The sinking of the Titanic continues make to headlines as though the world is still coming to terms with it. With the 100th anniversary of one of the world’s worst maritime disasters just six months away it seems many stories that has disappeared into the mists of times are slowly been recovered.
However, the towns of Athlone, and Mullingar and its environs would not have been exempt from the tragedy.
On Monday night last, the chairman of Athlone Town Council Alan Shaw called on his council colleagues to support a motion that would see a plaque erected to the memory of Margaret Rice, who was born Margaret Norton in Athlone, and died on that fateful night along with her five sons.
“Margaret Rice was born at number 9 Castle Street on the Connaught side of Athlone. She had a very tragic story to tell and she perished along with her five sons on the Titanic in 1912,” he told the Advertiser.
“Next year we commemorate the centenary of that event. It is an international story and not just a story for Athlone. I think it is important that we not only remember the event itself but also those who lost their lives.
“Here in Athlone Margaret Rice was one of those. She was born on October 6 1872 and she had moved to Canada earlier in her life where she reared a family.”
But tragedy would soon strike the Rice family and Margaret would be widowed and left to fend for five young boys in New York.
“She returned to Ireland for a time before deciding to go back to Canada and that was why she boarded the Titanic. This is a story that will be told in many, many towns and cities not just in Ireland but also across the world,” said Cllr Shaw.
Also travelling to the Big Apple was Mary Kate Kelly from Castlepollard. She may well have known fellow Athlonian Bridget Elizabeth Mulvihill known locally as Bertha, who also boarded the ship as she planned to travel to Philadelphia. She was in the company of Maggie and Eugene Patrick Daly also from Athlone.
Castlepollard’s Mary Kate Kelly was a single woman aged 22 at the time and survived after leaving the Titanic on Lifeboat D. She was picked up by the Carpathia and arrived in New York in April 1912. She died on December 27 1950.
Travel was nothing new to 24-year-old Bertha E Mulvihill who had returned to Athlone for a wedding and was returning to Rhode Island to plan her own wedding. She was engaged to an American, Henry Noon, and her sister Mrs Edward Norton lived nearby.
She boarded the Titanic with Maggie (Margaret Marcella ) Daly and Eugene Patrick Daly (no relation ) a farm labourer.
She eventually made it into lifeboat 15, after suffering two broken ribs.
After disembarking from the Carpathia she was met by Henry and they were later married and had five children.
Bertha Mulvihill Noon died on October 15 1959.She was buried at St Francis Cemetery, Rhode Island.
Eugene Patrick Daly died in 1965 at the age of 82. He had held onto an upturned raft for a time and in interviews afterwards he told stories of how he was threatened at gunpoint by an officer, who shot two passengers before turning the gun on himself.
Sadly Kate Connolly from Finnea who was also on boarddied in the tragedy.
