| The TITANIC sank on 15 April 1912 .Its first,(and last) port of call was Queenstown Co. Cork where the Jesuit Father Brown disembarked, on 12 April. having taken numerous brilliant photographs en route from Southampton. He was one lucky Irishman, for many Irish men, women and children boarded at Queenstown, most as third class or steerage passengers, not as tourists but as emigrants hoping to earn a better standard of living by hard work. They will not have been splashing money on Guinness, bottled or draught, or dancing to music influenced by Sean O’Riada, as depicted in the meretricious movie of a few years ago. I don’t know if any copies of THE TIMES (London) of 11 April were taken on at Queenstown and would be greatly surprised if it was read by the steerage passengers. For its Editorial reveals as much about class privilege and class deprivation as the disproportionate survival and loss ratios of first class and steerage and passengers on that fateful voyage. The Editorial “SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS ” read – “MR KEIR HARDIE made the truly absurd proposal that men joining the Army should be given the option as to whether or not they shall be liable to take duty in aid of the civil power. The notion that we may have two kinds of soldiers side by side, one of them absolved from a duty incumbent on all citizens, and the other ready to discharge that duty, was too much for the common sense even of Mr Keir Hardie’s political friends.” As Labour Party leader, Keir Hardie was trying to spare rank and file soldiers from being used as strike-breakers and the pawns of employers, or of breaking the heads of Trade Unionists. As THE TIMES well knew there was more than one kind of soldier. Officers in the Lancers rode on horses as high as that of a TIMES leader-writer. And Ulster Unionists enjoyed privileges denied Trade Unionists. There were insufficient lifeboats on the TITANIC and steerage passengers were physically kept from access to them whilst their better-heeled and more sharp-elbowed neighbours were given priority. The TITANIC was the brainchild of JOSEPH BRUCE ISMAY, Chairman of THE WHITE STAR LINE. He managed to jump in a lifeboat and got safely to New York. He survived the disaster for twenty-five more years, dying in 1937. THE TIMES, (but of course!) carried an Obituary. It should t be treasured by connoisseurs of journalism. For it fails to mention both RMS TITANIC and THE WHITE STAR LINE. The DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, a reference book which I have usually found excellent, quotes THE TIMES Obituary in full. But does not add to it the only details of Ismay’s life which might earn anybody’s interest. |
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