Lusitania Centenary: Shared history that lay buried for many years

They were best friends who set sail together from Queenstown, Co Cork, in 1911, hoping to build a new life in America.

Little did they know as they sailed home on the Lusitania four years later, they would become caught up in one of the world’s most infamous disasters, and that a century later, two of their descendants would become best friends without ever knowing of their shared history.

May Barrett, who grew up on Barrack St, Cork, was 20 when she emigrated in March 1911 with her friend, Kitty McDonnell, 23, who grew up in Prosperity Square, off Barrack St, to New York. They shared an address on 9th Avenue.