Clew Bay Victims honoured

Victims of drowning tragedy remembered in Roonagh

Neill O’Neill

FRIDAY last was an emotional day at Roonagh Pier, when a plaque was unveiled in memory of five people who drowned making the six-mile crossing from Clare Island on October 22, 1957.
The tragedy claimed the lives of 25-year-old Brigid O’Toole from Inishturk, father-of-four John Toughig (40) from Westport, Brendan O’Beirne (45) also from Westport, Issac Walsh (60), from Roonagh and the skipper of the currach on which they were travelling, Martin Duffy from Roonagh.
Martin’s wife, Annie Duffy, who was at the sunlit ceremony on Friday, was in hospital in Castlebar giving birth to their third child when tragedy struck 50 years ago.
Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Seamus Weir, performed the unveiling of the plaque which was designed and made in Callow outside Foxford by sculptor Tim Morris, saying that ‘looking across the waves to Clare Island I can only dare to imagine what those tragic days were like.’.
The inscription on the plaque reads ‘1957 Clew Bay Tragedy 2007. In Memory of Those Lost 22-10-1957, I gCuimhne an Chúigear a Cailleadh’. The names of each of the victims are inscribed on five waves which furl out from under a currach, which is etched onto the plaque. It was commissioned by Mayo County Council after Louisburgh-based county councillor, Austin Francis O’Malley, suggested that something be done to commemorate the tragedy half a century after it shook the small coastal communities and islands of west Mayo.
Director of Services in the Westport Electoral Area, Mr Peter Hynes, welcomed the crowd and said that it was ironic that the unveiling was taking place on the shortest day of the year – as it reflected the dark days of when the tragedy occurred.
Father Micheál Mannion CC, Westport and Fr Mattie Long PP, Louisburgh, said prayers in memory of the deceased and blessed the plaque before the unveiling.
Afterwards, Mrs Annie Duffy, who still lives just a few hundred yards from Roonagh Pier, said that she was glad her husband Martin and the others would be remembered in some way.
“I live through this every day,” she said. “We were only married a few years and I was in hospital at the time it happened having our third child.”
She recalled how her husband had saved a man from the sea near Clare Island in 1945 and received a certificate and £10 at a ceremony in Dublin for his heroism. Grandchildren that her husband never got to know were also present at the ceremony.
Brendan O’Toole, a brother of Brigid, then thanked everyone in Mayo County Council who had made the memorial a reality and all who had officiated and contributed to the ceremony.
His sister, Ann Nugent, added that there was never a funeral held for her sister or three of the other victims and the ceremony and unveiling had brought back a lot of memories.