Cllr Bowsie brings motion to remember Titanic victim James McGrady from Crossgar
The Titanic disaster has once again hit troubled waters… this time at a committee meeting on Newry Mourne and Down district Council.
DUP Rowallane Councillor Callum Bowsie raised a motion on the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee to remember a victim of the 2012 Titanic disaster who lived on the Rockschapel Road, Crossgar.
However, the motion hit troubled waters as a raft of councillors agreed with it in principle saying it was a ‘good motion’, but needed to be referred back to the Good Relations Working Group.
What looked like a straight forward piece of Council business on the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee turned out to be a lot more complex showing there is many a slip twixt cup and lip and that local government bureaucracy can be a minefield of red tape.
The chief concern was raised by SDLP Slieve Gullion Councillor Pete Byrne who said there was also another Titanic victim from the Slieve Gullion area.
He said: “We support the motion, bu there was a man from Jonesborough, James Haslin, who was a victim also… I think it is deeply insensitive not to include him too.
“Sending this back to the Working Group is the right thing to do.”
Sinn Féin Cllr Oonagh Hanlon said her party also supported the motion.
But she raised concerns about the possibility of moving outwith the council’s policy on setting up memorials and pace names and said council officers needed to clarify this.
DUP Councillor Henry Reilly also backed the motion in principle, but recognised the relevance of the new information about another victim that the Good Relations Working Group did not have initially,
He said it would be appropriate to send it back to the Working Group for further consideration.
(Cllr Reilly referred also to the County Down link with the Chief Naval Architect, Thomas Andrews who was born in Comber.)
( Check for more information on Thomas Andrews. )
Cllr Bowsies’ motion did suggest, however, that the accuracy of the details would be screened by a ‘maritime historian’ so this would have no doubt been picked up at this planning point of the project.
Cllr Bowsie said: “I would have suggested a separate motion for other victims of the Titanic if they [the councillors] wanted to recognise victims in their areas.
“There is a need for a Titanic-styled bench in the Square in Crossgar.
“However, now with this information coming to light it would be insensitive to other victims’ families in the district.” Cllr Bowsie accepted the issue had to go back to the Working Group for further consideration.
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James McGrady, who signed on as a ship’s steward, died on that fateful day on the 6th April 1912.
The full text of Cllr Bowsie’s motion reads: “This Council recognises the significance of the Titanic’s legacy, the public interest in the tragedy and the importance of remembering the local lives that were lost on it; Tasks the Council to prepare a report with the view to installing a memorial to Crossgar’s Titanic victim, James McGrady, in a public space in Crossgar and recommends liaising with a maritime historian and the council’s heritage officer to ensure this memorial is accurate and befitting to this Titanic worker.“
James McGrady was born on 8th March 1885 in the townland of Lisnamore near Crossgar. His father may have died before he was born but his mother eventually remarried to a Killyleagh farmer, Thomas Savage.
However, James was then cared for by his maternal grand-mother for a short time until her death in1902 aged 87. He was raised in an RC family.
According to the Encyclopaedia Titanica, James used the address of the Platform Tavern in Southhampton before signing on the Titanic on the 5th April 1912, aged 27.
Previously he had shipped aboard the Oceanic for a wage of £3 15/- a month working as a steward.
James may have chosen to live and work in the land of opportunity like so many Irish people in North America, but fate intervened.
The Titanic built at Harland and Wolff in Belfast having sailed from Southhampton on its maiden voyage displaced 22,000 tons, was 882.75 feet long, 92-feet wide and had a draught of 59-feet.
It was equivalent to 17 storeys high and sported a swimming pool, 2 barber shops, a ballroom, libraries, restaurants, and gymnasiums.
Every passengers cabin first class had a telephone and electric lights.
However, the vessel was failing in its provision of lifeboats and the ones that were launched were not filled to capacity. Crew training in emergency procedures was probably minimal.
An estimated 1517 passengers and crew drowned when the ship sank at 2.20am that morning after striking an iceberg on a moonlight night.
The Titanic, a technical marvel of the industrial age, sank breaking its back. There were only spaces on the lifeboats for a. maximum 1178 people.
The Carpathia arrived first at 3.30am to a scene of devastation.
James McGrady was among those who perished in the sinking or who died into the freezing sea to survive only minutes.
705 people were saved, but 1517 died. 303 were subsequently buried at sea.
James McGrady’s body was recovered on 25th May 1912 and was brought to Halifax in Nova Scotia to be buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery. He was one of the last to be recovered – number 328 0f 330.
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Cllr Bowsie’s motion was discussed at the Council’s Equality and Good Relations Forum on 1st August 2023 having been forwarded from the full council meeting on 3rd April.
Members of the Good Relations Working Group were supportive of the motion that a commemorative information plaque and bench be installed in Crossgar.
The Working Group also indicated it was to flag up that James McGrady from Crossgar was one of the last victims to be recovered from the North Atlantic and that the gesture showed the link between Crossgar and the Titanic.
The Group recommended that the motion included the cost of the works, including the information panel and installation and future maintenance.
Also, a consultation with a maritime historian was recommended and liaising with the Council Heritage Officer.
The proposal was stalled and referred back to the Good Relations Working Group for further consideration.
Check out: Comber recognises Thomas Andrews.
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Details of James Haslin who dies on the Titanic.
James Haslin was born at Edenappa, Jonesborough in South Armagh in 1861 in a family of eight. He went to work from Liverpool as a seaman and returned to the family farm in 1888 with his wife and family of three.
Signing on as a trimmer on the Titanic in 1912, James was earning £5-10/- per month.
Further details can be found at:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/james-haslin.html
