A COMMEMORATION of the victims of the Titanic’s sinking was held in Cobh yesterday, one day short of 99 years after the liner called to the Cork town on her ill-fated voyage from Southampton to New York.
On Thursday, April 11th, 1912, 123 steerage passengers boarded the Titanic in Cobh, at that time called Queenstown.
Four days later the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, including 79 of those who boarded in Cobh.
Of special note this year was the remembrance of the 11 passengers from Addergoole, Lahardane in north Mayo who lost their lives.
Fourteen passengers, of whom three survived, hailed from Addergoole.
Children from the Mayo parish participated in the Cobh commemoration and read the names of the 11 parishioners during the service.
Christina Burke from the Addergoole Titanic Society in Mayo said the attendance from the parish was a fitting tribute to the 11 who lost their lives.
To put the loss in perspective, in 1911, the year before the ship sank, the population of Addergoole was 3,496, living in 703 houses, according to the census taken at the time.
Yesterday’s commemoration involved a prayer and wreath-laying service.
A wreath with the names of all 79 victims who boarded from Cobh was also taken out to sea.