At about 2 pm on Friday May 7th 1915, the Cunard Ocean liner, RMS Lusitania, was torpedoed by a German U-Boat as she approached Cork Harbour on a voyage from New York to Liverpool. She sank in just 18 minutes off the Old Head of Kinsale, with the loss of 1,198 lives. 764 people were saved and many of these were landed at Cobh, together with many of the dead. 289 bodies were recovered, 189 of whom rest in the graveyard just outside the town.
The monument is also dedicated to those who assisted the survivors and buried the dead.
In the nearby President John F Kennedy Memorial Park is this wall of tiles in memory of survivors and victims who came ashore on that fateful day.
At the Old Church Cemetery, are the mass graves – one containing 23 bodies, one holds 52 bodies and the third has 69 bodies. Clear perspex panels are placed on each of the three sites, erected on the centenary of the sinking.
And some of the 20 individual graves
The Pity of War.
