The new owners of the wreck of the RMS Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the Old Head of Kinsale in Co Cork during the first World War, have begun a fundraising drive to develop a state of the art museum to remember the tragedy where over 1,200 people lost their lives.
The Lusitania Museum/Old Head Signal Tower group, who were gifted the wreck of the RMS Lusitania by former owner, Greg Bemis in 2019, plan to develop the museum on the Old Head of Kinsale which was the nearest point of land to where the ship went down.
Lusitania Museum/Old Head Signal Tower Group spokesman, Con Hayes said that as a local voluntary community group, they were delighted when Mr Bemis gifted them the wreck both in recognition of their work to date to remember the tragedy and as a means to continue his legacy.
"We have already restored the early 19th century Napoleonic Signal Tower at the Old Head as the first phase of our development – it is the only one of 81 such towers built in Ireland between 1804 and 1806 to be fully restored and available to visit," said Mr Hayes.
“The second phase of development was the creation of the Lusitania Memorial Garden with its iconic 20 metre long “wave” sculpture which tells the story of the Lusitania’s final voyage to disaster and it contains the names of all those on board when she was torpedoed on May 7th 1915.”
Mr Hayes said that work was now progressing towards the third phase, the actual creation of the Lusitania Museum, which it’s estimated will cost €3 million to build and a further €1 million to equip with the latest interactive technology to tell the story of the sinking of the Cunard liner.
He said it’s hoped the museum will become an important tourist attraction at the southern starting point of the Wild Atlantic way, attracting both foreign and Irish visitors as well as school tours to create local employment opportunities while also commemorating those who died in the tragedy.
“We hope that, as the late Greg Bemis said when he signed over ownership of the ship, ‘the Museum will be a permanent recognition of our feelings about the importance of the wreck and of the Lusitania’s place in history – and to pay homage to the victims’,” he said.
Appropriate
Mr Hayes said that Old Head of Kinsale was the most appropriate place for a museum to remember the Lusitania as the scenic peninsula, which juts five kilometres into the Celtic Sea, will be forever linked with the tragedy given its significance on that fateful day.
"Just after 2pm on May 7th, 1915, Captain William Turner ordered Junior Third Officer Albert Bestic to take a bearing off an unmistakeable landmark, known to sailors for centuries – the Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse, with its distinctive two red on a white background," he said.
"At the end of his watch, Bestic handed over the first set of four bearings to Captain Turner and Third Officer John Idwal Lewis was taking the bearing when the Lusitania was struck by the torpedo fired from the German U-20 and sank in a horrific twenty minutes with enormous loss of life."
Mr Hayes said that from that moment, the Old Head of Kinsale and the Lusitania have remained inextricably linked and on the 80th anniversary in 1995, a local community group erected a beautiful memorial stone at a point near the Old Head Signal Tower to remember those who died.
He pointed out that nearby Kinsale has also strong ties with the Lusitania as it was there that an inquest was held in the courthouse into the deaths of those on board the ship while a small number of the victims were buried in the historic St Multose’s Churchyard.
Climb
And those who climb to the parapet of the nine metre high Signal Tower at the Old Head can look west to Courtmacsherry Harbour from where the lifeboat, Ketzia Gwilt, coxed by Timothy Keohane, made its way to the site of the sinking in three hours only to find bodies and debris everywhere.
“We felt that more could and should be done to commemorate what was a critical moment during World War I and of local, national, and international significance and so ten years ago, we began with restoration of the ruined Napoleonic Watch Tower as a visitor centre and viewing point.
“We opened the Watch Tower as a mini-Lusitania Museum on May 7th 2015 to coincide with the centenary commemoration of the sinking of the Lusitania and then four years ago we opened the Lusitania Memorial Garden with the names of all those who sailed aboard the ship.”
Mr Hayes said a professional design team has been appointed but €150,000 is needed to complete the museum design so the group can apply for planning permission but the Covid pandemic has seriously affected the group’s income stream as no visitors and no fundraising events are allowed.
"The GoFundme campaign was launched recently and we are hoping people will back us – we rely on their continuing support and they can help by going to" the GoFundme page, he said.
