Sir, – Your Editorial (April 7th) claims a steerage Titanic baby, the late Millvina Dean, was “the pet of the liner during the voyage”, with “first and second class passengers” rationed to 10 minutes holding the “lovable mite”. This is not true.
In justice to the 54 steerage children who died, it should be reaffirmed that they were none of them regarded as particularly lovable by their social betters, and not even the bonniest baby among them had access to first and second class passengers – who were far removed from them, living where the lifeboats were.
Millvina only afterwards enjoyed something of a democratic dispensation as a waif saved from the cruel sea. She was fussed over by saloon passengers on the return crossing, aboard the SS Adriatic, having escaped the terror of the Titanic.
Incidentally, she professed a love for Ireland and the Irish people, and was an occasional visitor to Cobh, where a dining room was named in her honour. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – As we approach April 15th I am struck by how fitting the Titanic’s sinking is as a metaphor for our country’s economic decline.
During the Celtic Tiger years it was considered almost heresy to suggest that the good times could end. The economic boom was held nearly unanimously to be, as it were, “unsinkable”. As the nation struck ice in late 2008 the crew were all clambering to ensure the first class passengers – the complicit politicians, the developers, the bankers, the union leaders – were saved first. The emigration and unemployment since are a constant reminder that there were simply not enough lifeboats for us all.
However, in my estimation, we are doomed to repeat this metaphorical sinking of the Titanic again so long as we refuse to admit one thing: that, despite our protestations, Bertie Ahern and company were not on the bridge; no, these men were down below, shovelling coal in the manner they were told to. In reality it was the Irish people at the wheel ordering full steam ahead – the Irish people who made it clear in every election before 2008 that all they ever wanted from their government was less taxes but more spending.
The tear in our hull is what those populist policies have brought us. – Yours, etc,