I have never watched Titanic
It’s too sad
To watch a story knowing that they die
In cold uncaring waters
Beneath a starless sky
Bodies floating killed by cold
A world left wondering why
But I watched another film today
About people then on board
Fourteen souls from Addergoole
In the county of Mayo
Bound for old Chicago
A new life to be made
Waked off for America
Parting tears were paid
News came back of tragedy
Eleven of them were drowned
Three survived to make a life
In the land that they had found
And to this day in Lahardane
On April’s darkest night
The folk process and ring the bell
For those long gone
For those now out of sight
Brian Fahy
31 October 2022
+ The people of the village of Lahardane, Mayo process to the church at 2.20am, on 15 April, commemorating the time that the Titanic sank in 1912, and remember their neighbours who left for a new life and perished so sadly in dark Atlantic waters.
At the time of their deaths, the people back home laid out linen on the bed and placed a picture of their loved one there and gathered round to wake that person. They had no body and no grave to visit, but they could still ‘wake’ the dead.
Erris Poetry 