The loss of 11 people from one Mayo parish in the sinking of the RMS Titanic 98 years ago was remembered at a special ceremony in the county in the early hours of this morning.
The lonely toll of St Patrick's Church bell in Lahardane marked the lives of the 11 victims from Addergoole parish, at 2.20am today.
The 11 were among 1,517 people who died after the ship hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage on April 15th, 1912.. Three of Addergoole parish's 14 emigrants on board the ship survived, and they are also remembered with a contrasting up-beat bell toll at the annual ceremony.
Michael Molloy, public relations officer for the Addergoole Titanic Society, said the parish had about 1,600 residents at the time of the sinking. "At one per cent of the population, the loss represented the greatest in Europe from one small locality on board," he says.
Pupils from three national schools in Lahardane, Rathbane and Rathkell were among some 150 people who attended the early morning vigil, which was also marked with poetry, recitations and music. Many of the bell-ringers are direct descendants of the victims.
St Patrick's Church is said to be the only place in Europe where the sinking is recalled every year at the hour of the ship's foundering.