At 3 pm on the afternoon of Friday 11th April 2014, 102 years to the day after the Titanic anchored in Cork Harbour, the Cobh Titanic Memorial Garden will be officially opened. Situated at Cove Fort, the project is a collaboration between Cobh Town Council, the Cobh Titanic Centenary committee and Cobh Tourism and was funded by Cobh Town Council, Cork County Council, The County Cork Association of New York, Fáilte Ireland and South and East Cork Area Development Ltd (SECAD) through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the National Development Plan. The focal point of the garden is a Glass Memorial Wall overlooking the final anchorage of RMS Titanic onto which the names of the 123 passengers that boarded the Titanic at Queenstown are inscribed.
On Sunday 13th April, people gather in the ship’s last port of call to remember all those who died, but in particular the passengers who boarded in Cobh. The ceremony which is an annual event organised by Cobh Tourism will start at 3 pm at the Old Town Hall at Lynch’s Quay. A Colour Party from the Cobh Branch O.N.E. will parade to the Titanic Memorial in Pearse Square. Here a ceremony of prayers and wreath laying will have musical honours provided by the Commodore Male Voice Choir and Cobh Confraternity Band. Wreaths will be laid at the Titanic Memorial and the proceedings will then move to the Promenade where seventy nine white flowers will be placed in the sea in memory of the “Cobh” passengers lost in the tragedy. The Mayor of Cobh, Councillor John Mulvihill jnr. will then place a wreath in the sea in honour of all those who lost their lives when the Titanic sank. The ceremonies will conclude with Cobh Confraternity Band's rendition of the Last Post and Reveille.
Members of the public are encouraged to attend both the opening of the Titanic Memorial Garden and the Titanic Commemoration.
