Plans are underway for a cross-border project to create a monument in memory of more than 1,600 Irish lives lost at sea in World War One.
A fundraising campaign is set to be launched to help with the initiative, which will also include a digital museum, and is aimed at remembering the efforts and lost lives of Irish sailors during the Great War.
The monument would be at Belfast’s Alexandra Dock, where First World War light cruiser HMS Caroline is moored.
A working group is made up of experts including representatives from Belfast Harbour Commissioners, Belfast City Council, Irish Naval Service, Glasnevin Cemetery and the HMS Caroline Preservation Company.
It is planning fundraising strategies and aims to make an announcement early in the new year.
Captain John Rees, retired chief of staff at the National Museum of the Royal Navy and former director in charge of the restoration of World War One light cruiser HMS Caroline, chairs the group.
He said Irish sailors who died in the Great War as well as those who lost their lives in later in subsequent battles deserve recognition.
“There is no physical monument existing anywhere to honour the Irish Sailor,” he said.
“When we were restoring HMS Caroline in time to open to the public for the centenary of the Battle of Jutland in 1916 we had been very conscious of this gap in history.
“Now our working group is progressing ways of resolving this by creating a physical and a digital presence which will allow families, descendants, and everyone to participate in the memory of these heroic men.”
Former Harbour Commissioner Noel Brady, who is part of the working group, said all communities must be acknowledged in Ireland’s shared history.
“This is not a political expression of anything,” he said.
“It is acknowledgement that as a divided society in pre-partition Ireland we treated each other badly.
“These prejudices continued after partition and the historic ignorance of the roles played by people from all communities in Ireland’s past 100 years must be addressed.
“This memorial is one such step which will encourage continued reconciliation.”
Commodore Martin Quinn, chairman of the HMS Caroline Preservation Company board of trustees, said the acknowledgement has been a long time coming.
“We enter a new year already a quarter the way into the century with renewed confidence as a society with dual identities,” he said.
“We need much broader acknowledgement of the roles played by all in our shared history and as chairman of the board of trustees would very much wish to see the physical embodiment of recognition of the Irish Sailor close to the ship which saw action in a battle which cost the lives of thousands of sailors including many hundred Irishmen.”
