Irish Aboard Titanic (12 page)

Patrick Dooley (38) Lost

Ticket number 370376. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Patrickswell, Knockainey, Lough Gur, County Limerick.

Destination: 142 East 31st Street, New York city, for onward to Chicago.

A postcard written by Patrick Dooley from Queenstown declared: ‘I am sailing today, Thursday, on
Titanic
on her maiden trip to New York, her first trip on the Atlantic. Good bye. Love, Patrick Dooley'. The postcard showed a man standing in a roadway, cap in hand. Titled ‘The Irish Emigrant', a poem beneath ran:

I'm bidding you a long farewell, my Mary kind and true

But I'll not forget you Darling, in the land I'm going to;

They say there's bread and work for all, and the sun shines always there,

But I'll never forget Ould Ireland were it fifty times as fair, were it fifty times as fair.

Patrick J. Dooley, by all accounts, was an extremely generous and considerate man:

Much regret was felt by the people of Bruff and Loughguir districts when it was learned that Mr Patrick Dooley, son of Mr Edmond Dooley of Patrickswell, was amongst the number who went down with that ill-fated vessel.

Mr Dooley was home on holidays from Chicago, chiefly for the purposes of seeing his aged father, and left in good spirits.

He was a fine type of our exiled countrymen and on several occasions won distinction in American athletics. Mr Dooley was also one of the truest Irishmen that ever emigrated to the Great Republic of the West and never kept his purse closed when the cause of Ireland needed it.

(
The Cork Examiner,
16 May 1912)

Dooley had been living in Chicago for nine years, having emigrated in early 1903, and worked in a hotel. He was on the verge of coming home for good and was only travelling back to the United States for a short time. A letter found in his estate administration papers suggests this strongly, and was written by a solicitor acting for Dooley's elderly father, who is presumably the source of the lawyer's information:

1st July, 1913.

Dear Mr Travers,

I enclose papers for Grant of Administration intestate herein. The deceased was drowned on the
Titanic
and the only property he left was a deposit receipt in the Munster & Leinster Bank for £104 deposited a few days before he sailed out. He may have taken some little money with him, but he was not to remain long over. Have I the place of death described correctly? If not, please return to be amended.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Fox.

The described place of death was ‘in mid-ocean, being a passenger on board the
Titanic
'. The single slip of paper lying behind in some safe place at home, signifying a hoard at the bank branch in Bruff, is a poignant image, somehow conveying again Patrick Dooley's detachment from money as an end in itself. His father, Edmond, who was illiterate, declared in the application to inherit the money left behind that his son was a 38-year-old bachelor, a labourer, who left only his father and one brother surviving in Ireland. A number of the family had emigrated from the tiny hamlet of Patrickswell, not to be confused with a town of this name in the same county.

The American Red Cross nonetheless had to step in to assist other relatives left in the lurch by the loss of Mr Dooley. The details vary in this description, but there is little doubt that he is the person concerned since that organisation alphabetised its caseload:

Report of the American Red Cros
s (
Titanic Disaster
) 1913:

No. 87. (Irish.) A motorman, 34 years old, was drowned while returning from a visit to his parents in Ireland. A widowed sister and four children were dependent upon him for support, and his brother and wife and two children had also been helped by him.

The appropriation made will be administered by the local charity organisation Society for the benefit of the dependent sister and her family. ($468)

The occupation described here is likely to be most accurate, whereas ‘labourer' was almost a generic term for ‘Irishman' when it came to filling out legal papers. As regards age differentials, Patrick Dooley claimed to be 32 when signing aboard the
Titanic
, while posthumous legal papers put him six years older.

What is known is that Pat Dooley had planned to stay with his brother Richard (37) at East 31st Street, New York. They had only met once during Pat's near-decade in the USA. Their widowed father, Edmond, still farming, was into his seventies by 1912. It may have been intended that Pat would take over running the farm.

Patrick also had a sister Mary (41), and brothers Michael (39) and John (33). Many of these lives would not have been so damaged had the
Cymric
sailed as scheduled, four days before the
Titanic
, on Easter Sunday, 7 April.

Elizabeth Doyle (26) Lost

Ticket number 368702. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Bree, Enniscorthy, County Wexford.

Destination: 123 West 80th Street, New York city, for onward to Chicago.

There was strong optimism that ‘bright, sunny' Lizzie Doyle had been saved because she had convinced her home people of her intent to buy a Second-Class ticket for the
Titanic.
It would have cost her around £10 10s. The news that large numbers of Second-Class women had been saved (84 per cent, against 55 per cent for Third-Class women by final White Star figures) led to neighbours competing to discover the good news of her survival in the latest newspapers.

But devoted daughter Lizzie – who had rushed home from America the previous year to nurse her widowed father in his final illness – may have felt uneasy about lavishing such a high standard of care on herself. She finally opted to save around £2 15s, and bought a Third-Class ticket, and she drowned with most of steerage.

Lizzie was travelling to Chicago from her home in Bree, Enniscorthy, County Wexford. She booked on the
Titanic
through a New Ross agent and was travelling in the company of her cousin Robert Mernagh, also lost. The pair may have finalised their travel intentions at the funeral of Robert's aunt Margaret Murphy, who died on the last day of February 1912, six weeks before the sailing.

Lizzie was listed as due to stay with Bridget Fox at West 80th Street, New York city. Bridget was a relative of Patrick Fox, another Irish
Titanic
passenger. Both Lizzie and Robert Mernagh intended onward travel to Chicago.

Titanic
victims: Miss Lizzie Doyle, Bree, and Mr Robert Mernagh, Ballyleigh, Ballywilliam.

Sincere and widespread regret was felt in Bree and the surrounding district when on Saturday week last it became known that Miss Lizzie Doyle, who was one of the passengers on the ill-fated
Titanic
, was not amongst the survivors.

Poor ‘Lil', as she was familiarly called by her most intimate friends, was youngest daughter of the late Mr Martin Doyle, Bree, and was one of the most talented and popular young ladies in the district; her charming manners and bright, sunny disposition won for her the respect and admiration of all, and the untimely ending of her young life, so full of hope and promise, has cast a gloom over the whole district.

She had been in Philadelphia two years previously, and only returned home last June in time to be present at the deathbed of her late lamented father. Having recovered somewhat from the shock occasioned by that sad event, she decided to return once more to America, and on the 10th April last she said good-bye to her host of friends in Bree, and in company with her cousin, Mr Robert Mernagh, Ballyleigh, Ballywilliam, set out for Chicago.

But alas for human hopes and aspirations, they were destined never to reach their journey's end. From the first, little hope was entertained of the safety of Mr Mernagh, but being Second Class passengers, a large percentage of the women of which were reported to be saved, the friends of Miss Doyle had great hopes for her safety, and from the moment the first news of the disaster reached Bree the newspapers were eagerly scanned day after day by anxious friends, all eager to be the first to find the good news, but without success, and on Saturday week their fond hope was dashed to the ground when the news came to her sorrowing relatives that neither she nor her cousin were amongst the survivors.

On the following Sunday morning, when at 8 o'clock Mass Canon Sheil asked the prayers of the congregation for the repose of their souls, a pin might be heard falling in the church, so deep were the feelings of those present. The deepest sympathy is felt with their heartbroken relatives, and the church was thronged with sorrowing friends, all anxious to pay the last tribute to the memory of one who will not soon be forgotten.

(
Enniscorthy Echo,
18 May 1912)

Margaret Doyle had a vision of her sister Lizzie, according to a tale in the district, when she was putting out washing a few days after the departure. She saw the wraith and came into the house as white as any sheet she had just hung on the line.

A letter written by Elizabeth Doyle survives from 1909 and shows something of her character. It was written on 12 December that year from an address at 1244 Snyder Avenue, Philadelphia:

My dear Aunt,

No doubt you will think that when I left dear old Ireland I forgot all my relatives, but you will see that I still have a corner in my heart for you all still.

Of course you have heard long since of my safe arrival etc., so I won't waste time and paper telling you again. I am feeling splendid and as happy as a king here. Mr and Mrs O'Brien are awfully good and kind to me. How are you and uncle keeping since, or have you been over to Bree lately? Maggie is quite busy now with the tradesmen and all, so I know she won't have much time for going about …

This is a grand country, aunt, and the weather has been beautiful up to now, but it's getting much colder tho' still nice and fine. There is no twilight here. The night falls all of a sudden. But it's never dark as all electric lights are on all night …

Now dear aunt, as this is the last day for Christmas Irish mails and I have a few more to write, I hope you will forgive me for this hurried note and accept my best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a glad New Year.

With lots of love to uncle and your own dear self,

Your loving niece,

Lizzie Doyle.

Her estate came to just £10, granted to her brother Jeremiah on 12 March 1913. Legal papers noted that Lizzie ‘died at sea in an accident to the steamship “Titanic''.'

She is named on a family tombstone in Davidstown Cemetery, near Enniscorthy.

Bridget Driscoll (27) Saved

Ticket number 14311. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Letter, Ballydehob, County Cork.

Destination: 522 Grove Street, Jersey city, New Jersey.

Bridget Driscoll was a dutiful child who had returned to Ireland to nurse her mother in her final illness. But Mrs Kate Driscoll had died and been buried by the time her daughter arrived – and Bridget soon faced the imminent prospect of joining her in the next world.

She was rescued in collapsible D, the last boat to be lowered from the davits. It went off around 2 a.m., when
Titanic
had short minutes to live. Her forecastle was under water, so too the forward well deck, and the water was climbing steadily to the boat deck. Women were put to the oars and collapsible D was about 100 yards off when the queen of the seas made her final plunge.

Bridget later told how she helped ‘another lady from Ballydehob' – it could only have been Annie Jermyn – into collapsible D, which had been ready to lower earlier until more women were found at the last moment.

Bridget and Annie had travelled with Mary Kelly on successive tickets issued in Ballydehob. She initially indicated on official forms that she would be staying with cousins in New York, but later told US immigration that she was a 24-year-old domestic and would be staying with her cousin Mrs Minnie Fenn in Jersey city. In fact, Bridget had been born on 18 January 1885, but it was common for women of all ages to be grudging in their acknowledgement of the march of time.

Census records show that Bridget's parents had been married for thirty-six years. They had seven children, one of whom died in infancy. By 1911, Kate and John Driscoll were recorded as aged 59 and 63 respectively, with son Eugene (35) having taken over the farm, yet the 1901 census had stated parents John and Kate to be 54 and 52 respectively, and children Eugene (24), Timothy (16), Bridget (16), Mary (14), and John (6).

Bridget and Timothy were twins, and he later became a policeman in Canada with the RCMP. Bridget herself married a man named Dominic Joseph Carney in the United States. They ran a grocery store at City Island, New York. She went on to have four children – Cathy, Joe, Patsy and Bill. Their first, Cathleen, was born six years after the disaster, on 19 September 1918. After her husband died in 1963, Bridget moved to Houston, Texas, to stay with her daughter Cathy at 5918 Yarwell.

Bridget Driscoll died in the Bellaire Hospital from acute renal failure on 28 December 1976, aged 91. She had survived more than sixty-four years since escaping the sinking of the
Titanic
.

Frank Dwan (67) Lost

Ticket number 336439. Paid £7 15s.

Joined at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Knockmahon, Bunmahon, County Waterford.

Destination: Morris Plains, New Jersey.

It is the last chance you will get in your life! That was the advice that sent the oldest Irish passenger aboard the
Titanic
to sea.

The last chance in question for 67-year-old Frank Dwan was the opportunity to visit his children, all of whom had emigrated to the United States. They had been begging him to come over, had sent him the passage money, and had finally persuaded his wife, Bridget, to scold him into going.