Castlebar Town Council has reversed a decision that a plaque at the town’s railway station commemorating 14 Titanic passengers from Co Mayo be worded in English only.
An original proposal for a bilingual plaque in memory of the 14 passengers from Addergoole (Lahardane), Ballina, was rejected on cost grounds.
Four councillors opposed making the plaque bilingual because it would increase the cost from €1,400 to just over €2,500.
This decision so incensed Sinn Féin councillor Therese Ruane that she reported the matter to the Irish language commissioner, An Coimisinéir Teanga.
Having been informed that they could be prosecuted if they proceeded with a plaque that was not bilingual, the town councillors decided to reverse a motion on the matter, which they had agreed on at their February meeting.
The reworded plaque will be unveiled on Easter Sunday by the stationmaster at Castlebar, Noel Hoban.
Eleven of the 14 steerage passengers from Addergoole, which was largely an Irish- speaking district in the early part of the last century, died in the tragedy.
The journey of the Addergoole 14 by pony and trap to Castlebar railway station, where they caught a train to Cobh, will be re-enacted on Easter Sunday.