The Archbishop of Armagh the Most Revd Alan Harper, led the annual RMS Titanic memorial service in St Mary’s Church, Southampton, Hampshire, on Sunday 17 April 2011 – Palm Sunday, in which he highlighted the links between Belfast and Southampton.
In his address the Archbishop said:
“In the rare flat calm of a moonless Atlantic night 99 years ago, the White Star liner Titanic struck an iceberg and sank with the loss of 1,517 souls. Only 706 survived.
“The crew numbered 899. Of them only 214 -23.8% – survived. The situation of Third Class passengers was almost as bad: only 174 of the 710 – 24.5% – survived, compared with 60.5%, 199 of the 329 First Class passengers. The poorest paid the highest price in loss of life.
“In this city of Southampton almost 1000 local families were directly affected. Nearly every street in the Chapel district lost a resident; more than 500 households lost a member. And all took place in the flat calm and pitch black of a cold, moonless night. On occasions such as these it is people that matter. We are here to remember and to reflect.
“It is 100 years this year since Titanic was launched in Belfast at the shipyard of Harland and Wolff. She seemed at the time to be a potent symbol of engineering skill and craftsmanship. Over the years Titanic has achieved such iconic status that the river frontage of the old shipyard is now the location of a huge development already known as ‘The Titanic Quarter’. It is Europe’s biggest waterfront regeneration project, within walking distance of the city centre, bringing residential, commercial and academic facilities to Queen’s Island itself, heart of the old shipyard. In the scale of its ambition it rivals Titanic herself.
“Yet who can escape the irony of commemorating the long and distinguished history of shipbuilding in Belfast at Harland and Wolff by memorializing a tragedy. Why a vessel which sank on her maiden voyage with huge loss of life should be so celebrated, while famous and equally ground breaking vessels like the Canberra, with its innovative turbo electric propulsion system and extensive use of aluminium are casually forgotten, raises fascinating questions about human psychology…..”
The Archbishop told how he hd called with the mother of Constable Ronan Kerr four days after the funeral and he used the cross-community reaction to that murder as an example of how hope responded to tragedy.
He continued:
“…history did not stop, nor was God’s purpose thwarted in the blackness of the Atlantic night that claimed the Titanic and so many lives. Hope does triumph over history, and just as it is right that we should remember and reflect, it is also right to move on, not paralysed by past tragedy but inspired by fresh opportunities our fathers never knew.
“Belfast’s rising Titanic Quarter represents just such a triumph of hope over history. It is rooted in the desire of nearly every citizen to transform the present and create a new future out of a past released from tragedy, accident, error and evil. This is the way to commemorate loss – to remember respectfully, to try harder, to reach higher and be thankful to God for the opportunity.”
Foot note: the Belfast civic remembrance service of remembrance held immediately after the Titanic disaster was in St Anne’s Cathedral with which the Milne-Barbour family had very close links. Thomas Andrews, one of the major designers of the vessel who perished, was a son-in-law.