Catherine Gilhooly was an Irish national and British subject from County Leitrim. She survived the Lusitania sinking.
During the Lusitania sinking, Catherine, and Margaret McClintock, went to the starboard side of the ship to enter a lifeboat. They saw the boats upset as they were lowered, throwing many people into the water. The women were advised to go to the port side*, which they did with some difficulty, as the ship was listing to starboard.
Catherine and Margaret got into a lifeboat, which “got clear just in time, thanks to the plucky work of a pantryman, who pushed them off with an oar.”
In the lifeboat, a woman called a man’s attention to the sinking ship. The man refused to look, saying that “he could not look at such a spectacle.”
The lifeboat was picked up by a fishing smack (Wanderer of Peel?) then transferred to a government boat (Stormcock?) and landed in Queenstown at about 9:30 p.m. that evening.
* Many port side lifeboats were not lowered, upset, or not lowered properly, with the exception of boat #2. Therefore, Catherine and Margaret would have been in this boat or a starboard boat.
Contributors:
Senan Molony
References:
Molony, Senan. Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy, pg. 34. Mercier Press, 2004.
Thank you for this information.My paternal grandmother was Margaret Gilhooly and her brother was James Gilhooly. I believe that Catherine was his wife and traveled to Ireland after his death.She never returned to the U.S.The deed to James’s grave was purchased by Catherine and then given to my father in 1940 for the burial of my sister and others in later years.Do you know where Catherine lived after 1915 or when she died? I am trying to verify our family’s history.