A campaign has been launched to raise €150,000 towards the building of a modern Lusitania Museum on the Old Head of Kinsale.
Ambitious plans for a state-of-the-art museum where the story of the Lusitania could be told - and recovered artifacts displayed - had been envisaged after the wreck was gifted to a local community group in 2019.
But the Lusitanian Museum/Old Head Signal Tower Group say fundraising for the project had to be shelved because of the impact of Covid-19 on visitor numbers to the present visitor centre.
However, with plans ready to go for planning permission, the group are now launching a GoFundMe campaign in the hope of securing enough monies to take the project to the next stage.
RMS Lusitania sank 21 kilometres off the Old Head of Kinsale in May 1915 after she was torpedoed by a German U-boat, with the loss of 1,198 lives and 761 survivors.
Her owner, the late Greg Bemis who dived regularly on the wreck over the years, gifted the shipwreck to the voluntary group shortly before he died.
The hope is that the Lusitania Museum would become a destination for visitors fascinated by the ship's history.
In a statement, the group said that it was Mr Bemis' wish that by recalling the horrors of war, the museum would "press us all to cherish and nurture peace."
The group said that "entrusted with a precious historic legacy, we intend to do justice to Mr. Bemis' vision and trust".
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