Give the oars a quick rattle in the oarlocks and settle onto the wooden seat before you undertake the 45-minute row from Ross Castle, Killarney, Co Kerry, to a stronghold of early Irish monasticism.

100 years ago this week, just before shipping was made safer by the entry of the United States into World War I, a number of Cork vessels were sunk by German U-boats and mines. Patrick G O’Shea recalls one of the lost ships, on which a relative was killed.