Margaret Kenny was born in Deerpark, Birr, County Offaly, Ireland, on the 9th October 1881, the daughter of Patrick and Rose Kenny (née Garahy). Her family were farmers, and she had a twin brother named Thomas.
In 1907, she had gone to the United States of America and settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she found employment as a domestic. She had been accompanied by her cousin, Peter Kenny, who found work as a longshoreman. Margaret married Peter Kenny in Boston on the 25th June 1911, and they had a daughter named Mary
Bridget, who was born in July 1912.
Peter Kenny died on 1st May 1913, and Margaret and her daughter went to live with her sister, Mrs. Mary Ellen Carroll, and her family of eleven children. Mary’s husband, Patrick Carroll, had become a naturalized citizen of the United States, as a result of which his wife and children also became American citizens. Mrs. Carroll ran a boarding house, and Margaret assisted her in the business.
In the spring of 1915, Margaret Kenny decided to make a visit home and take baby Mary with her. She booked second cabin passage for them both on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool on the major part of their journey.
Having left her home at 44A. Park Street, Charlestown, sometime in April, they arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Having boarded her, they then had to wait until 12.27 p.m. before the liner actually left the port, because she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and some crew members from the Anchor Liner S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk within sight of The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her home port.
Both Margaret and Mary Kenny were killed as a result of this action and as neither of their bodies was ever recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave. Margaret Kenny was aged 33 years.
Mary Ellen Carroll submitted a claim to the Mixed Claims Commission, and was awarded the sum of $2,500.00 in compensation for the loss of her sister, who she claimed contributed to the running of her household and her business.
In October 1915, in Dublin, administration of her estate was granted to her twin brother, Thomas Kenny. Her effects amounted to £287-18s.-6d. (£287.92½p.).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Massachusetts Marriage Records 1840 – 1915, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2053, Boston Globe, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/396, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.