There appears to be something of a backlash to the way that the media is treating the Titanic Centenary. Hand out enough access to enough journalists and you get a favourable press. That is after all how Journalism works.

Ask a motoring journalist to take a look at the latest hatchback and he may be more disposed to look favourably on the car if he is road testing it in (say) Japan. Ask a music journalist to review the latest CD by the latest boyband craze and flying the journo out to listen to the album in California might be a good idea. And dont start me on travel journalists for whom Life is one long freebie.

It is how Journalism works. But the combination of Leveson and general cynicism has made people wary of the never-ending puff pieces put out by the media in support of anything with the name “Titanic” on it.

Yet the Titanic was a “natural disaster”. The Iceberg was not culpable.

Consider therefore the fate of the RMS Lusitania which was lost at sea on a trans-atlantic crossing in 1915. Loss of life…….1,200 people. It sank even quicker than the Titanic, going down just fifteen miles off the County Cork coast. Sunk by a German U-boat.

Now I have been to County Cork on several occasions and there has always been recognition of the loss of the Lusitania. As I recall it is given some prominence in the Cobh Heritage Centre as well as memorials in Kinsale. In fact it has always had more prominence than the Titanic. Frankly the current hoopla around Titanic is due more to Kate Winslett and Leonardo di Caprio than any genuine outpouring of history in Belfast.

But the horrific death of 1,200 people on board Lusitania is surely at least equally horrific as the Titanic disaster. Perhaps more so……….as it was a deliberate “act of violence” rather than an iceberg.

Of course Lusitania WAS carrying contraband…….ammunition…….from (neutral) New York to Liverpool during First World War. The exploding ammunition caused the ship to sink much quicker and yes the German Embassy in United States did warn Lusitania passengers but it is still worthy of commemoration ………and I am sure it will be in 2015…….but not on the scale of Titanic.

But commemorating natural disaster is letting Humanity off the hook. We might have heard of RMS Lusitania (1915) or even the Holyhead ferry RMS Leinster in 1918. But what about Tsushima Maru (1,400 casualties, half of them schoolkids) sank by American Navy in 1944. Or the MV Wilhelm Gustloff (German refugee ship) sunk by Soviets in 1945 with 9,000 dead.

Not to mention the sinking of warships and troopships, leaving survivors in the seas. SS Conte Rosso (Italian 1942 sunk by British) SS Leopoldville (Begian 1944 sunk by Germans), Belgrano (Argentinian 1982 sunk by British).

These are merely examples of innocent lives and military lives taken by an act of violence.

Yet Humanity will let itself off the hook for these lonely, horrific deaths.

Much better to blame an Iceberg.

Just like it is better to blame a Tsunami for Japanese deaths. Lets not blame Hunity for the Japanese civilians killed and maimed and left to lingering lonely deaths under rubble in Hiroshima.