Last night in the Shed, we stepped away from sawdust and scones and found ourselves transported back over a century—to one of the darkest and most devastating nights ever witnessed on Carlingford Lough.

Seán Patterson, our guest speaker and respected local maritime historian, delivered a spellbinding illustrated talk on the tragic collision of the Retriever and the Connemara on 3rd November 1916—a night when brutal weather, misfortune, and fate aligned with fatal consequences.

Seán opened by reminding us that 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the disaster: the worst shipping tragedy ever to occur in our local waters. Two vessels—the Newry collier Retriever and the railway passenger steamer Connemara—found themselves at the entrance to Carlingford Lough in conditions so atrocious that visibility was almost zero and the sea itself seemed intent on swallowing anything in its path. Within minutes of colliding, both ships were lost. Ninety-four souls perished, many within heartbreaking sight of the shoreline.

With his trademark clarity and depth, Seán guided us through the chain of decisions, circumstances, and simple bad luck that placed the two ships in exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time. He explored the movements of both vessels in the hours leading up to the tragedy, the severe weather system tearing across the Irish Sea that night, the navigational challenges at the mouth of the Lough, and the role of fate—which meant some individuals boarded at the last minute while others, by sheer chance, did not sail at all. It became clear that this was not just a maritime accident; it was a collision of lives, stories, and decisions converging in a moment of horror.

What made Seán’s talk particularly gripping were the human threads woven throughout: local folklore passed down through generations, stories of those who survived and those who narrowly avoided boarding, the backgrounds of both vessels from their construction to their service histories, and the aftermath—how communities on both sides of the Lough coped with such profound loss. He even touched on the ripples the disaster sent across the Irish Sea, including to Holyhead—the very port the Connemara was bound for on that fateful night.

Seán has delivered this talk across the North of Ireland and even in Holyhead itself, but hearing it here, in our Shed at the foot of the Mournes, felt deeply personal. Many of us know the Lough like an old friend. To imagine such devastation in waters we drive past every day made the tragedy all the more vivid. In 1996, Seán successfully campaigned for a plaque to be unveiled by the local council to mark the 80th anniversary of the collision—ensuring that the names and stories of those lost would never fade from local memory.

As the talk came to a close, the room held that rare, heavy silence that follows something powerful. The kind of silence where men sit a little straighter, a little more thoughtful. We came away with a deeper respect for our maritime heritage, a renewed understanding of the fragility of life, and an appreciation for the storytellers and historians who keep these memories alive.