Norelene O'Dwyer's 2018 centenary article on the Ballycrovane seine-fishing tragedy: the five dead with ages, and the survivor Patie Healy, 19

--- newspaper: local Christmas newsletter (Ardgroom/Eyeries), 2018 centenary article by Norelene O'Dwyer date: 2018 page: unknown --- Read 2026-09-26 by an Opus agent from Norelene O'Dwyer's photograph of 18 Aug 2026 (sent as 'Newspaper cutting'). Names, ages and places are given as printed; the running text is paraphrased (the author's copyright). ## Image 3 — `norelene-2026-08-18-newspaper-cutting/IMG_1016.jpeg` (the "newspaper cutting") ### (a) What it is A photograph of a two-page opening of a **printed booklet or magazine** on smooth, glossy paper, lying on a patterned cloth. The raw file is upside down and reads upright after a 180° turn. Each page has a horizontal rule at the head and the foot. A page number is centred below the foot rule of the left page, and a colour photograph is set into the right page. - **Not a newspaper, and not a 1918 report, as far as the image shows.** No masthead, publication title, running header or date appears anywhere in the frame. The article is a centenary piece: it opens by placing the drowning a hundred years back, and says the oar is still with the Healy family a hundred years later. So it was written in or after 2018 (**inference**). The rules, the centred page number and the poem ending on the page before suggest a local annual or community magazine (**inference**); its name is not shown. - **Newspaper or publication name: not printed in the frame. Date of publication: not printed in the frame.** The only date the article gives is that of the event, November 12th, 1918. - **Page number:** - **Left page:** only the top few pixel rows of a three-digit number survive below the foot rule. The first digit has the narrow flagged top of a "1", the middle digit a rounded top, and the last digit another narrow top. It reads only as "1?1" or "1?4" (possibly 121). **Not confirmable (LOW).** - **Right page:** the page number is outside the frame. - **Headline:** **The Ballycrovane Seine Fishing Tragedy, 1918**, in decorative display type at the head of the article on the left page. - **Byline:** signed at the end, on the right page, in italic: **Norelene O'Dwyer, Ardgroom**. - **Other item:** the top of the left page carries the last five lines of a poem, signed **Mike Dwyer, Inches and Boston**. It mentions a man from Ahascragh and a fiddle. It is not transcribed, being a separate copyrighted work and irrelevant to the family question. - **Photograph and caption (right page):** three people outdoors holding a long oar above a bay. The caption names them, left to right, as Patie's niece **Hannah Healy**, **Norelene O'Dwyer** and **Riobard O'Dwyer**. The caption spells the name "Pattie"; the body text spells it "Patie". ### (b) Content (extraction; not verbatim) **The dead and the survivor, exactly as printed.** The article lists them one per line after a sentence introducing those who lost their lives that night: | Name as printed | Townland as printed | Age as printed | Other words on the line | |---|---|---|---| | Sean (a'Chaoil) Sullivan | Caolrua | aged 59 yrs. | — | | Robert Dwyer | Caolrua | aged 25 yrs. | (my uncle) | | Jer (Murt) McCarthy | Faunkill | aged 28 yrs. | — | | John Murphy | Ballycrovane | aged 27 yrs | and his brother, | | Patie Murphy | Ballycrovane | aged 23 yrs | and | | Patie Healy | Faunkill | aged 19 | followed by a clause saying he was rescued and died later | **The survivor** is **Patie Healy, Faunkill, aged 19**. The article's account (paraphrase): - He had been switched earlier from the main seine boat to the follower boat. - He was found hanging on to an oar and rescued. - He died of pneumonia in Castletownbere Hospital; the printed interval is two weeks. See ANNOTATION: "Sometime" is handwritten beneath it. The article therefore counts **five drowned** (the first five rows) plus Patie Healy, who died later. **Narrative (paraphrase):** - **The event.** On November 12th, 1918, five crew of the Ballycrovane Seine were drowned off **Pointe a' Ranna, Kilcatherine**; the second mention spells it **Pointe 'a Ranna**. A "Seine" is explained as the main seine boat plus a follower boat. - **The first attempt.** According to local reports of the time, the Seine went out on the evening of November 11th, which the author notes was Armistice Day. It returned without fish. - **The second attempt.** It went out again later that night. The Seine master, doubting a second try, declined to go; the man who replaced him ended up in the follower boat. - **The accident.** The night was so calm that the candles lit for the fishermen on Ballycrovane pier did not go out. There was no catch, and at dawn they turned for home. Rounding the point, the main boat saw the follower rowing too close to a *boilg* (glossed as a submerged rock) and shouted a warning. The follower struck it, and the boat and all its men were thrown into the air and the sea. - **The search.** The main boat could not go near the rock. It circled and found only planks and oars, then heard a voice, and found Patie Healy on an oar. - **The oar.** It is 14' 8" long and still at the Healy home in Faunkill. - **Andrew's research.** Patie Healy's grand-nephew **Andrew** (surname not printed) researched the tragedy. He found that **Robert Dwyer**, the author's uncle and a powerful swimmer, died of a deep head wound from striking the rock. Andrew's great-grandfather was **Sean a'Chaoil**, at 59 the oldest in the boat, who left a wife and 10 children. - **The closing section.** It recounts a Co. Wexford fishermen's legend that no boat should leave its moorings on St. Martin's Day, November 11th. It ends by asking whether St. Martin reached Beara. **ANNOTATION** (red pen): - "Sometime" is handwritten in red beneath the words "two weeks" in the sentence about Patie Healy's death, apparently querying or correcting the interval. - In the legend paragraph there is a red mark on the comma after "Wexford" and a red comma inserted between "Day" and "November 11th"; the print runs these together with no space. **Spellings compared with the Annals** (the p. 412 readings are from `annals-verification.md`): | Item | This article | Annals | |---|---|---| | Townland of the McCarthy and Healy men | Faunkill | Faunkil (Image 1 here; p. 412) | | Sean's by-name and surname | Sean (a'Chaoil) Sullivan; Sean a'Chaoil | Sean (a Choill) O'Sullivan, Caolrua (Image 1); Sean (a Chaoil) O'Sullivan (p. 412) | | Robert's surname | Robert Dwyer | Robert O'Dwyer (p. 412) | | Place of the drowning | Pointe a' Ranna / Pointe 'a Ranna, Kilcatherine | Pointe Ranna, Kilcatherine (Image 2); Pointe Ranna, Fay, Kilcatherine (p. 412) | **Ages checked against the Annals birth dates** (**inference, arithmetic**): | Man | Age in this article | Annals birth date | Age on 12 Nov 1918 | Result | |---|---|---|---|---| | John Murphy | 27 | Dec. 2nd 1891 (Image 2) | 26 (he would turn 27 three weeks later) | **one year out** | | Patie Murphy | 23 | Apr. 5th 1895 (Image 2) | 23 | consistent | | Robert Dwyer | 25 | Oct. 22nd 1893 (p. 412, which also says 25) | 25 | consistent | ### (c) Persons named | Person (printed spelling) | Townland | Role and details in the article | |---|---|---| | **Sean (a'Chaoil) Sullivan**; also "Sean a'Chaoil" | Caolrua | Drowned, aged 59; the oldest in the boat; left a wife and 10 children; great-grandfather of Andrew | | **Robert Dwyer** | Caolrua | Drowned, aged 25; the author's uncle; a powerful swimmer who died of a head wound from the rock | | **Jer (Murt) McCarthy** | Faunkill | Drowned, aged 28 | | **John Murphy** | Ballycrovane | Drowned, aged 27; brother of Patie Murphy | | **Patie Murphy** | Ballycrovane | Drowned, aged 23 | | **Patie Healy** ("Pattie" in the caption) | Faunkill | Aged 19; moved from the main boat to the follower; rescued clinging to an oar; died of pneumonia in Castletownbere Hospital (printed "two weeks" later; "Sometime" handwritten) | | **Andrew** (no surname printed) | — | Patie Healy's grand-nephew and Sean a'Chaoil's great-grandson; researched the tragedy | | The **Seine master** (not named) | — | Declined the second trip | | His replacement (not named) | — | Was put in the follower boat | | **Hannah Healy** | — | Patie Healy's niece; in the photograph | | **Norelene O'Dwyer** | Ardgroom | The author; in the photograph | | **Riobard O'Dwyer** | — | In the photograph | | **Mike Dwyer** | Inches and Boston | Signs the poem ending at the top of the left page | ### (d) Confidence - **HIGH** for the printed names, townlands and ages. The print is sharp and every entry was read at full resolution. - **HIGH** that no publication name or date is printed in the frame. - **LOW** for the left-hand page number, of which only the tops of the digits survive. --- ## Summary across the three images - **Page numbers.** Neither Annals photograph shows a running header or page number. Image 1 is a left-hand page whose header lies above the frame. Image 2 is the facing right-hand page; its top margin is in frame but blank across the visible width. The magazine's left-hand page number is readable only as "1?1" or "1?4". - **Sections.** - **Image 1 (left-hand page):** MURPHY (BALLYCROVANE), then (A) PATRICK MURPHY complete, then (B) SEAMUS MOR MURPHY & PEIG UONHI (BALLYCROVANE) with its heading and children (1) to (3). - **Image 2 (right-hand page):** the end of (B), children (4) to (6), then (C) JIM MURPHY & JULIA O'SULLIVAN (SEER) (BALLYCROVANE) complete with all 13 children, including (13) Julia (Sept. 25th 1909), who married John McAllen in Limerick. - **Edition.** Norelene's copy is a different setting of the text from the repository screenshot, so a page number found in one edition should not be carried to the other without checking (**inference**). The evidence is the different line breaks, "\*James" and lower-case "was". - **"Newspaper" cutting.** It is a centenary article, "The Ballycrovane Seine Fishing Tragedy, 1918", by Norelene O'Dwyer, Ardgroom, in an unnamed booklet or magazine from 2018 or later. It is not a 1918 newspaper, and no publication name or date is printed. It lists as lost: - Sean (a'Chaoil) Sullivan, Caolrua, 59 - Robert Dwyer, Caolrua, 25 - Jer (Murt) McCarthy, Faunkill, 28 - John Murphy, Ballycrovane, 27 - Patie Murphy, Ballycrovane, 23 - Patie Healy, Faunkill, 19, rescued but died later of pneumonia