As the granddaughter of shipbuilders in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Louise Kavanagh grew up hearing about the Titanic.  She will share her stories about the ship on Thursday, April 30, at 6:30 p.m., in Wroten Hall.  The public is encouraged to attend and there is no admission charge. 

Kavanagh says that she was very close to her grandmother who loved to tell her stories about her father and grandfather who worked in the shipyards, and that her grandfather was a carpenter for Harland and Wolff, builders of the Titanic.

“I grew a real interest in Titanic and applied for a job in Northern Ireland's newest tourist attraction which is the Titanic Belfast museum,” Kavanagh says.  “I was a tour guide at the museum and this opened my world to so much more information. Also, many of the stories I heard growing up collaborated with the facts I learned at my new job.”

Kavanagh says she wanted to do this presentation because of the famous story and because she has so much background experience and knowledge.

“I hope that this can be an educational experience but I also want the community to get a feel for real Irish heritage,” Kavanagh says.  “Titanic is a big part of Irish history and I love that my family was a part of that. Growing up near the shipyards was interesting; it has developed a lot over the years but as a child I remember my parents taking me down to the original slipways where the Titanic sat and a year ago I even had the privilege of walking through the actual drawing rooms were she was created.” 

Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The sinking resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 passengers and crew, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.