Mary Rooney was born on the family farm at Ballyboy, Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland, on the 6th November 1864, the daughter of Hugh and Rose Rooney (née Clancy). She came from a large family, although it is not known for certain how many siblings she had. Some of her siblings were named, Patrick, Delia, James, John, and Rose.
Around 1892, she had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where she was a cook in domestic service. By 1915, she was employed by a Mrs. James S. Hollingshead, at 255. Henry Street, Brooklyn, and she resided with her cousin, a Mr. Joseph Murray, who was a retired policeman, and his family, at 336a. Fifth Street, Brooklyn, New York City.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return to Manorhamilton to spend an extended
holiday with her aging mother, and as a result she bought a second cabin ticket on the Lusitania, and having joined the liner at the Cunard berth on the morning of 1st May 1915, she had her last view of her adoptive city just after mid-day, as the liner left the coast of America for the last time!
Six days later, when she was in sight of the southern coast of Ireland, the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 and as Mary Rooney was killed in the sinking or drowned subsequently in the waters off The Old Head of Kinsale, she would never put foot on her native soil again.
On 9th May 1915, a Mr. James Morris of 366, Fifth Street, Brooklyn, New York, cabled the Cunard office in Queenstown for news of Mary Rooney and asked that if her body was discovered; notification was to be sent to a James Rooney of Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland, who was her brother. Unfortunately, however, her body was never recovered and identified afterwards and as a result, she has no known grave. She was aged 50 years at the time of her death, although she stated on boarding the Lusitania that he was aged 45 years!
Some time after the sinking, her mother, who was staying with relatives at the Private Hotel, Manorhamilton, applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for financial help, on the grounds that her daughter was bringing home some money for her from America. This fund had been set up immediately after the liner had been sunk, by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local business dignitaries to help second and third class passenger survivors and the relatives of those who had perished, who had come upon hard times as a result of the sinking.
Mrs. Rooney obviously thought that she came into this latter category, but the fund awards committee only granted her the sum of £2-0s-0d., on the grounds that she could not prove dependency!
Shortly before embarking on her voyage on the Lusitania, Mary Rooney had made a will leaving her estate of over $5,000 to be divided amongst her mother, her brother James, her sister Mrs. Rose Rooney Connell, and a number of other relatives, mainly cousins. She also stipulated that her estate should pay for a gravestone over her grave, and although she has no known grave, a gravestone was erected in her memory in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City. Her brother Patrick, and sister Delia, are buried in the grave, and their names also appear on the gravestone.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1905 New York State Census, 1911 Census of Ireland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Sligo Champion, Standard Union, Times Union, New York U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1659 – 1999, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, UniLiv D92/2/299, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.