Special report: 100 years on Cork region remembers arrival of US fleets during 'Great War'

Sean O’Riordan explores the arrival of American navy fleets in Cork Harbour during the First World War and their subsequent impact on the local infrastructure, economy, and society.

AMERICA didn’t officially enter the First World War until April 6, 1917, but tensions had been simmering away since the sinking nearly two years earlier of the Lusitania liner just a few miles off the Cork coast.

However, before they could take the war to the Germans on land, the Americans first had to secure the transportation of thousands of its “Doughboys” (soldiers/sailors) across the sea.