Irish Aboard Titanic (28 page)

From: Rooskey Lower, Castlefinn, County Donegal.

Destination: 1609 Winter Street, Philadelphia.

Neal and Eileen McNamee were newlyweds – and young go-getters. Their lives were taking off, and their move to New York was the latest confirmation of their upward progress in the world.

Neal McNamee was born in Lower Rooskey, County Donegal, on 29 August 1884. Neal's father, William, was a road worker and had married his wife, Catherine, when both were teenagers. They had two children before either was out of their teens, and two more in their early twenties. The cottage containing the six of them had two windows and three rooms. The family later left the little house in Rooskey, but while some stayed elsewhere in Donegal, Neal was already on his way to Britain, determined to succeed.

Donegal man and wife among the victims

Amongst the passengers who sailed on the ill-fated
Titanic
were Mr and Mrs Neil [
sic
] McNamee, the former being the son of Mr William McNamee, Ruskey, Convoy, County Donegal.

He entered the service of Lipton, Londonderry branch, about nine years ago, being then seventeen years of age. He remained in Londonderry for a little over two years, when he was transferred on promotion to London, and was ultimately appointed to the management of several of Lipton's district branches throughout England.

Recently he was appointed to an important position in connection with Lipton's business in New York. He got married to a Miss O'Leary just a few weeks previous to leaving. Both he and his wife sailed in the
Titanic
and their names do not appear in the list of survivors.

The greatest sympathy is felt for his father and mother, and for other members of the family in the Convoy district.

(Tyrone Constitution,
26 April 1912)

The woman who became his bride was Eileen O'Leary, who met Neal when he moved to England. Eileen had previously been involved in a crisis at sea. At the age of two she was aboard a vessel with her parents when it was struck by a cyclone in the Bay of Biscay and left without power or rudder. It was adrift for some time before being taken under tow. Her father, Richard O'Leary, had been on his way to Malta ‘to take charge of the electric light at the fort'.

Eileen worked in a Lipton's provisioning branch in Hounslow, and seems to have known Neal for some little time. He had become the manager of Lipton's grocers in Silver Street, Salisbury. The couple had been married only a few months before sailing, tying the knot in Pokesdown, Devon on 17 January 1912.

The couple moved in with the bride's parents at Kingston House, Walton Road, Salisbury. By now Richard O'Leary was a clerk in the War Office. Within weeks, the McNamees were offered a glittering new life with an important and guaranteed job in booming America. Neal had been asked to take control of the company's first venture into the United States, a Lipton's Export store on the east coast. He carried with him to America a letter of recommendation from Sir Thomas Lipton himself, and the
Titanic
carried 917 lbs of Lipton's tea in freight.

Neal had a relative in America, Jeremiah McNamee, who was due to meet the couple on their arrival. It has been suggested apocryphally that Eileen was offered a place in the boats but was one of the women who chose instead to stay with their husbands. Her body was recovered by the
MacKay-Bennett
on 22 April, and she was buried at sea the same day in a weighted canvas bag. Her effects were listed and some returned to relatives.

It was recorded that body number 53 had an estimated age of 23 (she was 19) with brown hair. She wore a brown velvet coat and a white blouse with a blue anchor on the front. She had a blue flannel petticoat with the embroidered initials ‘E Mc' and blue corsets, a blue skirt, black stockings and shoes. Her effects included a wedding ring (turquoise and diamond), and she had a gold bracelet on her right wrist, with two Third-Class tickets in her pockets. A purse containing the sum of one shilling and eleven pence was found on the remains. So too were a fountain pen, keys, cosmetics, and cards with her name and address imprinted.

Jeremiah McNamee, of No. 1609 Winter Street, will go to Halifax to claim the bodies of Mr and Mrs Neil McNamee, of Queenstown, who were on their way to this city to reside with him.

(A rather inaccurate report from the
Evening Telegraph,
Philadelphia, 25 April 1912)

There is the story that after the disaster two portraits were commissioned of the young bride and groom by their sorrowing families to mark their love for each other, and these same works were the only reminders of a charismatic couple for their grieving kinfolk in Ireland and Britain. The portraits are now with family members in Bangor, County Down.

A plaque and tree exist in memory of Eileen and Neal at Churchill Park, Salisbury, Wiltshire. The inscription reads: ‘In Memory of the young Salisbury couple, Eileen and Neal McNamee, who perished on the RMS
Titanic
on April 15th 1912'.

1901 census – McNamee, Rooskey Lower.

Parents: William (36), Catherine (32) née Gordon.

Children: Ellen (18), woollen weaver,
Neal (17),
scholar, Catherine (12), Mary (10), Andrew (8).

Bridget McNeill (27) Lost

Ticket number 370368. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Treen, Castlerea, County Roscommon.

Destination: 200 Sherman Avenue, Elm Park, New York city.

Titanic
Victim

Amongst the missing passengers on the ill-fated
Titanic
was Miss Bridget McNeill of Treen, near Castlerea. Miss McNeill had been four years in America, and came to Treen some time ago for a month's holiday.

Her name does not appear in the official list of those who have been saved. Much sympathy is felt with the relatives in their great sorrow.

Mrs Beirne, of Drimdoolin, Castlerea, was to have sailed on the
Titanic
also. She had her passage booked with a local agent and accompanied Miss McNeill from Castlerea to Queenstown. Both were to have sailed together from that port, but at the last minute, owing to a providential mishap, Mrs Beirne did not go.

(Westmeath Independent,
27 April 1912)

On 13 May 1912, James Scott & Co., the Queenstown agents for the White Star Line, wrote to Maurice Staunton, solicitor for Bridget's family. Using paper with a letterhead that insensitively still boasted that the
Titanic
was one of the ‘two largest steamers in the world', the company wrote:

Dear Sir,

We are in receipt your favor of 11th inst, Respecting Bridget McNeill, whose name does not appear amongst the list of survivors of the “Titanic”. This passenger was booked here through a local sub-agent, named Mr. Thos O'Sullivan, and we understand that she came from Treen, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon.

Yours truly,

James Scott & Co.

McNeill, Bridget (case 77), 11 June 1912.

Administration of the estate of Bridget McNeill, late of Treen, Castlerea, County Roscommon, spinster, died 15th April 1912, granted at Tuam to Michael McNeill, farmer. Effects £100.

From Mansion House
Titanic
Relief Fund Booklet, March 1913, Case Number 484: ‘McNeill: Two Brothers, Grant £20 and £10'.

1901 census – McNeill. Treen, Castlerea.

Parents: Michael (58), farmer. Rose (52).

Children: Martin (18),
Bridget (16),
James (12)

John Meehan (22) Lost

Ticket number 3130. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Currowhunane, Curry, County Sligo.

Destination: 4745 Indiana Avenue, Chicago.

John was a 22-year-old general labourer who hoped to make a better life for himself in America. He was travelling out to Chicago to join his sister Nora, two years his junior.

John belonged to that group in which death was most likely – male steerage passengers. He joined the depressing statistics of the lost, for if chivalry was against him in 1912 it was outright class discrimination which copper-fastened his fate. Steerage passengers appear to have been deliberately held back in some areas because of fears that a mass surge to the boats could jeopardise the lowering of escape craft. Thus First- and Second-Class passengers were accorded the preferential treatment for which they had paid premium fares and this extended to avoidance of a meeting with the grim reaper. It was simply the scheme of things.

The casual dismissal of a whole swathe of humanity extended beyond the watery tomb. No one in the White Star Line was terribly concerned with getting John Meehan's name right. He was variously and sloppily reported as Mechan, Mahan, or some other variation.

Very little is known about John Meehan except what can be gleaned from the American Red Cross report on aid to victims, published in 1913:

No. 304. (Irish.) Young man, 21 years of age, was drowned, leaving dependent parents in Ireland. This Committee gave emergent help and referred the case to the English Committee, which later made an appropriation of £80. ($100)

Folklore in his district says that John Meehan was a powerful swimmer and ‘a big strong fellow'. The tale has grown up, more wishful thinking than reality, that he clung to a piece of wreckage for hours, before finally succumbing to exhaustion. This tale seems grounded in stories that John, in times past, often won impromptu swimming races with his pals in the River Moy in the heart of summer after long hours toiling in the fields. But the Atlantic in April is an altogether different proposition.

1901 census – Meehan. Curraghhoonaun, County Sligo.

Parents: Thomas (42) farmer; Honora (39).

Children: Bridget (14), Margaret (18),
John (11),
Honora (9), Ellen (6), Thomas (3).

Robert Mernagh (28) Lost

Ticket number 368703. Paid £7 15s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Ballyleigh, Ballywilliam, New Ross, County Wexford.

Destination: West Street, Chicago.

Quiet, decent and industrious. Three adjectives used to describe another of Ireland's
Titanic
dead, another steerage male whose fine qualities were never going to be enough to advance him up the queue for salvation dictated by cruel variables.

Robert was travelling to Chicago, his home of two years, having originally emigrated from Queenstown aboard the
Celtic
on 8 May 1910, as seen from extant Ellis Island records, which show him to be 5 feet 8 inches, with brown hair and blue eyes. He boarded the
Titanic
in the company of his cousin Elizabeth Doyle, 24, from Bree, near Enniscorthy. Both were drowned. It appears that Mr Mernagh may have gallantly delayed his own return to the United States to accompany his younger relative.

It is rumoured that Mernagh had intended going to America a year ago, but waited for Miss Doyle, who, it is stated, was a sweetheart.

So reported the
New Ross Standard
, four days after the sinking. The erroneous sweetheart reference can only have caused more distress to both families – and this is apparent in an effusive apology and correction printed later by the same newspaper.

Errors were common. The final White Star Line list of all victims referred to Robert by the preposterous surname of ‘Nemaugh', a further careless, almost random, discourtesy. The mistake came from a misreading of the handwritten entry of names in the passenger manifest.

County Wexford passengers

Two County Wexford passengers, Robert Mernagh, Ballyleigh, Ballywilliam, and his first cousin, Elizabeth Doyle, Bree, Enniscorthy, were on board the ill-fated
Titanic
, having booked the passages with the New Ross agent, and embarked at Queenstown.

So far no account as to whether they were saved or otherwise has been received, but it is feared that they have been drowned. Mernagh, who was 28 years of age, a labourer, and unmarried, was two years in America previously and only came to see his parents last winter. He was a very quiet, decent and industrious young man. His companion, who was also unmarried, was 24 years of age, and had been in America two years previously and was only a short time home. Several people from the New Ross district intended travelling by the
Titanic
, but luckily delayed their journey to a later date.

(
Enniscorthy Echo,
20 April 1912)

MERNAGH & DOYLE – Robert Mernagh, aged 28, Ballyleigh, Ballywilliam, New Ross, and Elizabeth Doyle, Bree (first cousin), aged 24, lost in the
Titanic
. High Mass and Office at Bree Catholic church on Thursday. May their souls rest in peace.

(
New Ross Standard,
17 May 1912)

The same newspaper later reported of the event:

The relatives of the deceased man who were present are – Mr Matt Mernagh, father; also deceased's mother, his brother Mr James Mernagh, and his sisters, Miss Mary Mernagh and Mrs John Molloy, Wexford. He was going to his brother Mr Matthew Mernagh, Chicago.

Robert Mernagh had been born as one half of male twins. His brother Moses died in infancy.

1911 census:

Matthew (78), cannot read; farm labourer. Wife Mary (70).

Married 45 years, nine children born, of whom five are living.

Matthew Murphy Snr died four years and one week after his son Robert, on 23 April 1916, aged 86 years. A memorial tablet containing both their names, bordered by angels, hangs in a descendant's home.

Ellen Mockler (23) Saved

Ticket number 330980. Paid £7 12s 7d, plus 5s extra.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Currafarry, Caltra, County Galway.

Destination: 412 West 17th Street, New York city.

‘Sister Mary Patricia is a delight,' wrote John O'Connor in the 15 April 1982 edition of the
Worcester Telegram
, Massachusetts: