The Lusitania

and Dr Joe Garry

Filte!
Where do we begin? A challenge from our teacher Mr Garry. Could we? Would we? If so, who or what? We remembered reading a story written by one of last years 6th class students Mr Joe Garry the doctor of the Lusitania Why not? Would Mr Garry mind? Not one bit we think he was chuffed! Lots of time lots of patience from Ms Flanagan, our resource teacher. Was it worth it? Deffo!! Enjoy!!

Roy/Leah/Lauren/Daithi/Victor

Introduction

Timid i rang a s agus timid ag freastal ar Scoil Chrost R, Cloughleigh. We decided to do our project about a man called Dr. Joe Garry who worked as a doctor on the Lusitania. The reason we chose to research this man and the last voyage of the Lusitania is because our teacher is a descendant of his. Not only that, our teachers name is also Joe Garry. We thought it might be interesting to find out more about Josephs life and his mysterious end.

We divided our project up into sections so that we could all have our part to play in the research. Beidh Victor ag caint faoi saol Joe Garry agus a chlann. Lauren will be discussing the day that the Lusitania sank. Leah will be talking about the impact Dr Joe Garry had on his family and village. And finally, David is in charge of creating a digital presentation of our work.

Many years ago in 1915 an English ship called the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat. At the time there were a lot of German U-boats in the sea because from 1914-1918 World War I was taking place. The countries mainly involved were Germany, Austria Hungary and Turkey against the Allies France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States.

The Lusitania was launched by the Cunard line which was a ship company. At that time she was the worlds biggest ship. This is a picture of the Lusitania arriving in port.

The Early Life of Joseph Garry I am going to tell you more about the man Dr. Joe Garry. Joe Garry was born in Shanabea, Kildysart, County Clare in 1891. He had three brothers and he had two sisters. His father was called Patrick and his mother was called Mary. This is a picture of Kildysart.

A man called Oliver Garry came to talk to us about Joseph Garry. Oliver is a third cousin to Joe Garry. We prepared some questions about Joe. Roy, David, Leah, Lauren and I asked the questions during the interview. They were a bit hard to think of some but we made it through the challenge.

We wanted to know more about their family. Oliver told us that he played rugby for Ireland. I looked up the Irish rugby website and found out that he had been capped seven times and played his last game for Ireland on the 11th March 1911. That was 103 years ago. And it was four years before his brother died on the Lusitania. His other brother John stayed in Kildysart and became a farmer after his dad retired. Joe loved to play football but decided to concentrate on his studies and become a doctor. Joe was taught to be a doctor at Trinity College Dublin. He had a job as the Lusitanias assistant surgeon in 1915. He was planning to leave after its 202nd voyage and join the Royal Navy medical corps but that wasnt to be. This is a picture of Kildysart Cemetery where Joe Garry is remembered on the tombstone of the Garry Family grave.

The Sinking of the Ship

In 1915 World War 1 was under way and Germany and Britain were involved. On 4th of February the German Army put a warning in some newspapers that you would be in danger if you were to travel across the Atlantic on the Lusitania. Unfortunately some people did not take this advice. So as the ship was sailing and was not too far off the coast of Ireland, the German U-boat had already spotted the ship and had targeted them. At 1:40 pm, the U-boat launched a torpedo. The torpedo hit the starboard, which is at the right side of Lusitania. The Allies say the Germans torpedoed the Lusitania two or three times, while others say it hit it once and exploded. 1300 passengers including more than 130 Americans were killed. America was not in the war yet at this time but the sinking of the Lusitania made Americans very angry and got the president of the United States to enter America into WW1. No matter what the exact cause, it was the damage from the second explosion that made the ship sink. The explosion caused the ship to break in half. The ship sunk in 18 minutes. But the man who were all interested in is Dr Joe Garry. He was actually not meant to be on the ship that voyage but he had to go instead for another doctor who was sick but we will hear more about that later.Dr Joe Garry could not swim and people say that that is the reason for his death. The ship broke in two so we can imagine that he died by drowning in the sea. There are many other things that could have caused his death but in my opinion he drowned.

Lusitania Sunk By A Submarine Hundreds of lives are lost on the torpedoed Lusitania All these headlines introduce the Lusitanias sad and remembered ending. Everyone felt deep emotion. Families, neighbours, friends and the world were all in shock and worried but there is one particular person we are going to talk about and this person goes by the name of Dr. Joe Garry, a young doctor. Of many people on the ship this doctor wasnt supposed to be on the Lusitania for he wanted to visit his family after 202nd crossing but he couldnt because his fellow worker Dr. James McDermott was sick. Therefore Joe had to stay on the Lusitania. Leah talked about how we can imagine that Joe Garry drowned because he could not swim and second cabin member Thomas Sumner gives a possible clue to Dr. Joe Garry end. Sumner wrote a letter to Dr Joe Garrys mother Mary Garry who sent him a picture of Joe and Sumner thought the picture looked like someone he had met in the water. Mary Garry was not as sure that man Sumner met was her son for she was sure her son could not swim!

Joe had a great impact on his family for there has been lot of doctors in the Garry family since his death. So therefore they were a very successful group all because of one named Joe Garry! You can view Davids excellent presentation using Scratch technology here: Lusitania and Dr Joe Garry

Here we are with our class teacher, Joe Garry and our resource teacher Natasha Flanagan

Conclusion

I liked this project because I had a certain interest for History. The Lusitania is a great way for me to prove that History is special.

I enjoyed do this project because I have an interest in it and I wanted to learn more about the 1st World War.

I liked doing the history project on the Lusitania because I find it very interesting and I like to learn about back in the old days! And I have a great love of history and I find the Lusitania ship very fascinating.

I liked this project because of learning about the Lusitania and Joe Garry and the letter. Im excited to be entering the competition with my friends and teachers!

I like the history of the Lusitania because I find it very exciting and fun. I especially liked doing the Scratch project.

Bibliography
Interview of Oliver Garry: http://youtu.be/GLjrIzQdQE8

Books: Garry, John Daniel. Kildysart and Environs: Some brief sketches of people places and events. Dangarry Publications, Vancouver. 2000 Molony, Senan. Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy. Mercier Press, Cork. 2004

Websites: Britannica School. http://school.eb.co.uk/ RMS Lusitania. http://www.rmslusitania.info/

Scoil Net. http://www.scoilnet.ie/ Irish Rugby Official website. www.irishrugby.ie