The most unique connection between the modern ships of the Cunard line’s history and the ill-fated Lusitania is Queen Victoria’s second engineer, George Harrison.

The sinking of the Lusitania is a story that has gripped the imagination of the world over the intervening decades and filled the pages of many books and articles, President Michael D Higgins said in his speech marking the centenary commemorations.

The victims of the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania were honoured at a ceremony in Co Cork yesterday.