Memorial service to mark sea disaster

A Welsh-Irish church service is to mark the 90th anniversary of the biggest ever disaster on the Irish Sea.

A total of 501 people died when the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Leinster was sunk by a German torpedo in October 1918.

Dublin postal workers as well as passengers from Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead in Wales lost their lives in the tragedy.

Welsh and Irish clergy will conduct an inter-faith service in St Michael’s Church in Dun Laoghaire on October 10.

The crew of the German U-boat will also be remembered at the event.

The Mayor of Holyhead will travel to Dun Laoghaire with a Welsh delegation of victims’ relatives of the tragedy.

Also attending will be children from The Park School in Holyhead as two former teachers and a former pupil were lost in the sinking.

The children will read aloud the names of the Welsh victims while children from Dun Laoghaire schools will recite the names of Irish victims.

The German U-boat was later destroyed in a minefield in the North Sea nine days after the attack.

The names of the crew will be read out at the service by local historian Philip Lecane, who wrote the book – Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster.

“The crew of the submarine were as much victims of war as those on the RMS Leinster,” said Mr Lecane, who is helping to organise the commemoration event.

An anchor salvaged from the RMS Leinster wreck is currently displayed as a memorial at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.