Lusitania commemoration to take place in Cobh 

A commemoration of the 107th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania will take place in Cobh on Sunday.

Organised by Cobh Tourism, the ceremonies are fitting memorials to all those who lost their lives on that fateful wartime voyage.

Cobh has an enduring connection to the Lusitania and its tragic story because it is where survivors were brought and many of the dead were buried.

On May 7, 1915 Cunard Ocean liner ‘Lusitania’ was sunk by a German torpedo 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale.

The ship had been en route from New York to Liverpool with 1,962 people onboard.

Survivors were ferried to Queenstown, as Cobh was then known, and were accommodated in local hospitals, lodging houses and private homes.

Nearly three days after the sinking of the Lusitania, over 145 of her victims were buried in three mass graves and some smaller plots in the Old Church Cemetery, one mile north of Cobh town, 80 of whom were never identified.

The memorial ceremony commences at the Lusitania graves in the Old Church Cemetery at 2.30pm.

Following prayers, musical honours by the Commodore Male Voice Choir and the laying of wreaths, the proceedings move to Cobh Town Centre.

A colour party from the ONE and representatives of the Royal Naval Association and other maritime and historical groups will assemble at approximately 3.15pm at the Lusitania Peace Memorial in Casement Square.

Further ceremonies will take place here including a wreath-laying ceremony. Members of the public are encouraged to attend.

Visitors to Cobh on the anniversary weekend and the coming weeks will find it particularly poignant to follow the Lusitania Trail which includes The Lusitania Peace Memorial in Casement Square, Lusitania: A Day in May Exhibit in Cobh Museum and the Lusitania Exhibition at Cobh Heritage Centre.

This extensive exhibition includes images from the Poole Collection of glass plate photographs taken by AH Poole in the days following the sinking.