Cobh commemorates centenary of American Naval forces arrival during WWI

By Sean O’Riordan
via The Irish Examiner

Captain Daniel Dwyer, USNSome descendants of those who served with the US Navy based in Cork during the First World War gathered in Cobh yesterday, along with a number of American military personnel, to commemorate the centenary of their arrival there on May 4, 1917.

They unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion at the former Admiralty House, which is now a Benedictine priory. The nuns, who are in an enclosed order, seemed to thoroughly enjoy the spectacle of a military remembrance, which included flagbearers, a lone piper, and bugler.

The plaque was unveiled by Elizabeth Helmer, great granddaughter of Commander Joseph Taussig, who led the first six US destroyers into the port.

Tim Forsyth, US deputy chief of mission at the American embassy, said that by the end of the war, 92 of his country’s navy ships had served out of Cork.

For the chief of staff of the US Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, Captain David Dwyer, the event brought back his Irish roots. He said he was very honoured to attend as his great, great, great grandfather emigrated to the US from Cork in 1847.

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