Margaret Corrigan was born in possibly County Cavan or County Fermanagh, Ireland, around 1887. She was single and some time before the outbreak of the Great War, she had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where she found employment as a domestic servant.
In the spring of 1915, however, she decided to return home to Ireland and consequently booked a third class ticket on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York to Liverpool.
As a consequence, she left Boston and joined the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54, on the west side of the city, on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 o’clock departure. This was then delayed until the early afternoon because she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship, at the end of April. The
Lusitania finally left port just after mid-day.
Six days later, on the morning of 7th May, as the liner neared the coast of Ireland, a heavy mist shrouded the ‘Emerald Isle’ from the view of the passengers, but as the morning wore on, the mist cleared giving many returning Irish people the first view many of them would have had of their homeland for a long time! Margaret Corrigan would doubtlessly have been one of these, but just after 2 o’clock on that afternoon, the
Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 and Miss Corrigan was one of the many third class victims of the action. At this stage of her voyage, the liner was steaming past The Old Head of Kinsale and was only about 250 miles hours away from her home port.
Reports state that Margaret Corrigan was alive when she reached Queenstown in one of the rescue vessels, but died within a few hours of reaching land. Her remains were taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up in Queenstown, where it was given the reference number 74. Then, on 10th May 1915, after a positive identification had been made of it, it was buried in The Old Church Cemetery just north of the town, in Mass Grave A, 1st Row, Lower Tier, where it lies to this day. It was on 10th May that most of the recovered bodies of the Lusitania passengers and crew were buried, after a long funeral procession which began outside the Cunard office at Lynch’s Quay on the waterfront in Queenstown. She was aged 28 years at the time of her death.
On 7th June 1915, property recovered from her body, which probably aided its identification, was sent to her brother Mr. Patrick Corrigan at his home at Gubaveeny, Blacklion, County Cavan. It consisted of an American draft for £50-0s-0d., £7-0s-0d. in gold, a £5-0s-0d. treasury note, three £1-0s-0d. treasury notes, one gold bracelet, a set of rosary beads, two gold rings, one brooch and one bunch of keys.
In Cunard records, Margaret Corrigan’s surname is spelt as Canigan, which is incorrect.
Cunard Records, Boston Sunday Post, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/437, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.