Boating accidents on the lake

Dublin Core

Title

Boating accidents on the lake

Subject

Lough Derg--Boating--Disaster--Accidents

Description

"Taking into account what angry storms sometimes sweep over the lake, lashing its waves into great fury, it is a merciful dispensation of Providence that more accidents have not occurred here..."

Creator

Daniel O'Connor, 1843-1919

Source

Daniel O’Connor, Lough Derg and Its Pilgrimages: With Map and Illustrations, pp. 154-55

Publisher

J. Dollard, Dublin

Date

1879

Contributor

Digitised by archive.org, sponsored by Harvard University

Rights

Public domain

Format

Monograph

Language

English

Type

Pilgrim handbook
Text

Identifier

DD_0032

Coverage

54.616218, -7.876212

References

http://archive.org/details/loughdergandits00ocogoog

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

"Taking into account what angry storms sometimes sweep over the lake, lashing its waves into great fury, it is a merciful dispensation of Providence that more accidents have not occurred here ; and this more especially when we consider not only the proximity of the Atlantic, which is but five or six miles west of it, as likewise the high elevation of the lake itself above the level of the sea, but also the frail nature of the barks, which in days gone by used to ply over its waters. Whilst the religious establishment stood on Saints' Island, there is no tradition of any boat accident having occurred, though the barks then in use were currachs, or canoe-shaped boats formed out of a hollowed tree.

Many years ago, it is handed down, two priests went out for a sail on the lake, in a boat of the latter description ; and when but a short distance south of Station Island, where there is a round rock almost hidden under water (since called ‘The Priests' Rock’), the boat capsized, and its occupants were drowned. This, they say, was the first boat accident on Lough Derg.

A second boat was lost here, between Saints' Island and the River Fluchlynn, about forty years. ago. The boatman was Doherty, from Augh-Keen, who, in company with two or three others, were returning home from Kelly's Islands in the month of March, when the boat, which was small and unsafe, capsized a little from land, and all met with a watery grave ; not even Doherty, who was a good swimmer, being able to escape. This sad accident inspired the muse of a local bard, who commemorated the event in a mournful lay, still sung in the locality." (pp. 154-55)

Original Format

Monograph

Collection

Citation

Daniel O'Connor, 1843-1919, “Boating accidents on the lake,” Digital Derg: A Deep Map, accessed March 29, 2024, https://digitalderg.eu/items/show/32.

Geolocation