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Mayo on that ship, Annie Kelly thought she was the sole survivor.
    But the next day, when she had recovered from the effects of the shock and exposure, she found Annie McGowan lying beside her. The two girls were cared for in an hospital in New York and sent to their relatives in this city scantily clothed, for they say the clothing given to them in New York was so ragged and dirty they could not wear them.
    Annie McGowan does not know how she was saved; in fact she is unable to tell any connected story of the horror.
    All gone but two of that merry group that boarded the Titanic in Queenstown, fresh from the County Mayo. And the two, young as they are, bear the marks of sorrow that will never leave them.
    (Reprinted by The Connaught Telegraph, 25 May 1912)
    The tragedy resulted in more wakes in County Mayo, days after the American wakes:
    Titanic Disaster Lahardane Victims
    One of the saddest sights ever witnessed in the west of Ireland was the waking of the five young girls and one young man from a village near Lahardane, who went down with the ill-fated Titanic.
    They were all from the same village, and when the first news of the appalling catastrophe reached their friends the whole community was plunged into inutterable grief. They cherished for a time a remote hope that they were saved, but when the dread news of their terrible fate arrived, a feeling of excruciating anguish took the place.
    For two days and two nights, wakes were held. The photograph of each victim was placed on the bed on which they had slept before leaving home and kindred. The beds were covered with snow-white quilts and numbers of candles were lighted around.
    The wailing and moaning of the people was very distressing and would almost draw a tear from a stone. The name of the young man who drowned was Michael Bourke [ sic ], and in his case his loss is rendered all the sadder by the fact that his young wife went down with him to a watery grave.
    A strange story is told by Bourke’s brother in connection with the tragic affair. He states that at the time of the disaster he dreamt he saw his brother in the attitude of shaving himself in his own house.
    (Western People , 4 May 1912)
    John Bourke, baptised on 25 May 1869, was the son of William Bourke and Mary O’Boyle. His parents died and he married Catherine McHugh on 17 January 1911, in Lahardane.
    Catherine, originally from Tawnagh in the locality, was related to another passenger, Catherine McGowan of Terry, Massbrook, County Mayo, while the Bourkes lived next door to fellow passenger Mary Mangan.
    The 1911 census shows John and Kate to be aged 40 and 31, married for under one year, with the farmer’s sister Mary in the same household, aged 38.
    Local history states that John Bourke bought a new spade in early 1912 intending to put down a crop, but changed his mind and decided to emigrate instead. Local folklore also insists that Catherine and Mary were in a lifeboat (possibly No. 16 on the port side) and when they saw that John was to be left behind, returned to the ship and were lost.
    Bridget Delia Bradley (22) Saved
    Ticket number 334914. Paid £7 14s 6d.
    Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.
    From: Ballinahulla, County Kerry; bordering Kingwilliamstown, County Cork.
    Destination: 29 William Street, Glen Falls, New York.
    She was saved – sitting securely in a lifeboat that was beginning its jolting descent to the water. But Bridget Delia Bradley felt she had to escape from the vessel of her salvation. Demented with fear, she tried to get back on the doomed ship:
    There was a girl from my place, and just when she got down into the lifeboat, she thought that the boat was sinking into the water. Her name was Bridget Bradley. She climbed one of the ropes as far as she could and tried to get back into the Titanic again, as she thought she would be safer in it than in the lifeboat. She was just getting up when one of the sailors went out to her and pulled her down again.
    (Daniel