#Lusitania100 commemoration in #Cork and #Cobh #CommodoreHotel #Lusitania #Lusitania100Cork @UCCHistory

Wednesday, 6 May 2015 – 100 years later:

All day today at University College Cork, the alma mater of Lusitania surgeon Dr. James McDermott, was the Lusitania lecture series that took place at the Boole I Theater. One of The Lusitania Resource‘s own administrators and contributors, historian Peter Kelly, presented a selection of stories of the passengers and crew, highlighting the stories of Albert Arthur Bestic, the Crompton Family, John Welsh and Gerda Neilson, Henry Sonneborn and Leo Schwabacher.

Later on that evening in Cobh, formerly Queenstown, the families of several Lusitania passengers the crew (as well as researchers like yours truly) came together at the Commodore Hotel (formerly the Queen’s Hotel), where many survivors were taken to once their rescue vessels had landed in the port. The event was organized by Jon Kiger, as descendant of saloon passenger Albert Byington, and Melissa Jossa, a descendant of second cabin passenger Solomon “Samuel” Abramowitz. We also had a special appearance by Elizabeth Joseph, the daughter of Helen Smith.

It was a wonderful event bringing together the descendants of these people who were connected by a momentous, horrific, and tragic event in world history, where new friendships were made and connections of generations past were rekindled. Among the families present who gave speeches included (and this list is probably not complete because it’s late in Ireland, so I might have trouble remembering – Italics indicate survivor):

• Solomon Abramowitz – second cabin
• Gertrude and Joan Adams – second cabin
• May Barrett – second cabin
• Albert Byington – saloon cabin
• Thomas O’Brien Butler – second cabin (biography coming soon!)
• David Dalrymple – second cabin
• Herbert Ehrhardt – second cabin
• Thomas Evans – crew
• Patrick Hanley – third class
• Robert and Clara Hebden – third class (biographies coming soon!)
• Hannah Cunniffe and Delia Kilkenny – third class
• Stanley and Ethel Lines – second cabin
• Kitty McDonnell – second cabin
• Jeanie McKinnon – second cabin
• Amy Lea Pearl – saloon cabin
• Frank Partridge – saloon cabin
• Harold and Alice Smethurst – second cabin
• Patrick Sheedy – third class (biography coming soon!)
• Helen Smith – second cabin
• Alfred Vanderbilt – saloon cabin
• Basil, Cyril, Phyllis, and Nancy Wickings-Smith – second cabin
• Captain O’Shea – captain of the rescue vessel Flying Fox

The organizers also thanked the city of Cobh with a plaque for all that its people did to aid and comfort the survivors. We also had brief speeches by the curator of the Cobh Museum and myself about the importance of continuing to remember those who were on board Lusitania 100 years ago.

I was fortunate to dine with the families of Herbert Ehrhardt, Patrick Hanley, and May Barrett.

While I have more pictures and video, I’d like to get the consent of the people photographed before publishing them on the web. But here is the Lusitania cake created for the occasion:

All in all, it was a great event, and I hope that this brings together more people whose lives have been touched by the Lusitania and that we grow as a community and family beyond this anniversary and that the lives and stories of the people who were on the great ship continue to be remembered.