#Lusitania - A deck chair recovered from the wreck of the Lusitania by Blasket islanders and restored a century later is planned for public display, as RTÉ News reports.
Master craftsman Pat Broderick says he was able to save most of the original timber from the beech frame, and replaced the rattan seat with the same material woven in identical fashion.
Broderick’s handiwork will shortly be put on display by the Office of Public Works, either at the Blasket Centre in Dunquin or in the restored home of Tomás Ó Criomhthain on Great Blasket Island.
The deckchair was taken from the water with other flotsam and jetsam by islanders on Great Blasket not long after the Lusitania was torpedoed off Kinsale in May 1915.
It was used as a fireside chair for almost four decades before the island was evacuated in 1953, when it went into storage before the Blasket Centre received it as a donation.
RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.