Addergoole's Annual Ringing Of The Timoney Bell

The Timoney Bell was erected by the renowned Addergoole Irish scholar, Míchéal Ó Tiomanaidhe (Michael Timoney) in the 1930’s in St Patrick’s Church grounds, Lahardane. In days past it called people to prayer at mid-day and at six each evening. It also alerted them each Sunday, ten minutes before Mass started. Before radio and telephony were well entrenched in Addergoole its floating peal across the fields and hills in all weather, was a very poignant communicator. It was the major way to quickly summon the whole community, especially if rung out of routine. Such bells are common in church grounds in rural Ireland; most now hang idle.

Each year on 15th April at 2.20am members of the Addergoole Titanic Society ring the Timoney Bell for twenty five minutes. There are two slow knells for each of our eleven lost, and three happy joyous minutes for the three that were saved.

Addergoole is the only location that our society knows of, where the sinking of the Titanic is acknowledged by the ringing of a lonely church bell at the dead of night. It’s the big bell with a long history, now silent for the rest of the year; a notice is inserted in the Parish Bulletin to remind people of the Titanic occasion, lest they wake up thinking vandals are making use of their church bell.