Titanic passengers remember in Co. Mayo

By Melissa Turtinen

The Michael Timoney Bell, shown here during a recent post-rennovation ceremony, will be heard in Lahardane at the exact time that RMS Titanic sank with 14 of its villagers on board.

Every year on the early morning of April 15, one town in Ireland goes to great lengths to remember those who died on the RMS Titanic.

The people of Lahardane Village from the Addergoole Parish in Co. Mayo remember 14 emigrants from their parish who were on the Titanic 98 years ago. Eleven women and three men from Addergoole were aboard the luxurious ship, only three of the women survived. Lahardane had the most people aboard the Titanic from a single town in Europe.

Among the 130 steerage (third class) passengers that deprated from Queenstown (Cobh), Cork on April 11, 1912 were the Addergoole 14, who were setting sail for a new life in America.

Lahardane is the only place in all of Europe that continues to remember the tragedy that occurred on the morning of April 15, 1912 when the RMS Titanic sank off the Great Banks of Newfoundland at 2:20 a.m. after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The people of Lahardane will take part in the village's annual bell ringing ceremony with readings, poetry, recitations and emigrant songs to commemorate those lives lost aboard the ship. The ceremony will begin at 2 a.m. and finish at 3 a.m.

Three slow knells will ring from the free-standing bell tower at Saint Patrick’s church for each of the 11 souls lost. Followed up by fast, joyous rings for each of the three women saved. Many of those ringing the bells are the direct descendants of the Addergoole Fourteen who were aboard the ship.

The Titanic Commemoration and bell-ringing vigil is presented by the Addergoole Titanic Society and is open to all. More information on the annual event is available at www.mayo-titanic.com.