Free Irish Aboard Titanic by Senan Molony

among a large group of fourteen young men and women from the parish of Addergoole, County Mayo, who embarked on the Titanic . Only two survived.
    Patrick was a cousin of another Titanic passenger, Annie Kate Kelly, and was travelling to stay with his sister, Miss Kate Canavan, of Diamond Street, Philadelphia. Survivor Annie Kate makes fleeting reference to Patrick in her account of the tragedy, seeming to place him in the after well deck of the Titanic , behind the fourth funnel and close to the stern:
    John Bourke and Patrick Canavan knew there was a ladder leading to the upper decks. Gathering the women and girls about them, they started for the ladder.
    Patrick, a general labourer, was the son of Anthony Canavan and Bridget Kelly (the latter was linked to Annie Kate Kelly) and was born and baptised on 14 September 1890. He had a brother Tom, three years older, who had also already emigrated west. By 1911, Pat was the eldest son at home, although nine years younger than his sister Annie. He was the sole remaining big brother to Bridgie (17) and Anthony (13).
    Mary Canavan was a little older than her cousin Patrick. She was lost because agents canvassing for the shipping lines persuaded her to travel on ‘a brand new ship’ long before her intended crossing. Said a descendant: ‘If the canvassers hadn’t come around, Mary wouldn’t have been on the Titanic. That was the big regret for years afterwards.’
    Family members say one of the reasons so many were lost from Lahardane was because of the enthusiastic sales-pitches of agents seeking emigrants, who called to homes in early 1912. Mary fully intended to travel to the USA – she was just waiting for her American-based brother Paddy to come up with the fare. He had travelled over the previous year at the age of 24 and had promised to remit the passage money. He had not done so by the time the large group from Mayo prepared to leave, and Mary was reduced to begging her parents for an advance. Although wanting her to stay at home for another year, they finally capitulated.
    Mary Canavan was the daughter of Thomas Canavan and Mary Earley. By the 1911 census returns, Mary Canavan was aged 22, and her parents Mary and farmer Anthony were 55 and 58 respectively. Annie Kate Kelly, the young survivor, spoke of ‘Mary Flynn’ being on board the Titanic , seemingly a reference to Mary Canavan because of the Flynn family connection. Mary intended to stay with her cousin Anthony Flynn when she reached New York. Anthony was the brother of another Titanic passenger, James Flynn.
    Word of Mary’s death came by messenger to her father when he was preparing to take animals to a fair to help recoup his outlay for her ticket. Her brother Paddy, who had not managed to earn the passage money, was killed a few years later when a tree fell on him while lumberjacking in California.
    Janie Carr (45) Lost
    Ticket number 368364. Paid £7 15s.
    Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.
    From: Castlerock, Aclare, County Sligo.
    Destination: 7 Hamilton Street, Hartford, Connecticut.
    Probably victim of liner’s wreck
    Now practically no hope that Miss Jennie Carr survived disaster
    New York, April 19. There is practically no hope that Jennie Carr of Windsor Locks, Conn., who was a passenger aboard the Titanic returning to her home from Ireland, was saved from the steamer.
    Inquiry at the White Star Line office this afternoon elicited the information that Ellen Carr and Jennie Carr sailed as Third-Class passengers and that Ellen Carr is the survivor. Jennie Carr is listed as ‘missing’. The White Star Line does not know the point of destination of either women but is certain that the woman who was saved is Ellen Carr.
    Miss Carr, formerly a resident of Springfield, had been living with her brothers and sisters in Ireland for the past three years but the failure of the Windsor Locks bank, where the savings of her lifetime were deposited, caused her to come