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Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection launched in Cobh

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Photo: Mike Bardsley

Rose Foley (nee Brierley), Sr Valerian, Tom Brierley, Jack Brierley, Ita O’Flynn and Frances
Brierley, pictured at the opening of the Lusitania centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh.

The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection opened in Cobh on Sunday 26th April. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken.

The exhibition was officially opened by Tom Brierly, grandson of Thomas Brierly, the captain of the Flying Fish that played a pivotal role in the Lusitania rescue effort.

The exhibition captures in stunning detail survivors on the streets of Queenstown, the mass funeral and the burials in the Old Church Cemetery and are bound to stir emotions and transport the viewer back in time. It also contains a reproduction of the Burial Register of the Old Church Cemetery, photographs of the rescue vessels and their captains and some present day photographs showing how little the Cobh streetscape has changed.

Michael Carlin, Colman Rasmussen, (both Cobh Credit Union) Hendrick Verwey,(Chairman of Cobh Tourism) Fionnghuala Smith,(Cobh Pastimes) Kennet O’Flynn (Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork) and John Sweeney (president of Cobh Chamber) pictured at the opening of the  Lusitania centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh. Photo: Mike Bardsley

Michael Carlin, Colman Rasmussen, (both Cobh Credit Union) Hendrick Verwey,(Chairman of Cobh Tourism) Fionnghuala Smith,(Cobh Pastimes) Kennet O’Flynn (Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork) and John Sweeney (president of Cobh Chamber) pictured at the opening of the Lusitania centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh. Photo: Mike Bardsley

Significantly the photos are being exhibited in the Cunard Centre right in the heart of Cobh. This was the Cunard Line Ticket Office in 1915 and a portion of the building was used as a temporary morgue where some of the recovered bodies were laid out.

Colman Rasmussen, chairman of Cobh Credit Union, explained that they were delighted to support the Cobh Lusitania Centenary Committee in staging this signature exhibition in a long programme of events planned for Cobh. “On seeing the photographs we immediately realised the story that they tell. The sinking of the Lusitania was a terrible tragedy with a local, national and an international dimension. It seemed appropriate that as the largest community based business organisation in Cobh that we would provide funding to allow them to be showcased right here in the town in which they were taken,” Colman said.

Tom & Jack Brierley pictured at the opening of the  Lusitania centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh. Photo: Mike Bardsley

Tom & Jack Brierley pictured at the opening of the
Lusitania centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh. Photo: Mike Bardsley

It was Christy Keating, the genealogist at Cobh, The Queenstown Story Heritage Centre that at the end of 2014 went looking in the National Library of Ireland for images relating to the Lusitania tragedy. “I was brought into a room and shown this astounding collection of photographs on glass plates. I had seen some before, but knew immediately that there were photographs here that have only been seen by a handful of people in over 100 years,” he said. Very quickly the committee requested that the glass plates be digitised and that they could be exhibited in Cobh and the National Library duly obliged.

A sample of the photos on exhibit at The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh, Co. Cork from Sunday 26 April 2015. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken.  For more see www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork. Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

A sample of the photos on exhibit at The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh, Co. Cork from Sunday 26 April 2015. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken. For more see www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork. Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

About half of the photographs are of survivors on the streets of Cobh following the sinking, and most of these people are unnamed. Fionnghuala Smith, a renowned photographer, whose Old Time Photography Studio is also based in the Cunard Centre, commented on the apparent giddiness of many of the survivors. “It’s when you think about it that you realise that this can be a very natural reaction to being in a near death experience,” she says. “There are very many relatives of survivors coming to Cobh on the 7th and 10th of May and I fully expect people to walk through our doors and point out their ancestors. It will be emotional to say the least!”

A sample of the photos on exhibit at The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh, Co. Cork from Sunday 26 April 2015. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken.  For more see www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork. Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

A sample of the photos on exhibit at The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh, Co. Cork from Sunday 26 April 2015. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken. For more see www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork. Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

On 10th May, 1915, the mass funeral of over 145 victims of the tragedy took place in the Old Church Cemetery in Cobh. The Cork Examiner reported the following day. “The gloom which overhangs Queenstown, which shared so largely and with credit to itself in the immediate consequences of the torpedoing of the Cunard liner Lusitania, was intensified today. Everywhere one turned the same unaffected expressions of sympathy and ejaculations of dread horror of the experiences of the immediate past were heard.”

The photographs of the funeral cortege and at the gravesides are visual testimony to these words. Thousands turned out to pay their final respects to the victims. There isn’t a smile to be seen in a seemingly endless sea of faces. Respect is evident everywhere. The funeral was impressive, dismal, ghastly and exceedingly sad. Seeing these photographs will reveal the scale and horror of the sinking of the Lusitania.

A sample of the photos on exhibit at The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh, Co. Cork from Sunday 26 April 2015. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken.  For more see www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork. Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

A sample of the photos on exhibit at The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Collection in Cobh, Co. Cork from Sunday 26 April 2015. The exhibition comprises of over sixty striking images, mostly taken in Cobh in the aftermath of the Lusitania tragedy. The A.H. Poole Lusitania collection was digitised from glass plates held in the National Library of Ireland and has never been seen collectively in the 100 years since the photographs were taken. For more see www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork. Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

The Cobh Credit Union Lusitania Centenary Photographic Exhibition is open from 11am to 6 pm from Tuesday to Saturday and from 1pm to 6 pm on Sundays from now until the end of May. Admission is free.

Cobh is one of four coastal communities in Co. Cork that are commemorating the Lusitania centenary with a number of events, entitled *Lusitania100 Cork*, in association with Cork County Council.

For more on Lusitania100 Cork and for a full schedule of events in Cobh, Kinsale, Old Head and Courtmacsherry visit www.visitcorkcounty.com/Lusitania100Cork, @LusitaniaCork on Twitter, or @Lusitania100Cork on Facebook

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