Sarah Donahue (or Donohue, or O’Donohue) was born in Cahernamuck, Loughrea, County Galway, on the 15th March 1880, the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Donahue (née Kirwan). Her father was a farmer, and the family later moved to Cloonbar, Tuam, County Galway. Sarah left her home in Ireland around 1905, and travelled to the Unites States of America, where she settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, south of Boston, where she found employment as a cook.
According to the Boston Globe newspaper, she had returned on a number of occasions to her native land, and in the spring of 1915, she received word that her sister, Mrs. Mary Duddy, was seriously ill at her home in County Galway, and she was requested to return home to care for her. Consequently she booked second cabin passage on the May sailing of the
Lusitania.. For a cook to travel second class was quite unusual considering the wages earned in that profession in those days.
On the day she was leaving Dorchester, she received a letter informing her that her sister had died, nonetheless, she decided to continue on her journey to her native home.
Sarah Donahue arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May in time for the liner’s scheduled 10 o‘clock sailing. Once on board, however, she had to wait until just before 12.30 p.m. before the liner sailed, because she had to embark passengers and crew and load cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia
which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship.
Then, just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania
was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 when she was within sight of the southern coast of Ireland and only 250 miles from the safety of her home port and ultimate destination.
Sarah Donahue was killed as a result of this action and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 35 years, although Cunard records stated that she was aged 42 years at the time of her death.
Ireland Civil Registration Births Index 1864 – 1958, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, Cunard Records, Boston Globe, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.