Cycling for Bubaque 2019-Ireland: Addergoole Titanic Memorial Park

Fourteen residents of the nearby Lahardene carry along to the land of promise on the Titanic. They left behind a grim poverty-stricken existence in rural Ireland in the hope of a better future in America.

T.g.v. the potato famine of 1847-49 halved the population of the poor county Mayo from 400,000 to 200,000 in 50 years, as many younger residents emigrated to all corners of the world. The Irish diaspora.

From the 14 Titanic passengers died 11. Their stories can be read on a panel. There was a newlywed couple at (1911) who were expecting their first child. The pregnant woman and her sister-in-law were allowed on lifeboat 16, but the husband/brother was refused as women and children were given priority. Then both women decided to climb back onto the Titanic to die together with husband/brother. Another young girl from Lahardene was saved because their decision allowed her to join them on lifeboat 16. Heartbreaking.

The memorial was only Founded 100 years after date. Later, a man in the village told me that talking about that disaster was taboo for a long time, because the drowning people were the loans which they had entered into to pay for the crossing, have not repaid. Once again heartbreaking for the bereaved ...