Open air Mass to remember Boher Titanic victim

A special outdoor Mass in Boher at 3pm on Sunday April 15 - the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic - will remember a local man who died in the tragedy.Pat Fox, who had already spent some years in America, left Boher to travel back there for a short period. Sadly, his passage was on the Titanic, and he wasn't one of those who survived.Retired teacher Maura Conlon says Pat was intent on returning home: "His house stood in a field, and the next field belonged to Mick McKeon, my father, and he was planning to sell it."My father worked in what's now Claffey's in Castletown Geoghegan, and Pat, the night before he went, came in, and he leaned across the counter and said confidentially to my father: 'Don't sell that bit of land till I come back'."The open air Mass is in the field where Mr Fox's house stood, organised by locals who have a tangible link to the Titanic tragedy as a result of Mr Fox's death.Maura's husband, the late Paddy Conlon, had always hoped that if he were alive, he would be able to have a Mass offered for Paddy around the anniversary."Some of the lads who would have been close to Paddy said he was going to do something for Pat Fox if he was alive in 2012," says Maura, explaining how the arrangements began.The late Mr Conlon had arranged to have a plaque on the wall of the field where the Fox house stood. It says: 'Birthplace of Pat Fox, died on the Titanic'.Pat Fox was 28 when he boarded the Titanic. He had relatives in the US, and was understood to be going to visit them.Pat's sister Mary, who worked in Castletown, and two other sisters went to America, where they married two Kearney brothers from Kilbeggan.A niece of Pat's came to Boher a few years back and was delighted to find his memory kept alive there.Pat's name is listed in the museum in Cobh, from where the Titanic set sail, as one of those who didn't survive.Fr Philip Smith, PP of Ballymore and Boher, was happy to be asked to say the Mass, which is open to all.There were other Westmeath lives lost on the Titanic, including that of Miss Mary Kelly from Castlepollard, a 23-year-old who, like Pat, was travelling third class and who also paid the fee of £7-15s for her ticket.An entire Athlone family was also lost in the tragedy - Margaret Rice, with her sons, Eugene, George Hugh, Albert, Eric, Arthur and George Frederick Thomas.