The Two Pennies

My Name is Tommy Millar and this is my story.

I was working as a shipwright in Harland and Wolff shipyard, when my wife died and left me with two young sons. I joined the crew of the Titanic as a deckhand to make the one-way trip to America, find a new home and send for my sons so that we could have a better life together.

Before leaving Belfast I pressed a penny into each of my son's hands. 'There you are boys, a new penny each. Don't spend them until I come back.'

Tommy Millar never came back. He lost his life on that fateful night of April 14, 1912 when the Titanic sank beneath the waves of the North Atlantic after colliding with an iceberg.

Our dance is a memorial to the legend of the titanic, to the Belfast men who built her and to all those who lost their lives, especially Tommy Millar whose family still cherish those two pennies.