And What About Those In Steerage

Would you like to sit down and enjoy the same meal as the doomed First Class passengers of the Titanic?

Sorry, but you're too late to the party.

Noel Loughnane of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology dreamed up the dinner recreation as a way to raise money for the RNLI Galway lifeboat.

Times being what they are, with so many cuts to so many worthy causes, Mr. Loughnane realized that a fundraiser was essential. As a lecturer in the culinary arts, he also had the creative energy to dream up a remarkably unique theme. Tickets for the March 21st event were priced at E100 each for the eleven course meal (with appropriate wines), and they sold out in days.

Students in period costume will fill the institute's training restaurant with the right atmosphere, while guests will feast on the same bill of fare as those who consumed salmon with mousseline sauce without knowing it was their last meal.

So that's E6,000 for the lifeboat fund. Considering that the vast majority of the First Class passengers made it into lifeboats, however, I might suggest that GMIT expand the night's offering at a reduced price.

Diners could be accomodated in small classrooms, perhaps, to mimic conditions in steerage, where they would feast on whatever swill was dished out to the lower classes. The price of admission would be commensurate with the lack of luxury, naturally, but cram enough bodies into those cubicles and there's untold profits to be realized. The lifeboat station could be subsidized for the next ten years if Mr. Loughnane organized things like a White Star Line executive.

The many steerage passengers who died for lack of a lifeboat would appreciate the gesture.