Irish Aboard Titanic

by Senan Molony

  Honora was among those wakened by stewards who said the Rosary in a gangway in the company of her Mayo friends. According to teenage Irish survivor Annie Kate Kelly, the group was then encouraged to go back to bed and did so. Honora was roused a second time as realisation of the danger spread, but there is no account of any later movements. She drowned and her name was later misspelled ‘Hemming’ in the official White Star casualty list.

  Born and baptised on the same day, 14 April 1890, she appears in the parish baptismal record as Honora, a daughter of Thomas Fleming and Mary Callaghan. The 1901 census erroneously records her as ‘Honor’, and her age as 12 years. In the 1911 census she is listed under the pet name ‘Onnie’, short for Honora, aged 21. Her father, Thomas, is listed as a 60-year-old farmer, and her mother, Mary, as 58. The other children include Thomas (27), Josie (11), Bridget (15) and Ellie (13).

  She appears to have been related to Margaret Devaney of Sligo, who told the New York Herald that ‘Anna’ Fleming (the name ‘Onnie’ or ‘Honor’ may have been misheard) was ‘entertaining us with Irish songs when the first word of trouble came. She went down with the Titanic, poor girl, and I believe she was singing or joking at the time, she was that jolly.’

  James Flynn (28) Lost

  Ticket number 364851. Paid £7 15s.

  Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

  From: Cuilkillew, Addergoole, County Mayo.

  Destination: 236 East 53rd Street, New York city.

  James Flynn was travelling to join his younger brother Anthony, who lived in New York, at East 53rd Street. His age and occupation were given on embarkation as a 27-year-old labourer. The Report of the American Red Cross says: ‘No. 141. (Irish.) A young man was lost.’ His brother asked for assistance in recovering the body, and the necessary steps were taken for that purpose, but the body was not recovered.

  James was from Cuilkillew, and was the son of James Flynn Snr, a 70-year-old farmer in 1912, and his wife, Anne, who was 64. He was baptised on 13 September 1883. He had turned 28 by the time he joined the great ship at Queenstown. He was related to both the Kelly and the Canavan families, which also provided Titanic passengers from Mayo.

  Titanic survivor Annie Kate Kelly makes extensive references in her accounts of the tragedy to a passenger named ‘Patrick Flynn’, which could be construed as meaning James Flynn, the only male Flynn passenger among the large Mayo party on board the Titanic. Annie makes pathetic references to the ‘little Flynn boy’ being refused a place in the lifeboat and being pushed back, even though he was slight and not able to take care of himself. ‘It was pitiful that they wouldn’t allow the boy stay on the lifeboat, and he only a child and it not full.’ While James may have been small in stature, he was certainly no boy, and definitely not a child, as one American newspaper had it.

  Little ‘Patrick’ Flynn is last seen by Annie Kelly holding hands with John and Catherine Bourke as they stood by the deck rail of the Titanic, waiting for the end.

  John Flynn (42) Lost

  Ticket number 368323. Paid £6 19s.

  Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

  From: Carrowhawkin, Clonbur, County Galway.

  Destination: 3434 Frazier Street, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  John Flynn came home to Ireland because he was promised the family farm by his sister Bridget. But when he arrived, she suddenly reneged on the offer and he was returning bitterly disappointed on Titanic to his wife and six children. He never arrived. The devastation for his children can only be imagined. One son, Ed, later committed suicide by jumping off a Pittsburgh bridge after his business failed.

  Report of the American Red Cross (Titanic Disaster) 1913:

  No. 142. (Irish.) The husband, returning from a visit to Ireland, was drowned. He had been a resident of this country 28 years and was a labourer, earning $2 a day. He is survived by a wife and six children, the eldest of whom is nineteen, and youngest three years of age. The two eldest girls, employed as housemaids, earn $4 and $5 a week. A cousin of the wife lives with the family and, beside her board, gives some small assistance.

  The husband left $1,000 life insurance and a small piece of city property bought before his marriage, which promises to become valuable. The family own the house in which they have lived for twelve years. They saved enough money to buy the lot and borrowed $600 from a building and loan association, to which they paid $5 a month. At the time of the disaster, no payment had been made for three or four months, and $175 there was due … From relief funds other than the Red Cross, the widow received $3,697.28. ($1,700)

  According to embarkation records, John Flynn had become a US citizen during his nearly three decades in America. He indicated that he was a 42-year-old agricultural labourer, but may have worked in open-cast mining in the Pittsburgh area.

  Folklore in Clonbur, County Galway, states that John Flynn was not drowned in the disaster, but died from exposure on board a lifeboat. This conviction cannot be verified from any available sources. A sister of the deceased, Mary Gallagher of New York, wrote to Bridget in Ireland, claiming the body had been landed from the Carpathia. It was alleged to have been buried in Long Island.

  His sister Bridget’s decision to keep the farm meant that John’s was not only a wasted journey, but also a deadly one. His return ticket was bought at the shipping agency of Joe Coyne in Clonbur.

  A photograph of John was taken on the day he left to board the Titanic, but it has been lost.

  Joseph Foley (19) Lost

  Ticket number 330910. Paid £7 12s 7d, plus 5s extra.

  Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

  From: Mountplummer, Newcastlewest, County Cork.

  Destination: Larchmont, New York.

  There were two Joseph Foleys whose stories became merged with the Titanic disaster. One lived, the other died. The one who lived was a 26-year-old from Foulkesmill, County Wexford, who crossed the Atlantic on the White Star liner Celtic, arriving on 20 April 1912. However, a relative of this Joseph Foley spotted the name on a list of Titanic casualties, plunging a family into needless grief. But they had the joy of relief on learning he had arrived in America two days after the Carpathia landed the meagre number of Titanic survivors.

  The Joseph Foley who died was aged only 19, the eldest in a small family and the first offspring to opt for emigration. Good-looking, and a gentle gardener on a landed estate, he was described as ‘angelic and saintly’. Some newspaper reports linked the name of this Titanic casualty with the other Joseph Foley:

  A Wexfordman’s luck – did not sail in the Titanic

  In connection with the Titanic disaster, which still continues to occupy the public attention, we are reminded of the luck of a young Wexfordman, Mr Joseph Foley, Carrigbyrne, who had booked his passage for America on the ill-fated liner, but waited over for some comrades sailing on the Celtic some days later, and so escaped most probably death.

  Mr Foley’s friends at home, and his brother, Mr Thomas Foley of Chicago, well known to many Wexford Gaels, were naturally very anxious as to his fate, and had begun to fear the worst, especially the latter, who communicated to his brother, Mr John Foley, of Carrigbyrne, the sad intelligence that it was almost a certainty that Joseph had been lost.

  With reference to the fears entertained by Mr Foley in Chicago, we cull the following from the Daily Tribune of that city, of Saturday April 20th:

  Thomas Foley’s brother gone

  Thomas Foley, 3157 Harrison Street, a street car conductor, a well-built young man with an unspoiled Irish burr in his speech, called to ask if the morning newspapers had correctly included the name of Joseph Foley, his brother, in the list of those missing.

  At first Chief Clerk Holstrom failed to find the name of Joseph Foley in the passenger list, and the Chicago brother heaved a sigh of relief.

  But the clerk scanned the list once more and found the name this time. The White Star accounts for Joseph Foley the same way as it does for 1,595 other passengers.

  ‘I guess
he is gone,’ said Foley, pulling excitedly on his pipe. ‘Poor lad, he was a fine, clean-cut young fellow, 26 he was. The last letter I wrote I told him to stay at home on the farm with the old folk. Joe is the first to go. There were twelve of us children, eight boys and four girls. They are all in the old country except myself and Nick, who is a fireman for the Chicago and Northwestern in Chicago’.

  The Foley family at home have since received a letter from Joseph informing them of his safe arrival off the Celtic, and so all anxious fears are allayed.

  (Enniscorthy Echo, 18 May 1912)

  The New Ross Standard had this report on 3 May 1912:

  A fortunate young man

  Rumour gained credence around some time again when it was floated around that Mr Joseph Foley, Barmony, was numbered among the missing on board the ill-fated Titanic. He was booked to travel on the Titanic, but fortunately changed his mind, and his name appeared in the daily papers as one of the Third-Class passengers.

  Luckily indeed for himself and his family that he took a berth on the Baltic [sic]. Mr Foley is a fine type of young Irishman, and when at home was a keen Gael. We wish him every good luck in the land of his adoption, and congratulate him on his lucky escape.

  The Joseph Foley who died was travelling out with his girlfriend Bridget O’Sullivan, who was from the same parish. Joseph (19) worked as a gardener on the Hearnsbrook estate close to his home, but was hoping to achieve something different in life.

  The families of both seemed hopeful the couple would make a go of things in America and get married. Instead Bridget and Joseph died at sea. The Cork Examiner wrote on 2 May 1912: ‘As they were both deservedly popular, their untimely fate has evoked universal regret … ’

  Joseph’s parents were David, 45, an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Julia, 40. ‘His mother was heartbroken when he was going, he was such a devoted son.’ Joseph was travelling out to his uncle, John Hickey, in Larchmont, NY.

  William Foley (20) Lost

  Ticket number 365235. Paid £7 15s.

  Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

  From: Commeen, Donoughmore, County Cork.

  Destination: 252 West 115th Street, New York city.

  William was not wanted in America. He desperately wanted to go and had begged his sister Julia in New York for the passage money. But she was finding it hard to make ends meet, and consulted their brother Jeremiah as to what she should do. America-based Jeremiah made a succinct reply: ‘Don’t send him the fare. We’re not doing so well ourselves, why would he come over?’ This story was related by William’s niece Nora Mullane, who adds that a sympathetic Julia said nothing, but raised the money herself and sent it secretly.

  Travelling in steerage on the Titanic, William blithely believed he was on his way to his brother Jeremiah (33), who had pioneered the emigrant trail to America’s east coast. He stated as much on official records. He certainly knew more about it than Jeremiah did: ‘He only found out when the Titanic went down. There was a lot of bad feeling about it, and what had happened. Julia came home to Ireland on her own a little later.’

  Report of the American Red Cross (Titanic Disaster) 1913:

  No. 143. (Irish.) A farmer, 20 years old, was lost while coming to join his sister and brother in New York. The sister claimed to have sent $60 for his passage and, because ill and out of work for several months, to need this money. She was asked to secure a receipt for the draft sent to her brother. Nothing further was heard from the girl. The family in Ireland were not dependent.

  William Foley, left at home in Ireland for weeks amid confusing signals, at length began to plan his one-way trip to the United States. He would travel with his fellow parishioner, Hannah Naughton, a trained schoolteacher, and a third person was due to join them on the way to a new life in ‘the Land of the Free’.

  The day they were due to travel, William called to the house of Hannah Maria Cremin (18) to accompany her to Mallow and the train for Cork. The girl was distraught, however, because a last-minute hitch meant her papers were not in order. Hannah Naughton and William had to leave without her. Hannah Cremin arrived in the United States a year later aboard the Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic.

  Donoughmore victims, Donoughmore, Wednesday

  It is regrettable to have to record that among those who lost their lives in the historic Titanic disaster were Hannah Naughton, daughter of John Naughton, and William, son of John Foley, Commeen, both of this parish.

  The greatest sympathy is felt for the parents of both for the sudden and tragic way in which they lost their lives. Hopes were entertained that their names would appear in some lists of those saved, but it is now certain that both were lost.

  Nearly three-quarters of a century after William Foley was lost on the Titanic, a nephew named after him, 57-year-old William Foley, was drowned in waters from whence the White Star liner sailed, when he had a heart attack at the wheel of his car, which veered off an unprotected quay into Cork harbour in 1986. The victim’s sister had foreseen William’s death by drowning in a dream the previous night.

  1901 census:

  Parents: John Foley (65), farmer, Ellen (55), mother.

  Children: Mary (24), Jeremiah (22), Julia (20), John (17), Dennis (11), William (9).

  Patrick Fox (28) Lost

  Ticket number 368573. Paid £7 15s.

  Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

  From: Killaroo, Streamstown, Mullingar, County Westmeath.

  Destination: 123 West 80th Street, New York city.

  It was said that Patrick Fox could easily clear a five-bar farmyard gate in one flying leap. A famed high-jumper, he had claimed victory in a local sports event intended purely as an exhibition occasion for a big city champion. The ability to clear locked gates could have been an advantage on the Titanic were it not for the fact that there was little headroom below decks. In fact, Pat was such an all-round athlete – having been offered a kind of sports scholarship in Dublin after demonstrating his prowess – that people in his locality refused to accept his death. They felt sure Pat would have been able to swim to safety, pull himself aboard a raft, or cling to floating wreckage until rescue arrived. Neighbours were thoroughly shocked when confirmation arrived of his demise.

  Patrick had spent much of 1911 at home with his family in Killaroo, having spent a few years in the United States, originally journeying out in 1906 to join his sister Bridget. In his home place he was remembered as being happy-go-lucky and ‘as wild as a goat’.

  He had returned in part to repay the original passage money to America to a wealthy acquaintance from whom he had borrowed the fare. But the generous gentleman refused to accept repayment, saying it was reward enough to see how well Pat had turned out. Suddenly therefore, Pat had extra money and he began to think about making his future in Ireland. A neighbouring family, the Conlons, were selling a five- or six-acre parcel of land which would double the Fox holding if they could make the acquisition.

  Pat’s father was nearly 80 years of age and since Pat was the only son of the household it would have made sense for him to take over both his own farm and the Conlon ground. He could have afforded it if he disposed of some assets in the US. The night before he was due to return to settle his affairs by the Titanic, Pat Fox told neighbour John Conlon (35) that he was not to sell his widowed mother’s holding until he came back. Conlon readily agreed and a deal was struck. But the point of no return arrived unforeseen a few days later.

  A gentleman from the Streamstown district, a Mr Fox, was also a passenger on board the ill-fated vessel. The Titanic, which had been described as a ‘floating palace’, and has been declared to be practically unsinkable, was built in Belfast by the great shipping firm over which Lord Pirrie presides.

  The loss of the great Atlantic liner is a tragic reminder that man has not yet conquered the deep, and that there is, after all, something in what is regarded as the ignorant fear of ‘old fashioned’ people about the dangers of travelling.

  (Westmea
th Examiner, 20 April 1912)

  Fox was described as a 26-year-old general labourer on Board of Trade embarkation records, but was in fact born on 15 July 1883, making him two years older.

  1911 census – Killaroo, Streamstown.

  John Fox (78), farmer, and wife Bridget (60). Married 39 years, nine children, five living. Patrick (27), farmer’s son; Katie (23), dressmaker; Christine (18).

  Martin Gallagher (25) Lost

  Ticket number 36864. Paid £7 14s 10d.

  Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

  From: Currafarry, Caltra, County Galway.

  Destination: East 143rd Street, New York city.

  Martin was travelling with four other Galway people: Thomas Kilgannon, Thomas Smith, Ellen Mockler and Margaret Mannion. He appears to have been their inspiration for the journey. He was originally from Ballina and had returned to Ireland having made good in the United States. Mockler was his next-door neighbour at home in Currafarry and Kilgannon lived just two smallholdings away. Smith he knew from his schooldays and Mannion was the reason he had come home in the first place. It was thus natural that Gallagher should become the leader of the little group of five that set out from Caltra parish for pastures new.

  Martin’s brother Michael had years ago preceded him to the USA, becoming a rancher in Wyoming. But he himself became successful in Rye, upstate New York, building up a healthy business from about 1908 onwards to become relatively well-to-do. It was then his thoughts turned to the girl he left behind. The dream of returning to make Margaret Mannion of Loughanboy, Caltra, his bride had long sustained him in the United States. They had corresponded frequently, and now Martin was home to collect her and make her his wife.

  Martin Gallagher died on the Titanic, having saved his love and helped to steer other girls to safety.

  Some stayed in their cabins – that’s where Mary Agatha Glynn and four discouraged roommates were found by young Martin Gallagher. He quickly escorted them to boat No. 13 and stepped back on the deck again.