Limerick lady’s Titanic life is honoured in her homeplace

“WE WERE all in bed, but not asleep, when the ship struck the iceberg. There was a slight shock, but nothing serious, as we thought. Mrs Watt went out on the deck to see what had happened, and she was told that it was nothing serious and she came back and told us.”

These are the words of Ellen Mary Toomey, as told to The Indianapolis News on April 24 1912, just over a week after the Titanic sank.

She was one of the fortunate ones to be rescued on a lifeboat and not one of the 1,500 people who perished in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Kilcornan lady, who was born on February 2, 1862, has been honoured in her homeplace with a plaque unveiled at Kilcornan Community Centre.

It was in conjunction with a talk in the centre in memory of Ellen Mary's life organised by local man Ger Ward.

“We held it to mark her birthday 162 years later. We asked Claire Toomey, who has a family connection, to unveil the plaque and she kindly agreed. Ellen Mary was born just two fields away from the hall,” said Ger.

He also has a distant family connection to Ellen Mary who died in 1933.

"My father would always talk about Ellen Mary and the Titanic and the local connection. He died just four months ago. He used to always speak about it so I thought I would organise an event in memory of Ellen Mary on her birthday, and in tribute to my dad who inspired it.

“It’s a remarkable story. She missed other ships and that was the only one she could get. There weren't that many people on the Titanic number one and to survive even less so,” said Ger, who carried out his own research into Ellen Mary’s life.

“I thought it was a rare thing for women to come back from America to Ireland in those times but seemingly not. A lot of them were earning good wages as housemaids or in other roles. She was working for a surgeon, I think, and obviously she was on good enough wages if she was able to come home to Ireland and go back through England to visit her sister and she continued on to America then,” said Ger.

He organised a line-up of speakers including Dr Zara Power and Dr Pat Wallace, formerly of the National Museum. Ger arranged for an array of antiques in the hall “to set the scene” including a 1912 Ford model T, Titanic memorabilia, trunks like those that would have been taken aboard the doomed ship and a framed painting of Ellen Mary. Artistic Kilcornan National School pupils also added to the sense of occasion.

A crowd of around 300 turned up for the unique event.

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“It was a fantastic night. The speakers were excellent. I’d like to thank Dr Zara Power, Dr Patrick Wallace, Stephen Toomey and Christine Gurnett, and violinist Anna Jane Ryan and to everyone else who was involved and came along to a wonderful night in memory of Ellen Mary,” said Ger.

Ellen Mary was reunited with her sisters in Indianapolis who awaited her return with much anxiety and arrived there by train on April, 12.

She heaped praise on the ship's passengers and crew for the kind treatment she and other survivors were given.

Ellen Mary spent the remainder of her life in Indianapolis and was buried there but she hasn't been forgotten about in Kilcornan.