American UCC student to help remember great-grandfather who commanded US flotilla that sailed into Cork harbour

A Californian student at University College Cork will help remember the arrival of the US navy in Ireland — 100 years to the day after her great-grandfather commanded the flotilla that sailed into Cork harbour.

But Lizzie Helmer had no idea until a week before coming here in January that, on May 4, 1917, her ancestor Commander Joseph Taussig was in charge of the US Atlantic fleet that set up base in Cobh. The occasion marked the physical entry of the US into the First World War, just weeks after it declared war on Germany.

The centenary of the fleet’s arrival will be marked in Cobh tomorrow, when the 20-year-old unveils a commemorative plaque in front of a dignitaries at the former British Admiralty House, which is now a convent.