Irish Aboard Titanic (16 page)

Clare girl saved

A telegram received in Ennis on Friday states that the girl, Mary Glynn, who was a passenger by the
Titanic
, has been saved.

(
Clare Journal,
22 April 1912)

Mary continued her journey to Washington DC after its unexpected interruption. following her convalescence in hospital. She left behind in the wards a woman named Margaret Mannion, the deeply shocked fiancée of Martin Gallagher.

In 1914 Mary met a 26-year-old Washington streetcar conductor named Patrick O'Donoghue from Knocknagoshel, County Kerry, who had come out a number of years earlier. They were married in 1917 and remained in the capital for many years.

Mary Agatha Glynn O'Donoghue died in St Petersburg, Florida, on 26 February 1955. She was 61 and is buried in Fort Lincoln Cemetery, Washington DC. Husband Patrick died a year later.

Kate Hargadon (17) Lost

Ticket number 30631. Paid £7 14s 8d.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Ballisodare, County Sligo.

Destination: 133 West 126th Street, New York city.

Suffering from seasickness the whole voyage, Kate Hargadon died because she did not feel strong enough to climb a vertical crew ladder to the boat deck. Kate's friend Mary Burns stayed to help her and was also drowned.

Margaret Devaney later provided two different versions of what happened that night to Kate Hargadon. One version stated that the three girls were with Margaret, making their way up from the lower decks, when the latter went ahead to find a boat at about 1 a.m. She was pushed into lifeboat No. 12 and never got a chance to go back for her friends.

Devaney later told a slightly different version to the
Irish World
newspaper of 4 May 1912:

There were four of us from Knocknarae, County Sligo – Mary Burns and Kitty Hargadon and a boy we knew. We were all up on deck, not thinking it was serious, when the boy comes along and said: ‘You girls had better get into a boat.' Then he held out his hand saying, ‘I hope we'll meet again'. I got into the boat, but Mary Burns and Kitty Hargadon held back, thinking it was safer to remain on the ship. I never saw them again.

Seventeen-year-old Kate had been going to America to stay with a sister in New York. The American Red Cross, in its 1913 report on aid to those affected by the disaster, reported case No. 174:

Irish Girl, 19 years of age, coming to a sister in New York and to work at domestic service, was lost, leaving dependent parents and two delicate sisters in Ireland. The sister in New York had provided $63 for the passage, expecting to be reimbursed and to have help in supporting the family in Ireland. The committee gave the sister $100, of which $40 was sent to Ireland for emergent relief. The English committee later gave £40 to the family.

1901 census – Hargadon, Ballintogher West, Ballisodare. Patrick (37), farmer; Mary, wife (40). Children: Mary Ann (11), Bee (11), Maggie (8),
Kate (6)
.

Henry Hart (28) Lost

Ticket number 394140. Paid £6 17s 2d.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Drumiskabole, County Sligo.

Destination: West Newton, Massachuse
tts.

Henry Hart had already made it big in the United States. He had a comfortable job as coachman for shipping and sugar magnate E. F. Atkins of Concord Avenue, in Belmont, Massachusetts. Henry's wife was Bridget (Delia) McGillycuddy, another servant at the Atkins estate in Massachusetts, who was originally from Killorglin, County Kerry. The two employees were married in America on 30 July 1911, in a ceremony at the town clerk's office. When Bridget fell pregnant, the couple decided to travel home to Ireland for the birth.

Henry was originally from Drumiskabole, Sligo, but the expectant couple moved in with Bridget's parents, Dennis and Bridget (née Fahy), on their arrival back in Ireland in spring 1912. It appears that Henry was subsequently summoned back to America before the birth could take place. After he was drowned on the return journey, Bridget gave birth to a son whom she named Henry after the father he would never know. They lived in Killorglin, where Henry Jnr is now buried.

According to the report of the American Senate into the disaster, Henry was travelling to join one John Hart, likely a brother, with an address at PO Box 307, Marion, Massachusetts. He had been originally booked on the
Celtic
, which arrived on 20 April 1912, with his name scored out in the passenger manifest. In this listing, he gives next of kin as his sister Marie in West Newton, Massachusetts.

On board the
Titanic
Henry appears to have joined up with a group including Margaret Devaney, Mary Burns and Kitty Hargadon. Devaney told the
Irish News
that the women and ‘a boy we knew' made up four passengers from the same area of Knocknarae, County Sligo.'

The
Belmont Tribune
of Massachusetts declared on 4 May 1912:

It is reported on good authority that Mr Henry Hart, formerly employed by Mr E. F. Atkins of this town, was one of the unfortunates who went down in the ill-fated
Titanic
. Mr Hart was married while residing in Belmont and went to Ireland with his young bride.

He was returning to this country alone, according to the report, and was unlucky enough to take passage on the
Titanic
's first trip.

Could there have been a serious marital disagreement that resulted in Henry leaving before his child was born? It seems unlikely given the devotion which saw Henry Jnr named after his father. Henry Snr was born in 1883 to Michael Hart and his wife Mary (née Cunningham) of Sligo.

Nora Healy (34) Saved

Ticket number 370375. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Greethill, Athenry, County Galway.

Destination: 284 St Nicholas Avenue, New York city.

Nora Healy went insane from her experiences on the
Titanic
. Although saved, a slow descent into madness began to claim her life and within a short time she could not even recognise her own father. Her rational, sentient existence was over long before her death on 11 March 1919, less than seven years after the sinking.

It seems Nora was saved on lifeboat No. 16, the last means of escape on the port side for the steerage passengers struggling to board the craft. In fact there were two boats yet to leave, unseen in the darkness at the far end of the forward deck. Boat No. 16 appears to have been a site of trouble, yet escaped any real focus at both the American and British inquiries. Some of its occupants were severely traumatised, including Nora Healy and Annie Kate Kelly.

Nora had been on her way to an aunt, Mrs W. Robinson, but there is no evidence she ever got there. Taken off the
Carpathia
in a state of deep shock, she was in no position to meet her aunt or her waiting cousin Anne Kearney from 4324 Broadway. Immigration officials, attempting to somehow conform to normal procedures, recorded her as a 24-year-old maid, although she was in fact ten years older. Mysteriously, her landing details were later expunged from the records, indicating that she might not have had any official status during her stay in America.

There is evidence that she was treated for some time before being transferred back to Ireland. Taken back to her home place, her unbalanced senses became gripped with some kind of recognition, until she ran to the arms of a well-wisher neighbour, pronouncing him to be her father.

Nora, whom neighbour and fellow
Titanic
passenger Andy Keane had always regarded as ‘slightly touched', even before she boarded the White Star leviathan, showed no signs of familiarity with her old homestead, nor any spark of empathy with her family. The shattered Healys initially hoped that all she needed was love and time for healing, but instead she grew more withdrawn and darkly suspicious that tricks were being played upon her. The family finally bowed to the inevitable and she was admitted to St Brigid's psychiatric hospital in Ballinasloe on 9 July 1914.

She ended up a forgotten victim of the
Titanic
, one of the ‘living dead', with something in her brain having broken forever on that icy night in April. On her death in 1919 her remains were taken from the echoing wards of Ballinasloe to lie in Wilmount Cemetery in Athenry with other members of the family.

Nora was born Honor Healy on 6 February 1883. Her parents were Thomas and Mary. In the 1901 census, the family is shown as follows:

Thomas (60), farmer. Mary (52), wife.

Children Margaret (29), Mary (27), John (25),
Honor (23)
, Catherine (18), Patrick (16), Ellen (14).

Nora Hegarty (20) Lost

Ticket number 365226. Paid £6 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Killavallig, Whitechurch, County Cork.

Destination: 41 Washington Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Nora and her cousin Jeremiah Burke were both due to stay at the rooming house of a Mrs Burns in Charlestown. But although they were travelling to a new life together, they were shortly due to separate as Nora had decided to join an order of nuns in Boston. In fact it may have been her religious devotion that inadvertently led to her death. Many Third-Class passengers understandably sought the succour of prayer and the protection of priests during the terrible moments as the
Titanic
descended into a Dante's Hell.

Nora and Jeremiah travelled to Queenstown together and died together in the bone-piercing cold of the North Atlantic. Neither body was ever found. The couple had both been due to sail to America on the 7 April crossing of the
Cymric
.

Nora was the third eldest of seven children. Her parents, Laurence and Mary, were not well off, and when her father was granted administration of his late daughter's estate on 18 September 1912, the remaining effects of poor Nora were worth just £10.

More Cork victims

The sympathy of the people of Cork will go out in full measure to the parents of Miss Nora Hegarty of Killavallig, Whitechurch, and Mr Jeremiah Burke, of Upper Glanmire, both of whom were only 19 years of age and who lost their lives in the
Titanic
disaster.

(
The Cork Examiner,
27 April 1912: for the full story see Jeremiah Burke)

1901 census – Hegarty, Killaverrig.

Parents: Laurence (50) and Mary (41).

Children: Kate (13), Willie (11),
Norah (19)
, Mary (8), Hannah (6), Maggie (5), Timothy (2).

Delia Henry (21) Lost

Ticket number 382649. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Togher, Clonown, Athlone, County Westmeath.

Destination: Boston.

Drowning ran in the Henry family. Delia's father, Patrick, died in the same manner as his daughter, three years before the
Titanic
sailed. He lost his life in the River Shannon a little distance from the family home in Togher, Athlone, in circumstances that are now unclear. The loss of a husband and daughter in such a short time for Margaret Henry can only have been devastating.

Delia, baptised Bridget, was one of eight children. She appears to have been aged around 21, but was entered as age 23 on the
Titanic
manifest, having joined a large group from the Athlone area who were travelling out together. But she appears to have had severe misgivings about the trip, according to a letter sent to her aunt, Ms M. S. Curley, in Boston:

Friday 5th. Clonoun, Athlone, Ireland.

My Dear Aunt,

Just a line to let you know that I am to leave Athlone, Wednesday 10th April. Will be sailing 11 April. I hope to God that we will get there all right. The ship is supposed to go in four and a half days. I hope you do have this small note, hoping to meet soon with God's help.

It was a great disappointment over that Miss Mee, as she could not get to come, but there is some people going from Athlone. We must put our trust in God, he is the best.

Dear Aunt, I know sister Lizzie will feel bad to know that I did not pick up with anyone from home, for the way it is at home with the people is all to Boston they do go to. But I hope to God I do get there all right.

Well Dear Aunt, this is the name of the boat,
Titanic
, I am going on. I hope you do meet. I will wear a black coat and skirt and black hat with black and white ribbon on it.

I close with best love to you all from your fond niece,

Delia Henry.

Delia never wore her distinctive arrival bonnet with the black and white ribbon. Maggie Daly, one of her Athlone companions, later wrote in a letter home: ‘That little girl from Summerhill (Delia Henry) and that Connaughton boy (Athlone), and I think Mrs Rice and her five boys perished.'

Delia appears to have been small in stature, for the same phrase of ‘the little Summerhill girl' is also used in describing her in another letter home by an Athlone survivor, Bertha Mulvihill. Bertha wrote to her sister Maud from the
Carpathia
: ‘The little Summerhill girl is gone down, unless she is picked up by some ship that we don't know of.' Delia appears to have been something of a mascot among the Athlone contingent.

Irish passengers, Athlone, Tuesday

The loss of the
Titanic
has created consternation in this district. Inquiries at the booking office supply the information that there were more local bookings for the
Titanic
than on any other occasion this season. These were all steerage passengers, from Mayo and Roscommon. From Athlone town there were eleven passengers.

(
The Cork Examiner
, 17 April 1912)

Delia's letter to her aunt was brought back to Ireland in 1912 by her sister Lizzie who had been staying in Boston when it arrived. Lizzie also returned with a suggestion that Delia had been seen on deck saying the Rosary at the time of the sinking.

1901 census – Cloonown, just inside County Roscommon.

Patrick (40), farmer. Margaret (38), housekeeper.