While the loss of the Empress of Ireland never attracted as much attention as the loss of the Titanic just two years earlier, it certainly didn't go unnoticed.
National Museums Liverpool (the Empress often sailed from Liverpool) has a very interesting page on the ship and the disaster, including an image of a commemorative glass tumbler etched with the death toll, and a poem written by James Ernest Bygroves.
Here's a little extract from the poem. You can read the full thing here:
"They left the port of Montreal, in a fine and stately ship,
The “Empress of Ireland”, to make their homeward trip,
With Captain Kendall in command of both passengers and crew,
One of those stately palaces, that plough the waters blue..."