'The story can go on and not be lost'

Mary Rooney remembers visiting an unnamed grave in Cullies Cemetery as a young girl.

It was a place her mother, the late Kathleen Sheridan (nee Morgan), asked her to visit every once in a while. Similarly, she recalls her mother buttering Jacobs Marietta biscuits in the kitchen of their Cavan Town home after shopping on a Friday, which Mary took to the young girls living in the orphanage.

“We were told, don’t be seen doing it,” Mary recalls, receiving the strict order from her mother.

At the time, Mary didn’t know why she made the weekly trip, nor did she know why she was standing at this graveside during the Blessing of the Graves each year. She didn’t even know whose remains lay beneath.

“We didn’t know it at the time that it was the orphans,” Mary says.

She never questioned why they stood on the windy hill of the cemetery.

“You do what your mammy tells you,” she reasons.

Her cousin Bernie Connolly recalls similar. She had no idea why her mother, the late Mary Egan (nee Morgan) panicked when the fire roared up the hearth. The sisters escaped the fire at St Joseph’s Orphanage on Cavan’s Main Street on February 23, 1943; however their youngest sister Ellen Morgan died in those flames at just ten years of age, along with 35 others.

“The three of them were in it together,” Bernie says. Her mother was 12 at the time of the fire, while Kathleen was aged 14. The orphanage was managed by the Sister of St Joseph’s Abbey or Poor Clares as an Industrial School for Catholic girls. While the orphanage re-opened in the 60s, neither of the women ever shared their experience.

“It was never mentioned,” Bernie recalls of her days growing up.

“She used to jokingly say ‘I grew up with the nuns’ but she’d never mention it.

In hindsight, Bernie believes “she probably was trying to tell us but was making a joke of it”.

She recalled the scar her mother had across her head.

“We would say what happened to you and she used to say I fell into the fire.” Bernie wonders now if she got the scar the night of the fire.

“Even grandad never mentioned it and we went up to him on holidays, up to Virginia there,” Mary recalls.

“Never once did we even know that they had a sister in it.

“She never mentioned it, never ever.”

Both women only found out about their mothers’ childhoods in recent years, after both their mums had passed away.

“I was mad [with her] for not saying it. Confiding in us and saying we did lose an aunt in it.

“It’s just too tragic,” she says.

The fire was first discovered by children in the Sacred Heart Dormitory who were awakened by smoke.

A report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the fire conducted in April of the same year at Cavan Courthouse found that the fire started in the laundry between 9:30pm on February 23 and 2am the following day. The summary of findings stated that “in all probability” the fire was caused by a defective flue.

The loss of thirty-six lives was found to be caused by a “combination of circumstances” namely fright or panic, resulting in faulty directions being given, want of training in fire-fighting, lack of proper leadership and control of operations, inadequate rescue and fire-fighting service at the proper time and absence of light at a critical period.

At the time the fire broke out, the report details that it was about half an hour before ladders were made available. The report states: “Nine children escaped through Sullivan’s yard, of whom five appear to have come down the Electricity Supply Board’s ladder, one down a short ladder held on the roof of a shed, three appear to have jumped before the arrival of the ladders. Three children from the Scared Heart Dormitory escaped through the windows of St Clare’s Dormitory. The other children who escaped through the windows were the children in St Clare’s Dormitory.”

After about 35 minutes “when all the rescue work considered practicable in the circumstances had been done” the floor of St Clare’s Dormitory took fire.

“Soon afterwards the roof collapsed. Thirty five children and one elderly inmate lost their lives when this happened, somewhat more than half an hour after the fire was first discovered,” the report states.

“It’s very sad,” Bernie says, with both women describing how they often think that perhaps more girls, including their aunt, could have escaped the fire.

“The ladders weren’t great either,” Mary adds.

“Some people used to say that the reason they delayed getting the girls out was because they were in their night clothes and the nuns didn’t want the men seeing them in their night clothes,” Sean says.

“They could have all been rescued if things had of been done right,” he believes.

A fitting memorial

Now plans to erect a memorial for the those who lost their lives are making headway, 82 years on from a fire that devastated the area.

Founder and joint chairperson of the ‘Remember the Cavan Orphanage Victims’ group Sean describes that “apart from out on the grave” there is “nothing” to memorialise the girls who lost their lives in the fire. It is believed that the names of the fire victims were only added to the grave on the 50th anniversary of the fire.

“That’s what we are working on, the memorial in the town.”

The group has received funding of €20,000 from the Peace Plus project in conjunction with Cavan County Council. They have linked up with the Omagh Heritage Forum to make the project happen and aim to organise a meeting shortly with Cavan County Council to pick a site for the memorial.

A site on the Abbeylands, somewhere “in the centre of the town”, is what the group is hoping for.

A memorial tree, with leaves representing each of those who lost their lives, or statues of children, are among the ideas suggested for a fitting memorial.

“Just so they won’t be forgotten,” says Bernie, who is secretary of the group, while her cousin Mary is treasurer.

She said it is especially important to have this in the town.

“People will see it all the time, especially little people, they can ask what’s the memorial for?

“The story can go on and not be lost.”

Mother of three girls Bernie often talks about the fire with her own children; while Mary also speaks of the tragedy with her own two daughters.

“They can’t believe that such a tragedy happened all those years ago and it’s not commemorated.

“The fact that there is no public memorial for that kind of tragedy, it doesn’t seem right,” Sean adds.

The three believe that there is a “stigma” around the tragedy, and it is something that some would “rather hide” than remember.

“It raises many awkward questions they’d rather stay away from,” Sean summarises.

“I think that’s a lot of it, that it just shows up the Church in a bad light, they’d [some people] rather it wasn’t highlighted. Our own aim, it’s nothing to do with that, it’s just to get the memorial in place. The fact that the council is now helping out means a lot.”

Bernie is keen to point out that the group is “not blaming anybody”.

“We’d be happy to sit down with the nuns and the priests and tell them what we’re doing.” The group was happy that, at the 80th commemorative event, members of the clergy from the local churches did attend.

“We’ll keep inviting them as long as we go on,” says Sean.

“We are hoping that, when the memorial is in place, it will be something the town can be proud of, rather than be ashamed of.”