimore?
As far as we can tell, the answer is “not much”. The US Baltimore is a very, very well-protected deep water port, well inland from the Atlantic, and suitable for huge ships. The Irish Baltimore is a moderately good harbor, but very shallow and too close to the open ocean to provide all-weather protection against the strongest storms. The Irish Baltimore sports rolling hills and an archipelago of outlying islands, while the US Baltimore is really a river inlet on the side of Chesapeake Bay.
And over time, the dissimilarities between the two places have grown. Today, the Baltimore metro area in the US is home to almost 3 million people – it’s the 20th largest metro area in the country. The population of Baltimore, Ireland, on the other hand swells from a winter count of ~400 souls to a couple of thousand of people in the summer.
After visiting and being surprised by the lack of similarities, we educated ourselves a bit. As it turns out, Baltimore in the US was not named after the Irish town and bay at all. Instead, it takes its name from the first proprietor of the English colony of Maryland, Lord Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore.
Whatever the name, Baltimore, Ireland, is a welcome stop on the south Irish coast for traveling sailors.
