dún laoghaire harbour company

Plaque erected in memory of RMS Leinster victims

A ceremony in the Harbour recently marked the 87th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Leinster on October 10th 1918. A plaque was erected near the ship’s anchor which is already on display on Queen’s Road.

The RMS Leinster was built in Birkenhead, England and launched in 1896. Together with three sister ships, Ulster, Connaught and Munster, she was one of the fastest steamships of the day and could cross from Dún Laoghaire (or Kingstown as the town was then called) to Holyhead in two and a half hours.

In addition to a passenger capacity of 1,400, the Leinster was also a mail ship and had twenty two postal workers in a sorting office on board.

One month and one day before the end of World War One the Leinster sailed from Dún Laghaire for Holyhead at 9 am. There were a large number of troops and officers on board, returning to combat in Europe. Just off the Kish Bank, the ship was sighted by a German U boat, UB123 which fired three torpedoes. Two of these struck the Leinster which began to sink immediately. 501 people died. In the aftermath of the disaster the Lord Mayor of Dublin established a relief fund for the relatives of the victims. Just sixteen days after the disaster, the

Mansion House Relief Fund had raised nearly £119,000. Donations had been made by individuals and companies such as Guiness, Bewleys and the City of Dublin Steampacket Company itself. Wartime censorship meant that the scale of the disaster was not widely appreciated at the time.

U-boat 132 never returned to Germany. It sank after striking a mine in the North Sea on its way home.

The remains of the Leinster still lie in thirty metres of water to the northeast of the Kish lighthouse and it is one of the most popular wreck dives in Dublin Bay. The bow has been separated from the rest of the ship by the torpedo damage and much of the wreckage is buried in sand.

Local author and historian Philip Lecane published a book on the ship last year and it is available from him at 77, Windsor Drive, Monkstown.