This coming weekend in Cobh Co. Cork, the Titanic’s last port of call, will be one of remembrance and commemoration as the town looks back a century to The Titanic and the people associated with her and pays respect with a number of tributes.
A Search and Rescue extravaganza display by the Irish Coast Guard will take place at the historic Titanic site on Saturday afternoon, April 14, with a demonstration of the many techniques used during operations.
That evening at 11.40PM St. Colman Cathedral in Co. Cork will host a fitting tribute to the RMS Titanic exactly 100 years from the day that the ill-fated liner hit the iceberg.
Many of the 123 passengers who embarked on the Titanic at Queenstown are believed to have attended Mass in the cathedral before boarding the ship. It is therefore a great mark of respect and remembrance of those who lost their lives in the tragedy that the memorial will be held in the same location.
A concert will take place in the Cathedral with Adrian Gebruers (the cathedral Carillionneur) playing the Carillion at 11.40PM, marking the precise moment when the Titanic struck the iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.
The programme will feature Chopin’s Funeral March and the hymn ‘For Those in Peril on the Sea’. The short recital will conclude with the hymn ‘Nearer my God to Thee’, which is believed to have been played in the final moments by the liner’s eight-man orchestra, all of whom perished.
On Sunday, a ecumenical church service will mark the century of the Titanic tragedy in St. Colman’s Cathedral at 2.00pm. This will be followed by a wreath-laying and closing ecumenical service in the centre of Cobh town at 3:30pm.
A special veteran Vintage and Classic Car Run will also commemorate the tragedy this weekend.