A PARISH IN Mayo which lost eleven residents on the Titanic is to hold a week of events to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the giant passenger liner.
The parish of Addergoole is believed to have suffered the largest proportionate loss of life of any village in Europe when the Titanic sank in April 1912. Fourteen passengers came from the area, of whom eleven drowned and three survived.
The Mayo Titanic Cultural Week, which will be opened by former President Mary Robinson, aims to keep the memory of the fourteen people alive.
“Emigration gave Addergoole its central place in this epic maritime disaster,” said Paul Nolan, chair of the Addergoole Titanic Society.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny will open the Titanic Memorial Park in the village of Lahardane in April, the first park in Ireland dedicated to Titanic victims and Irish emigrants. A 12-foot bronze sculpture of the Titanic has been installed in the park.
As part of the events, fourteen local people will re-enact the Addergoole Fourteen leaving home by dressing in period costume and travelling by horse and sidecar to Castlebar where tickets for the Titanic would have been purchased. They will then walk to Castlebar Railway station where a specially commissioned plaque in memory of the fourteen people will be unveiled.
Last week a team of researchers revealed that they had pieced together the first comprehensive map of the ocean floor where the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean.
A total of 1,517 people died when the giant passenger liner sank on 15 April 1912.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say