Fr Browne’s Titanic Album to be launched in Cobh Heritage Centre on 23rd Nov

“The best Titanic photos in the world”, and taken by an Irishman, feature in a newly published edition of* Fr Brown’s Titanic Album: *The largest extant collection of photos taken onboard the Titanic have been digitalised for the first time and appear in this special edition which marks the centenary of the liner (1912). Director James Cameron paid tribute to the photos by reconstructing scenes in his blockbuster *Titanic* movie exactly as they were captured in Fr Browne’s photos. His collection has also been used to settle disputed claims about what caused the sinking of the ship on that ill-fated journey.

The book has a foreward by Dr Robert Ballard (listen to interview below) who located the sunken ship in 1985. It is edited by Fr Eddie O’Donnell SJ, (who discovered the 42,000 photos by Fr Browne , taken over a lifetime), will be launched in the Cobh heritage centre on Wed 23 Nov at 7pm, 2011, by Ms Una O’Neill, Chair of the Belfast Titanic Society. Relatives of passengers on the ill-fated night, along with representatives from Harland and Wolff shipyard, will attend.

The volume features a newly discovered article by Fr Browne, written for the now obsolete Cork Constitution newspaper, the only thing written by him about the ship before the sinking. And using the photos and memorabilia of Fr Browne’s personal Titanic album, it tells the full story of the great ship’s voyage from Southampton to Cherbourg to Cobh (Queenstown), her final port of call before disaster struck. Eddie O’Donnell will be there on the night to share some of the stories of the ship that still fascinates people one hundred years on.

Click below to listen to him recount some of the tales.

‘Get off the ship now !   How his vow of obedience saved Fr Browne’s life.http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/Titanic_section_02_obedience_01.mp3

Film director James Cameron used the Browne photos including the boy with the spinning top who survived the Titanic only to be knocked down by a car. His father, also a Titanic survivor was to die by drowning in a swimming pool. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/Titanic_section_spinningtop_05.mp3 <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/Titanic_section_spinningtop_05.mp3>

The stowaway who climbed the funnell and was viewed as a bad omen, retrospectively:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/Titanic_eod_mystery__omen3_ 01.mp3

Eddie O’Donnell speaks of his friendship with Dr Robert Ballard who discovered the Titanic and solved the mystery of it splitting in two which it did, right through Fr Browne’s suite of rooms. His bathroom was half a mile from the living room .http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/Titanic_eod_04%20_ballardmp3_01.mp3

How former President Mary Robinson helped save the Fr Browne photos: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/Titanic_selection_book_bestpic_AIB_06_01%20%282%29.mp3

How Eddie ODonnell found the 42,000 photos and the story of Fr Browne’s life: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14999924/TitanicEOD_Browne_socialhist.mp3

*Fr Browne’s Titanic Album is : A Passenger’s Photographs and Personal Memoir,  *is published by Messenger Publications and costs €30.