“The Battle of Jutland – A Cork Tragedy”
Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage Lectures, October 13, 8:30pm
Upcoming event: Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage kick off their winter/spring programme of lectures on Thursday 13th October at the Parish Centre, Clonakilty at 8.30pm, with what promises to be a very interesting lecture entitled “The Battle of Jutland – A Cork Tragedy” which will be delivered by Tony McCarthy.
The Battle of Jutland was fought off the coast of Denmark on 31st May 1916. In a little over six hours over 8,600 sailors from the German and British navies were dead. Over 120 of those on the British side were from Cork, with about 30 of these from the coastal communities around Clonakilty and Skibbereen. For the most part their story has not previously been told.
Tony McCarthy is a Skibbereen-based Garda sergeant who hails from Barryroe. He first became interested in the Battle of Jutland when his grandfather told him about three of his friends from Lehina in Barryroe who died in the battle. In recent years as part of his dissertation for a diploma in Genealogy in UCC, Tony discovered eyewitness accounts of the battle, and located a photograph of the ship H.M.S. Defence, taken during the battle, seconds before it exploded killing all 904 sailors on board, including the three Lehina men. His lecture will tell the story of these West Cork sailors and the working conditions on board these large battleships.
