UK Ambassador to Ireland Robin Barnett has laid a wreath at a ceremony in Waterford on the 100th anniversary of one of the biggest maritime losses in the South East in the past 150 years.

The centenary of the sinking of two merchant ships by a German submarine during the first World War, killing 83, was remembered in Waterford this afternoon.

Organisers of the memorial event said the sinking of the SS Formby and her sister ship, the SS Coningbeg, in December 1917 had a profound effect on the people in the county for decades.

There were no survivors from either ship.

Thirty-nine died on the SS Formby and 44 on the SS Coningbeg.

Of the 83 people who died, 67 of them were from Waterford, which at the time had a population of around 28,000.