The little village of Lahardan in the parish of Addergoole, built on the banks of Lough Conn and nestled at the foot of Mount Nephin in County Mayo, Ireland, seems an unlikely place to be chosen as Ireland’s Titanic Village. But 100 years ago 14 young men and women left the village to travel to America together to seek their fortune.They traveled by horse and cart and then took several trains across Ireland to reach what was then known as Queenstown in County Cork and boarded the world’s most famous ship, the Titanic. Only three survived, and their stories and those of their friends and relatives who perished when the enormous vessel hit an iceberg and sank have been immortalized in the village. There are two stained glass windows in the church, one illustrating the sad reality of constant emigration from Ireland and the other depicting the scene remembered by one of the survivors, Annie Kate Kelly. Annie had been rescued in lifeboat 16. She recalled that she had the place in the boat because her friends, Catherine and Mary Burke, who were ahead of her refused to enter the lifeboat without John Burke. She remembered Catherine, who was pregnant, saying that she would not leave her husband, and Mary, John’s sister, also refused to leave him. All three drowned. “I should not have been saved at all were it not for Mrs. Bourke refusing to leave her husband,” Annie Kate Kelly told the Chicago Herald in April 1912. The window shows Annie looking up from boat 16 at her friends and relatives standing on the deck of the sinking ship.

In Ireland history lives long, and tragedies such as the loss of 11 members of the community on the Titanic have been mourned and remembered. Their stories are preserved and the loss commemorated with an annual tolling of the bell at the church on April 15. They are not forgotten. The village of Lahardan has created a memorial park and a program of education for Irish schools and throughout the world. In 2010, an American wake was held in Boston to honor those who perished and raise awareness of their stories. An American wake was an old tradition of waking those who traveled to America. The wake was on one level a riotous party celebrating the opportunity to escape from poverty and oppression that America represented, and on another level it the saddest parting from a loved one who would never be seen again, a loss as final as a death.

In early March as part of their visit to Ireland, students from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Irish history class were the guests of the Addergoole Titanic Society. They were taken to see the stained glass windows, the memorial park and on a haunting drive to the houses of the Titanic emigrants. They were treated to a traditional Irish lunch and were able to meet and talk with two relatives of the Titanic 14. Commenting on the day in Lahardan, Marc Natichioni said: “It was a great experience to learn a little history of the Titanic and learn the stories of the people who made the journey. I am glad I got the chance to sit down and talk with Davy Donohue. Not too many people can say that they’ve talked with a descendent of a Titanic traveler.”

For Michael Montanile, the most enduring image of the day was the stained glass depicting the story of boat 16. “It’s amazing to think of all the countless stained glass windows in the world, there is only one that tells the story of the Titanic and that is here in this village church,” he said.

Charlie Pikor agreed and said he was already missing the “wonderful Irish hospitality that everyone showed us in Lahardan.”

Other students who traveled to Ireland, including Alice Greene, Megan Mendenhall and Dylan Brockmeyer were struck by the pride that their hosts had in their heritage and how happy they were to share it with their American guests.

The student group traveled throughout Ireland and enjoyed the many different aspects of the culture that they saw, from seaweed baths to the Abbey Theater and hurling games to donkey sanctuary.

Though Lahardan is a rural village far from the centers of power and commerce, it has played a significant part in history before. In 1798, when Napoleon’s army led by General Humbert invaded Ireland to free that country from English rule, they landed in the Mayo town of Killala. They marched through Lahardan on their way to the county town of Castlebar gathering Irish recruits as they went. Unfortunately, there was a communication problem that was solved by the parish priest of Lahardan who had been educated in France. Acting as translator and strategist, he led the troops to a little-known way over the mountains to Castlebar known as the Windy Gap. As a result, the French and Irish soldiers had the advantage of surprise and defeated the English garrison. Their march on Dublin was defeated in Roscommon by a now-prepared English army and the reprisals were swift and brutal. Lahardan’s priest was hanged, but he also is not forgotten and his story is told on a large Celtic cross in the center of the village.

Lahardan is a place that keeps and protects its stories, but it is not a sad, dispirited place of mourning. As everyone knows who lives near the village, it is the center of social life for miles around. Here festivals are held and traditional music and dancing can be heard every evening in the summer and the Lahardan fair on August 15 is the highlight of many social calendars. All the traditions rest safe here in a community that loves life, celebrates it and mourns its loss and where every stranger is indeed a friend.

The class would like to thank the members of our community who helped us on our way: Kathy Donegan of Contemporary Landsacpes, Tom Rancich, the Afrian American Heritage Trail and Susan Parker, and to recommend that readers go on the Web and look up mayo-titanic.com, and learn about Ireland’s Titanic village.

Elaine Cawley Weintraub is charman of the history department at the regional high school.