Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

An illustration from Get Off That Ship. ©Alan Dunne

Stunning Titanic graphic novel was seven years in the making

Irish illustrator reveals his labour of love – a graphic novel that chronicles the experience of photographer Fr Frank Browne on board the doomed ship.

AN IRISH ILLUSTRATOR has created a 120-page graphic novel to chronicle the experiences of Fr Frank Browne on the Titanic.

Browne, a Jesuit who became one of the most important photographers to capture images of early 20th century Ireland, was on board the Titanic for the Southampton to Cobh leg of its maiden voyage. A piece on TheJournal.ie earlier this week (The luckiest priest on the Titanic…) outlined how Browne was ordered off the ship at Cobh via a wire from his Jesuit superior, known as the Provincial. The message read: “Get off that ship. Provincial.”

Alan Dunne, a Dublin-based graphic designer and illustrator, has created an intricately-drawn record of Browne’s experiences on the ship, the historically-important images of Titanic he captured – and the cleric’s response to the news that the liner had sunk after he had disembarked. The first chapter of the graphic novel – called Get Off That Ship – is available to view here.

The project was carefully researched by Dunne with painstaking attention to Frank Browne’s own writings and interviews, as well as the important and unique images he left behind of the doomed Titanic.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Dunne said that the novel began as a project for his college course in 2005 after he heard Fr Browne’s Titanic Album author Eddie O’Donnell being interviewed on radio about Browne’s photographic legacy. (O’Donnell discovered a large number of Browne’s Titanic photographs in 1985). Dunne said:

I thought he (O’Donnell) was very interesting and I thought: there must be a visual way of telling such a visual story.

After embarking on the idea of making a graphic novel of Browne’s story and the story of how the iconic images were taken, Dunne said he continued it beyond college. He has spent almost every spare moment outside of his day job since then, researching, writing the script for the novel and creating the illustrations. He said:

I try to strike a balance with the time spent on it – my girlfriend and friends would be annoyed if I didn’t but, yes, I do get asked sometimes: ‘Have you finished this bloody book!’

The first chapter of the book – consisting of 22 pages of painstakingly-detailed illustrations – has just been published on GetOffThatShip.com. The research and thumbnail illustrations for the remaining chapters are complete and the book will have around 120 pages in total. Dunne is hoping to get it published in book form.

Looking at this sample of images from the book, so are we… (It’s worth looking at Dunne’s blog too to get a sense of the time and effort that has gone into the project):

Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne
1 / 10
  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - © Alan Dunne

  • Get Off That Ship - the process

  • Get Off That Ship - the process

  • Get Off That Ship - the process

Read more articles about the centenary of the sinking of Titanic>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
7 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Gorry
    Favourite Paul Gorry
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:38 PM

    No way Michael. Like you couldn’t see this coming. Ireland is an easy target tho keep that in mind.

    1160
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Gorry
    Favourite Paul Gorry
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 1:34 AM

    @Paul Gorry: let’s not be shy about this situation. The government have failed here. Refugees living on the streets of Ireland as i type. FFFG should disengage immediately. If only! .A government not fit for purpose. Just the usual jack the lads tripe they spit out over and over again. And by the way Pascal stick yer posters where the sun don’t shine.

    382
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas Sheridan
    Favourite Thomas Sheridan
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:35 PM

    We have a full generation of working people from 20 – 40 years old who are permanent hamsters in the property rental circus – and yet, people here are obsessed with providing accommodation for uncontrolled illegal immigration

    1280
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
    Favourite Gearóid MacEachaidh
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 4:40 PM

    @Thomas Sheridan: it’s not “uncontrolled illegal immigration “. It is 100% legal to claim asylum and the authorities of that country are duty bound to process that claim. The numbers arriving are more than we can handle, due to how many Ukrainians we’ve taken in, but calling something” illegal immigration ” when it’s not is the kind of hateful lies that are being spouted by far right groups at protests recently.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute George Vladisavljevic
    Favourite George Vladisavljevic
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:39 PM

    Seriously, if the government count manage to house their own homeless before the start of othe Ukrainian conflict and arrival of some 70,000 refugees as well as the normal number of refugees from other parts of the world, what was the expected result. No real or serious investment in housing for over a decade, and this is supposed to be a surprise. Muppets

    991
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute George Vladisavljevic
    Favourite George Vladisavljevic
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:40 PM

    @George Vladisavljevic: …could not manage

    119
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Kearon
    Favourite Stephen Kearon
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:42 PM

    @George Vladisavljevic: since the current Govt came into office there has been the largest every investment in housing – €4,000,000,000 per annum, not a cent of which is been used to provide temporary shelter for fellow human beings fleeing from war.

    56
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Gorry
    Favourite Paul Gorry
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:51 PM

    @Stephen Kearon: Stephen Ireland is closed. There is no where to put these unfortunate people. What are you not understanding?

    490
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Linehan
    Favourite Paul Linehan
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 7:16 AM

    @Stephen Kearon: There may well have been an allocation of €4 billion for last year and this year. But the actual spend on new builds in 2022 was €2.2 billion, leaving almost half of the allocated monies either spent on existing overpriced housing stock (which most required upgrades) or the money returned to the exchequer. Anyone can budget for the year ahead and allow for a contingency amount. But the gombeens in charge of the country’s finances are either over budgeting and not being able to achieve an end result. Or setting a budget without proper delivery terms and conditions that runs into almost 3 times the initial costings. You can’t defend the indefensible on this one Stephen.

    157
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keth Warsaw
    Favourite Keth Warsaw
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:39 PM

    Anyone else starting to feel a tad unsafe (including forcing refugees into an equally unsafe situation (sleeping on streets….’sleeping-on-streets’ – this is protection? And riots) This and other situations (young people unable to afford mortgages – lives on hold, overcrowded A&E, Children not receiving mental care. And HOUSING. The list is endless) Is it the governments plan to confuse us in a malady of chaos – smoke and mirrors? Oh wait….we have a plan to make a plan. No, this is vanity and chaos…right here, right now. We are experiencing chaos. Quiet…creeping chaos wrapped in professional answers in the key of denial and spin.

    729
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jason Dawson
    Favourite Jason Dawson
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 5:49 AM

    @Keth Warsaw: exactly, the only thing I have seen these leaders excel at over the last twenty years is to put themselves on pedastals.
    Pedastals high enough to look down on us, high enough that they can’t hear us.

    386
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Baronvoncass
    Favourite Baronvoncass
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:12 PM

    This is only the start, population growth refugee pressure and economic migration are only going one way. Question is what is our acceptable quota per year. In 2030 if we have 200000 a year refugees incoming because we are seen as an idealistic country which let’s face it that’s where we are placing ourselves. Are we going to plan for those numbers??? Quota , limitation of migration or plan for colossal numbers in the future which means radical transport, infrastructure, hospital increase.

    554
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Gorry
    Favourite Paul Gorry
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:17 PM

    @Baronvoncass: Are we going to plan for these numbers? Absolutely not this government haven’t planned for the numbers in 2023 they are up shit creek without a paddle.

    516
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Will Roche
    Favourite Will Roche
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:43 PM

    Loves a good holiday does Michael.

    415
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Delaney
    Favourite James Delaney
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:41 PM

    Fffg out

    488
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Gorry
    Favourite Paul Gorry
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:59 PM

    @James Delaney: and sleepy jesus eamonn james.

    264
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Mohan
    Favourite Paul Mohan
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 6:04 AM

    Isn’t that why we have a government to monitor and control the amount of asylum seekers are coming to our country we are only a small island look after the Irish homeless first

    401
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The next small thing
    Favourite The next small thing
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 10:21 AM

    @Paul Mohan: To control the numbers coming in we would need to stop all flights, ferry’s etc as, under international law, all anyone needs to do is claim asylum once they get off the flight/ferry (even if they managed to have travel documents when they boarded but not when they land, must have blown out the planes windows) and then they are in the system and need to be processed.

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cathal O'sullivan
    Favourite Cathal O'sullivan
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:39 PM

    A few facts…….37 countries in Africa have ‘serious, or worse’ levels of hunger. Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Somalia are facing the worst food crisis seen in 40 years as per Dec 2022. Population of Ethiopia 120 million, Somalia 17 million, and Kenya 53 million.
    More than 20 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are struggling to find enough to eat, and over 1 million have fled their homes, according to the United Nations as per Nov 2022. Some are predicting the same or worse famine than 1980s. Number affected by single famine in 1983-85 was 4 million.
    Perhaps a member of government, in the interests of transparency, will let everyone, Africans included, know how many famine refugees Ireland will take during the next famine?
    Presumably we’ll take at least !% (2% if we want to be best in class) of european ‘allocation’, in other words 50,000 individuals to Ireland, if Europe ‘accepts’ 5 milllion refugees(?). In addition to refugees of war and conflict currently estimated at 80,000 in 2023. you can understand why no politicians will discuss the issue in detail.

    213
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keth Warsaw
    Favourite Keth Warsaw
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 12:04 AM

    @Cathal O’sullivan: Population control? Personally, I think it’s an abuse to bring a child into a world/situation where it cannot be accommodated 100 %. Whatever the hemisphere. Humans have a big problem with reality.

    379
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
    Favourite Fifty Shades of Sé
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 1:26 PM

    @Cathal O’sullivan: The population of Africa just keeps rising exponentially in spite of all the famines that plague the continent.
    The population was estimated to be around 100 million before it was colonised in the 1870s, it’s around 1.4 billion now and it’s estimated to reach 4 billion by the end of this century, approximately 5 times what the population of Europe is now.
    We’re struggling to accommodate the relatively small number of refugees we have now but the numbers are going to increase exponentially as war, famine and climate change push people northwards.
    Yet some idealists imagine we’ll somehow have the resources to deal with them all.

    69
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joanne Stokes
    Favourite Joanne Stokes
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 8:44 AM

    What about our own homeless they count too!

    183
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keth Warsaw
    Favourite Keth Warsaw
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:55 PM

    It would seem those in Direct Provision should settle in for the long ..long…unending wait that will never come. It seems only fair that DP join the ever-growing queues that includes housing, health and AOB that Ireland is unable to organize and deliver, or in other words ‘Equality’ of a sort. There’s a case for monarchy here: A King and/or Queen cannot slope off after five years.

    136
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Red Line
    Favourite Red Line
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 8:19 AM

    What a surprise. My top comment deleted. Nothing I said was untrue

    122
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute cathalsurfs
    Favourite cathalsurfs
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 11:23 AM

    @Red Line: Was it this comment?

    “Refugees. Fleeing from London, Germany and other tourist locations. They might think the majority of Irish people are stupid but some of us are not.”

    Apparently such a statement gets you a toxicity level 6.3! Googles free speech suppression algorithms (Jigsaw) rates you highly dude!

    100
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Red Line
    Favourite Red Line
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 1:24 PM

    @cathalsurfs: it’s a crazy world

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Don Hogan
    Favourite Don Hogan
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 2:04 PM

    It is not rocket science Michael Martin. Reduce the number of refugees to match the available accommodations.

    97
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nicholas Grubb
    Favourite Nicholas Grubb
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 7:49 AM

    Why are the economic migrants coming here. Simply because of the mess in their home country. An exact equivalent of all aid going in, goes out into the offshore assets of their elites. These assets need to be seized and sent back the origin country for use by properly managed Sovereign Wealth funds, for the purpose of social and infrastructural development. The owners? being given 25 or more year, bonds in their home country currency. These of course will become worthless, unless the owners pull their fingers out and make sure their country prospers. Rather like the Land Bonds here became not worth the paper they were printed on, though that was a result of inflation.

    98
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nicholas Grubb
    Favourite Nicholas Grubb
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 8:54 AM

    @Nicholas Grubb: and with our esteemed Michael D. the only non African at that big conference just held out there, pouring out his bleeding heart, guess which European country they will be heading for, Higgins’s or Melonie’s. Stand by for a bumper year.

    149
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Kearon
    Favourite Stephen Kearon
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:40 PM

    Ireland is a friendly, welcoming country committed to the protection of human rights. Those fleeing war, famine, abuse, etc, will find support here.

    Members of normal society know our history and are proud of our positive contributions around the world. Those seeking refuge are welcome here.

    70
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Kossoff
    Favourite Paul Kossoff
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 10:42 PM

    @Stephen Kearon: That’s funny..

    705
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keth Warsaw
    Favourite Keth Warsaw
    Report
    Jan 26th 2023, 11:41 PM

    @Stephen Kearon: Click-bate.

    267
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keth Warsaw
    Favourite Keth Warsaw
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 12:00 AM

    @Stephen Kearon: You should really be in government Stephen. You’d fit in perfectly with your unrealistic illogical heartfelt nonsense that urinates (albeit indirectly) upon the people you purport to represent. Either that, or join an Order.

    377
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute NotMyIreland
    Favourite NotMyIreland
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 7:52 AM

    @Paul Gorry: fairly hypocritical coming from a man who spends a lot of time on the journal calling on the young people of Ireland to leave in search of a better life when moaning about the situation in this country. So you encourage young Irish citizens to become economic migrants but refuse to accept any here?

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Derek Lyster
    Favourite Derek Lyster
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 1:43 PM

    @Stephen Kearon: I take it that you are more than willing to allow some to come and stay with you. Maybe you can have other family members and friends help out too?

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pauline Gallagher
    Favourite Pauline Gallagher
    Report
    Jan 27th 2023, 11:39 PM

    @NotMyIreland: Irish people go to other countries to WORK, not live on welfare

    28
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds