Page 4 - COBH EDITION 2nd NOVEMBER DIGITAL VERSION

Members of the public invited to attend ceremonies in St Colman’s
Cathedral and unveiling of new brass plaque

Cobh Tourism invites members of the public to join in marking the centenary of the World War
I Armistice with two special ceremonies culminating with the unveiling of a commemorative
brass plaque in the town on November 11th 2018.
The largest bell of St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh will solemnly toll eleven times on the
eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, followed by a recital on the 49-bell
carillon, to commemorate the moment when the guns of World War I fell silent in 1918.
Cobh Cathedral carilloneur, Adrian Gebruers will perform ‘The Dead March’ from Handel’s
‘Saul’ followed by Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ in memory of the 15 million people – including
the 1,198 who died on the Lusitania in 1915 and the 20 Queenstown men killed in the 1916
Battle of Jutland - who died as a result of World War I.
The midday Mass in St. Colman’s Cathedral will also be dedicated to all who suffered and died
in World War I. Following the mass, Carrigaline Pipe Band will lead a parade to the gardens
of St. Benedict’s Priory, formerly Admiralty House – the WWI U.S Navy headquarters – where
the Armistice Day centenary brass plaque will be unveiled.
While Queenstown and its people were far removed from the battlefields of Ypres and the
Battle of the Somme, Queenstown (now Cobh) did witness first-hand the effects of war.

The priory gardens lie in the shadow of the new Jutland Memorial, designed by local sculptor
James McLoughlin and unveiled in June 2018 to honour the 20 sailors from Cobh (formerly
Queenstown) killed in the Battle of Jutland.

The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the greatest sea battle of WW1 and caused the largest
loss of life of men from Queenstown. Research by the Cobh based Jutland Memorial Society
confirmed that of the 78 Queenstown men involved in the battle, 20 were killed. The names
of those from Queenstown who died at Jutland are inscribed on the memorial sides and the
inscription on the front reads:
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF QUEENSTOWN (COBH) LOST AT THE BATTLE
OF JUTLAND, 31 MAY – 1 JUNE 1916 AND ALL THOSE WHO SERVED IN WORLD WAR 1. LEST
WE FORGET
The bodies and survivors of the sinking of the Lusitania were also brought ashore in Cobh in
1915 and 170 of the victims were buried in the Old Church Cemetery just outside the town.
The Lusitania exhibition at Cobh Heritage Centre includes some incredibly detailed, poignant
and moving photographs of the A.H. Poole Collection of glass plate photography. These pho-
tographs reveal images of Lusitania survivors on the streets of Queenstown, the Mass Funeral
of 170 victims and of the open graves showing coffins stacked two deep bearing numbers on
their lids.
Today, alongside these graves in the immaculately maintained cemetery are the uniform
headstones of many servicemen who died in WW1 that have been marked by the Common-
wealth War Graves Commission. The Commission makes no distinction on account of military
rank, race or creed and the headstones are a simple reminder that in death we are all equal.
Members of the public are encouraged to attend these commemorative Armistice Day events
and contemplate whether society has learned anything at all in the one hundred years since
the ending of ‘The War to End All Wars’. The ceremonies are being organised by Cobh Tour-
ism in association with Cobh Branch O.N.E, the support group for ex-service personnel, who
will provide military honours for the occasion.