Alice By the 1840 Liverpool was the major immigration port and leading commercial port of Britain, it had the facilities to take the large (and therefore 'safe') ships, travel on railways to get there was cheep, and the transatlantic services were cheaper and more frequent. It wasn't until 1858, when there was an attempt to establish a transatlantic steamship service from Galway, that the Liverpool based lines were forced to call at Queenstown in order to head off the competition. Sailings from Queenstown started in 1859 but Liverpool remained the major port until about 1867. Michael > Can anyone explain to me the connection between Cork and Liverpool?