School: Tagoat (roll number 5990)
- Location:
- Tagoat, Co. Wexford
- Teacher: Pádraig Coilféir
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0879, Page 154
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- XML “A Local Shipwreck”
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- One night in the winter of 1886, a ship called the Sirus came ashore near Carnsore Point. She was engaged in the regular cross-channel trade between Liverpool and Waterford, and was carrying passengers and general cargo.
At about 10pm in a howling south westerly gale, she struck. The seas were mountainous, and a crowd of people who had assembled on the beach, were helpless. One of her boilers exploded, blowing up the saloon deck and sweeping a number of her passengers to destruction. She then turned broadside, was swept by heavy seas, and became a total wreck.
The dark night was illuminated by blazing rockets. No boat could be launched and the helpless people jumped into the sea and grasped whatever they could to carry them ashore. Seventeen lives were lost and the next day, people helped in collecting the bodies strewn along the beach. They were drawn away in donkey carts. A number of local men are contemplating an effort to raise the wreck.
- Collector
- Stasia Rossiter
- Gender
- Unknown
- Address
- Rathmore, Co. Wexford
- Informant
- John Murphy
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Broadway, Co. Wexford
