Lakeside tribute to Titanic survivor

Lough Graney was where a young Slievanore woman learned to row a boat, an unusual talent for someone from this region. However, on April 15, 1912 the same young woman had to use this skill to row herself and the passengers on lifeboat 13 to safety.
Mary Agatha Glynn, aged 19, was one of the few steerage passengers to survive Titanic and on Sunday a very special tribute was paid to her as people travelled to her native parish to remember what happened that fateful day. 
The event attracted upwards of 300 people and began at 9.20am, marking 100 years and seven hours after Titanic sank and the time when lifeboat 13 was rescued.
In preparation for this occasion members of the organising committee tracked down Mary Agatha Glynn’s husband’s niece, Peggy who lived near them in Washington over a 10 year period.
Peggy, who now lives in Kerry, told the committee her uncle Pat O’Donohue paid for her to come out to America and she lived beside Mary and her family, spending a lot of time with them.
She explained that Mary and her family had a summer house in Maryland but no matter how they would try to get her out on the boat, she wouldn’t go near the water.
Peggy told the committee Mary was very strong, very good looking, describing her as “the most sober, easy going woman you could ever meet”. She also corroborated a story heard locally about Mary having learned to row on Lough Graney.
“Peggy said Mary was the cause of saving lots and lots of those people. Where she came from she had learned to row before she left Ireland. She used to talk about how she was lucky she learned to row in Lough Graney and spoke several times about how there wasn’t enough lifeboats,” Mary Noonan of the organising committee explained. 
Peggy told of the great business Mary and her husband built up in Washington and how Mary was very hard working. She had three girls and three boys, all of whom were highly educated. two of her daughters worked for the Catholic charities and one got married but there were no grandchildren among the girls. It is understood that her son, Paddy Joe, did have children and there is a grandson still alive in America called Kerry Patrick O’Donohue.
Peggy also recalled Mary spoke about the man who put her on the boat, a man called Martin Gallagher, who was from Caltra in County Galway.
“Peggy said Mary told her there was a lad she was dancing with that night who put her on the boat and his girlfriend was with him and he put her on the lifeboat as well and she didn’t want to go on and he was holding his rosary beads and they watched him go down. Mary was in hospital with his girlfriend in New York when she came ashore. She knew they had lit their clothes down to modest clothes to try to attract a boat,” Mary Noonan recalled.
Upwards of 100 people gathered at the Millenium Bell in Flagmount located at the church on Sunday where Mary was baptised and the public were able to view the register of her birth, communion and confirmation. At 9.20am, the bell tolled 13 times and could be heard echoing over Lough Graney.
Mary spoke and gave a couple of extracts from Mary Agatha Glynn’s own testimony of the disaster and was joined by members of Mary’s family, Ted Harrington from Feakle and Deputy Michael McNamara.
Thereafter, up to 90 people participated in a procession to Mary Agatha Glynn’s homestead and an apple tree was planted to mark the location.
Shannon town councillor Tony McMahon wrote a song about the 19-year-old because his home place was right beside her house originally.
“We wound our way back down to the lake shore. This was where she learned to row and that is why she knew how to row on the lifeboats and she organised people to row. The present Brady family who live in Flagmount, their grandfather, Tom Brady, who originated from her townland still owns the Brady Island and would row out every day to the island to see it. Mary was very friendly with one of the girls of the Bradys and Tom Brady had showed her how to row and she was quite strong really. Our angling club came with all their boats in from the island and they rowed their boats into Flagmount pier, and threw a bouquet of flowers and at that point the secretary of the angling club, Sean O’Callaghan, presented a copy The Irish Aboard the Titanic to the Brady family and to Joe and Celia Brady, grandchildren of those who taught her to row,” Mary outlined.
Fr Brendan Quinlivan blessed the boats and read a reading, before holding mass at Flagmount church where the grandnephews and grandnieces of Mary Agatha Glynn participated in the service and Jed Foley performed a piece of music specially composed for the occasion.
A stone from Mary Agatha Glynn’s home was used to create a memorial marker of her birthplace and this was unveiled. It was followed by a few words from Mayor of Clare Councillor Pat Hayes spoke and Joe Glynn, who spoke on behalf of the Glynn family.
He told those present how they would not have been there today had Mary’s father not taken ill, as their grandfather was due to go with her but when their father was unwell, he didn’t go. After the unveiling of the plaque they also planted a cherry blossom tree at Flagmount church, as it will always bloom in April.
The event was followed by refreshments at Lough Graney Kids Corner where local schools displayed a number of art projects they did on Titanic.
The evening drew to a close with the coming together of musicians and the public for a session.