Kirkintilloch disaster recalled: wail of the caoine broken by dry sobs

PART SIX

Tom Gillespie

EIGHTY-five years ago, 10 Achill youths lost their lives in a bothy fire in Kirkintilloch, Scotland. It happened on Wednesday night, September 15, 1937.

Ten days later The Connaught Telegraph gave extensive coverage to the tragedy.

The report continued:

After the Mass the Archbishop of Tuam, Most Rev. Dr. Martin Gilmartin, who appeared to be very deeply moved, delivered an address.

His Lordship said: "We all come here today to join in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the repose of the souls of the 10 sons of Achill whose tragic death has cast a chill of sorrow throughout the land.

"It is an occasion not so much for words as for silence and grief. I felt it my duty, however, to come among you to convey to you the profound sympathy of the priests and people of the whole diocese in this heartbreaking loss.

"It is not the first tragedy which has cast a terrible shadow over this beautiful island, and it is to be hoped that it will be the last.

"To the afflicted parents and relatives of the deceased youths, it must be a great consolation that there were priests of their own islands going with the good Archbishop and priests of Scotland in giving all possible comfort and assistance to the survivors of the tragedy. It is another consolation that out of evil God can draw good.

"The circumstances of this tragedy will awaken public attention to the hardships and risks which your young boys and girls have to endure in going abroad to work hard during the day, with more than a possibility of unhealthy and unsafe accommodation during the night.

"Although efforts have been made to render more humane the nights' provision for the workers of Achill and Donegal in Scotland, the present horror will, I feel sure, arouse the consciences of all concerned to leave nothing undone to better those provisions in order to prevent the recurrence of tragedies like that of Kirkintilloch.

"We have this consolation, however - your 10 boys were martyrs to duty. Labour is a law of life; there must be division of labour in the social order, and all men, no matter what their position here, are equal before God in the sense that they are made in the image of God, who will reward the good and punish the wicked, according to their work. God is no respect of persons. The test of greatness is not possessions of wealth or family; it is sacrifice for the honour and glory of God and for the good of our neighbours.

"The fathers and mothers of Achill today are standing in the shadow of a hard cross, but it is not as hard as the one on which Christ died, and underneath which His mother stood.

"Your greatest consolation should be that you are suffering in the company of Jesus and Mary. One of the sayings of Christ is: ‘He that loses his life shall save it’.

"It seems a paradox, but the meaning is clear. Self-sacrifice for the safe of Christ and for the good of others is a guarantee of salvation.

"Your 10 brave boys lost their lives in the noble cause of duty of hard labour to bring support and comfort to the loved ones at home, and this is sure ground for the hope that they will rise from their ashes together with Christ in the glorious and eternal resurrection. May their souls rest in peace."

The Archbishop then imparted the final Absolution.

More painful scenes were witnessed after the Mass as the relatives of the dead surged forward and around the coffins which rested in front of the altar rails.

Since they had first learned of the disaster they had been crying all day and during the long weary vigil on Sunday night, until Monday morning, when the well streams of their tears had run dry. All one heard was the weird soul racking wail of the caoine, broken by dry sobs.

The removal of the coffins added to the poignancy of the scenes, and once again there was a great surge of emotion as the coffins, borne on the shoulders of sturdy island men, were carried to waiting motor cars.

The rain has ceased and the sun shone out. The cortege passed along slowly and mournfully, the cars keeping peace with the hundreds of islanders who followed it on foot, while strung out behind was a long line of motorcars bearing sympathisers from all over the county.

A short half-mile along the road, the procession passed a cluster of cottages, in two of which had been born and reared the brothers Kilbane and Thomas Rattigan, victims of the fire - everything in the little place seemed to have been stricken dead.

So the journey continued its doleful way until the graveyard was reached. Here many other sympathisers were assembled.

The loving care which these islanders have for their dead was shown by the preparations that had been made for the reception of the remains. The big common grave had been strewn with soft rushes, while the sides were lined with flowers - blossoms of hydrangea, carnations, gladioli, and soft mosses - and ready to be laid on the grave was a striking floral cross, Celtic design, eight or nine feet in height.

It was a glorious mass of colour, and spoke of loving care and hours of reverent work.

Back on their last homing, the victims of the Kirkintilloch disaster on Monday were laid to rest in the little churchyard of Kildownet, in their native soil, whereby lie the remains of generations of their kith and kin. These 10 poor youths, who met their deaths together in the confines of a Scottish bothy, now share a common sleeping place.

In portion of the burial ground stands a cross marking the burial place of the 36 islanders who lost their lives in the big disaster 40 years ago when islanders going to the harvests were drowned. Many of the boys buried on Monday were relatives of the victims of the earlier disaster.

Hither they were borne in the funeral procession, the memory of which will live to sadden the lives for many a day of the people of Achill.

The transfer of the coffins from their conveyance to the graveside was, as one expected, the occasion of still further demonstrations of grief on the part of the afflicted.

In these last, sad stages, many of the women, especially the girls who had been at Kirkintilloch and had seen the young men meet their deaths, broke down completely and threw themselves on the grass - even the men no longer could hold their emotions in restraint.

So distraught were the women that it seemed that they could not recover from their grief, but when Fr. Godfrey, who officiated at the graveside, started to recite the Rosary in their native tongue, a wonderful calm settled over the gathering. It was broken only by the responses to the prayers.

In two rows of five each of the coffins were placed in the grave, while the Rosary continued.

When the final players were recited, and the first earth was thrown into the grave by Fr. Campbell, the feeling of the mourners no longer could be restrained and they again burst into lamentations. So it continued until the grave was filled and the last sod placed thereon.

Women momentarily deprived of their senses beat their breasts and staggered about crying in their weird caoine calling for their lost sons, but ministering friends kept them under their care and brought them kindly and gently from the scene.

In that common grave 14 feet by 12, these 10 young islanders lie - the latest sacrifice which Achill and the men of the west have to make in their effort to win for their families and themselves on the harvest fields of Scotland and England that living with their own hard barren native soil denies them.

Clew Bay, with its 36 lives sacrificed in 1894: Arranmore, with the 19 lives last year (1936), and now Achill, with its further 10 - these are only the major sacrifices offered to a system which extracts heavy toll on the manhood of the West of Ireland.

Concluded.