Speech at the Centenary Commemoration of the Sinking of the Lusitania
Cobh, Cork, Thursday, 7th May 2015
Is mór an pléisiúr a bheith anseo libh inniu agus muid a comóradh céad bliain ó chuaigh an RMS Lusitania go tóinn poill. Is mian liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le Con Hayes dá chuireadh agus libhse ar fad as an fíorchaoin fáilte sin.
[It is a great pleasure to be here with you today as we commemorate the centenary of the sinking of RMS Lusitania. I would like to thank Con Hayes for his invitation and all of you for that welcome.]
Cobh, Kinsale and Courtmacsherry, are the three places most closely associated with this seismic and historic tragedy which claimed almost twelve hundred lives, including those of at least ninety Irishmen and women. All three towns played a heroic role in the event as lifeboats and local fishermen took part in the rescue operation and also brought to shore the remains of those drowned on that fateful day in May 1915.
Resting on the seabed the Lusitania constitutes a marine grave. It was that reason, with its related issues of due respect as well as its importance to Irish history and its wider international significance, that led to my decision, twenty years ago, as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, to place an Underwater Heritage Order on the wreck.
The sinking of the Lusitania is a critical chapter in the history of the First World War. The fact that 128 American citizens lost their lives is often cited as the catalyst for America entering the war in 1917. While this may not be quite the entire picture, it undoubtedly had a significant impact on American public opinion with regard to the war and on the resolve of President Woodrow Wilson who had intended keeping the USA neutral. America eventually abandoned its neutrality and entered the war on the side of the allies in April 1917; a decision which had the effect of hastening the end of the War thus sparing many lives that might otherwise have been lost on the Western Front and elsewhere on the battlefields of Europe.
The sinking of the Lusitania is a story that has gripped the imagination of the world over the intervening decades and filled the pages of many books and articles in the years that separate us from that tragic day in May 1915. Some of those writings celebrate the significance of the Lusitania as a technical marvel of the age, reminding us of its place in the history of ship building and as holder of the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossings. Other authors have speculated as to its cargo and whether it was carrying armaments and if that might have contributed to the second explosion that may have led to the rapidity of its sinking.
Those are, however, stories for another day. Beyond the historical significance of this event, we come here today to remember the human tragedy of the 1,200 who died in the cold water of the Celtic Sea on a beautiful summer day in 1915. We remember the lives cut short and the futures and possibilities denied by the tragedy visited on unsuspecting voyagers who thought they were within safe reach of their destination when the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U Boat in May 1915.
From the accounts of the survivors, we have some sense of the almost unthinkable horror that they faced – a shortage of lifeboats, the injuries suffered from the initial hit and explosion, the desperation as passengers and crew tried to save loved ones, including the pathetic account of parents trying in vain to save their children, the treacherous flotsam and the violence of the rapidly sinking ship, and the dreadful wait for help in an ice-cold sea surrounded by the bodies of the dead. We come here today to think of those men, women and children, and of what they endured.
I know that, joining us here this afternoon are over one hundred descendents of those who lost their lives as the Lusitania neared the coast of Ireland one hundred years ago. You represent the many families ruptured by that catastrophic event and remind us of the myriad human stories contained within the tragedy of the Lusitania.
We come here, too, to mark the courage and compassion of the people of Cobh, Kinsale and Courtmacsherry and of all who undertook the rescue operation and managed to save the lives of the 700. And who also then recovered and cared for the remains of the dead. We remember the vessels which came to the aid of the victims, and especially to those lifeboats who rowed out 12 miles to the site of the wreck in open sea, some on several occasions. We can only imagine the trauma which this tragedy brought to the town of Cobh, a town which of course knew well the perils of the sea, but which must still have been overwhelmed with the horror of a scarcely conceivable scale of death. There are so many stories of heroism and selflessness during the rescue operation that it is appropriate the people of Cork should be proud of how their ancestors responded to this terrible disaster.
All wars have their forgotten or unsung victims, those whose deaths do not bring forth posthumous medals or tributes. However, as we engage in a period of commemoration of World War 1, it is important that we not only focus on those who lost their lives on the battlefields and in the trenches, but recall the millions of civilians whose lives were also cut short during that cataclysmic period of world history. Some, like the casualties of the Lusitania, were the victims of deliberate acts of war, others died through malnutrition, famine and related disease. In whatever way they lost their lives, they were victims of a destructive, and indeed bewildering world war, and their tragic deaths should not be reduced to that of collateral damage but should be honoured and remembered with due respect.
Today we are also reminded that World War 1 was a war with a global reach, one that affected all areas of the European continent and many areas beyond. Among the list of passengers and crew who perished that day were listed individuals and families from Canada, Britain, Russia, Norway, Persia and Belgium, reminding us that the wreck of the Lusitania is part of a global shared tragedy and heritage.
As we recall today the individual stories of the passengers on this ship, we remember that during a four year period an estimated 17 million lives were lost to a war, a war that was the product of political and diplomatic failure, and a war that failed to prevent further conflicts in Europe and other parts of the world, including the Second World War, which followed only a short few years later.
The importance of recalling the horror of war is that it should press us all to cherish and nurture peace, to defend the role of diplomacy, and seek to have it extended and reformulated to achieve peaceful resolution of conflicts. In recent weeks, I participated in the commemoration ceremony at Gallipoli, another dreadful episode of the First World War where Irish men including many from Cork, became the victims of a cruel and murderous war. Immediately after visiting Gallipoli, it was fitting that I also had the opportunity to visit our troops of today who are working in South Lebanon to support peace in that troubled land. At a time when the world is once again facing conflict and dispute in many regions, the urgency of the work of the making and maintaining peace between nations and peoples once again takes on a new importance. Ireland is a country that has known the horror and pain of war through our history, but it is surely one of our most significant achievements that since our independence we have sought as a nation to work towards peace, with peace-keeping lodged at the centre of our foreign policy.
Agus muid ag cuimhneamh ar an Lusitania agus orthu siúd a fuair bás amach ó chósta Chorcaí céad bliain ó shin, is é mo ghuí go ndéanfaimid tréaniarracht síocháin agus comhthuiscint a chothú idir gach náisiún.
[In that spirit, as we remember today Lusitania and those who perished off the Cork coast a century ago, let us all redouble our efforts for peace and understanding between nations.]
I would like to finish by thanking all those involved in the ongoing commemorations here in Cobh, where the Heritage Centre has a permanent exhibition dedicated to the memory of the RMS Lusitania, and also to those in Kinsale and Courtmacsherry for their hard work and initiative in keeping this important story alive for future generations to reflect on. I also wish the new Lusitania Museum project in the signal tower at the Old Head of Kinsale every success.
I will be meeting with representatives from that project shortly in Áras an Uachtaráin and I hope to visit when the museum is up and running. The magnificent bronze sculpture here in Cobh by Jerome O’Connor, to the victims of the Lusitania, is a lasting and fitting monument to those who died when that ship went down. As long as it lasts, together with the wreck on the seabed and the simple headstones in the Old Church cemetery and elsewhere, the memory of that day will not be forgotten.
For those who died one hundred years ago today, so close to our shores, might we finally say ar dheis dé go raibh a n-anamacha.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.