School: Balscadden (roll number 9492)
- Location:
- Balscaddan, Co. Dublin
- Teachers: P. Ó Séaghdha Francis Shaw
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0783, Page 141
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- This terrible disaster occured on the 26th Feb 1875 at a point along this coast right opposite to Balscadden. The bargy rocks are a dangerous reef and other disasters occured here. This large cargo boat with a crew of fifteen left Liverpool bound for Malparaiso S America. It is believed that a mutiny took place on board and that the captain (was a very valuable cargo) was shot and thrown overboard. There was avery valuable cargo of food stuffs clothes etc. There seems to have been no one in charge of the steering and no effort was made to keep away from the rocks. The coastguards made heroic attempts to reach the ship with a life-line but only succeeded when the boat went in pieces and all kinds were thrown into the boiling surf. Fourteen sailors perished and one only was saved whose name was McDonnell. Eight bodies were washed ashore that day but the otehrs were found at intervals along the coast. Those eight are buried in Balrothery in one large grave and marked by a stone giving the names of the dead. The wind was blowing from the SE and heavy sleet was falling. The keel is still visible at very low water. This wreck is still a constant topic among the locals.
- Informant
- James Donnelly
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Clonard Street, Co. Dublin
