In April 1849, a ship carrying Irish immigrants hit an iceberg in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. John Kernaghan writes on the incident, and of plans for a documentary as Quebec celebrates its 400th anniversary.
The crew of the Nicaragua could scarcely credit their eyes when they closed on the iceberg in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Some 120 Irish immigrants clung to a bit of frozen salvation, desperately cold in their nightclothes after almost 18 hours on the ice that April night in 1849.
The boat bringing them to the promise of a new life had sailed from Newry, County Down on April 2 and until April 17, according to newspaper accounts of the day, the passage had been fine.
The 200 passengers were mostly from the Forkhill area of Co. Armagh.
But the brig Hannah failed to skirt the pack ice on the harsh gulf. Its hull was crushed by an iceberg. Passengers, jolted from their sleep, were bruised and cut in the scramble off the ship. Others perished in the chilling waters, unable to gain the ice, or were lost in rescue attempts.
Almost 160 years later, the Montreal documentary maker Gala Films is hoping to include this remarkable incident in its survey of the Irish famine migration to Canada. It is seeking descendants of those who survived the sinking of the Hannah.
One of those descendants, Paddy Murphy, says the incident is laced with both cowardice and courage. He notes accounts of the day which reported that the Hannah crew and captain had departed in a lifeboat, leaving the boat’s passengers exposed to the elements. All would have died had Captain Marshall of the Nicarague not made his ship fast to the iceberg at great risk to himself and his crew.
“‘No pen can describe the pitiable situation of the poor creatures,” Marshall reported to the Armagh Guardian on June 4, 1849. “They were all but naked, cut and bruised and frost-bitten. There were parents who had lost their children, children with loss of parents. Many, in fact, were perfectly insensible.”
Three other ships also pitched in to bring survivors through the ice floes to Grosse Ile, the immigrant quarantine station in the St. Lawrence River.
Paddy Murphy’s great-great-grandparents John Murphy and his wife Bridget (McParland) had already endured tragedy before setting out for Quebec in April, 1849. In January of that year, their house had burned down and one of their children had died in the blaze.
On the Hannah they had four of their children, and the two eldest were lost.
“The children went into the water and John went in after them. The story in our family is that his hands were so badly frozen he couldn’t handle the rope he’d taken to try to pull them to safety. He held the rope in his mouth in the hope he’d find them and they could grab on. But he couldn’t save them. He lost all his teeth as a result,” Paddy recounts.
“Rose, who was approximately three years old, fell in the water and was rescued but did not speak for years because of the shock. Bernard, ‘Barney,’ aged two, also fell in the water but was pulled to safety by the wife of Henry Grant who thought he was one of her own children.”
It was Barney’s son, Mike, who recounted the incident to Paddy on the occasion of Paddy’s marriage to his wife Jane, in the summer of 1962.
“Grandfather Mike was delighted at the marriage because Jane’s maternal great-great-grandfather Michael Coburn came from the same area in Forkhill, County Armagh as the Murphys. He said we were two old Irish families uniting. Michael Coburn had left Ireland in 1848, a year before the Hannah disaster, and Grandfather Mike, whose mother, Ellen Bennett, was also from Forkhill, told us about John Murphy coming over on a ship that hit an iceberg, the many lives lost, and his father who was saved from the water.”
Paddy, who grew up in the township of North Crosby, south of Ottawa, where many of the Hannah survivors settled to farm, went on to conduct his own research into the shipwreck, and his findings later became the basis of a book called A Famine Link: The Hannah, South Armagh to Ontario. The authors, Kevin Murphy and Una Walsh, are members of the Mullaghbawn Community Centre in Forkhill, South Armagh.
Clearly the story of the Hannah is a stirring tale that speaks to the times and to the Irish in Quebec. It is estimated up to 40 percent of the province’s citizens have Irish blood.
Gala Films is seeking descendants of the survivors who settled in Quebec, Ontario and the United States, but particularly those who now live in Quebec. (See sidebar for family names).
The story has a greater chance of coming to video life with a direct Quebec link, says Gala Films’ Hugh John Murray.
“In order to get public funding from the Quebec government to make the documentary, we need to find Quebec-based descendants,” he explained.
The documentary would explain the tragedy in the context of the famine-years migration to Canada through Quebec City.
And with Quebec City celebrating its 400th birthday this year, its deep Irish roots in the city and province are part of that observance.
Almost 100,000 Irish came to Canada in 1847 during the famine. And about 475,000 preceded them and spread across the province and through intermarriage produced that aforementioned 40 percent estimate.
Even if, as some suspect, that estimate is high, most historians agree about a third of the people in the province have Irish blood.
That is still remarkably high when measured against the 15 percent of people who claim Irish heritage in the rest of Canada.
And there’s a simple answer for it. The Irish who survived harsh voyages across the Atlantic – the voyage often took up to six weeks and longer, depending on weather conditions – and landed on Quebec’s shores found it much easier to marry into an existing society that was mostly Roman Catholic. And families in Quebec were traditionally large.
While there were Irish Protestant pockets in Quebec City and Montreal, the Catholics tended to quickly meld into Quebec life and families. And in the most unique aspect of the haunting Irish diaspora – the dispersal of millions from their homeland – some of these new Quebecers became trilingual, mastering French on top of English and Gaelic.
Even in cases where Irish orphans were taken in by French-Canadian families, the Irish names were often preserved either as surnames or Christian names. That’s why you’ll see names like O’Neill Marois. Or Emile Nelligan, famous as the ‘national’ poet of Quebec.
Quebec Irish historian Marianna O’Gallagher notes, moreover, that Irish names might have been made French over time. For instance, singer Celine Dion might be the descendant of a Dillon.
There are also romantic and possibly solid theories about the earliest Irish presence in Quebec, notions that Irish monks visited islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence around the time in the mid-1500s when Irish fishermen were apparently working seas off Newfoundland.
The explosion of immigration to Canada from 1825 to 1850 shows 60 percent were Irish. There was more misery than glory in the passage and in the early years in Quebec. That misery strained the ability of immigration and medical authorities when the potato famine hit Ireland in the mid-1840s and desperate farmers scratched together passage for families on overcrowded boats to North America.
They lived in wretched conditions and rode rocking seas. Diseases like cholera and typhus flourished. So Grosse Ile, a rocky outcrop downstream from Quebec City, became the first Canadian shoreline for four decades of Irish immigration. The quarantine station is now a Parks Canada national historic site, a bucolic spot with the haunting counterpart of a Celtic cross commanding a cliff overlooking the river and a moving memorial naming the poor newcomers who never made it off the island alive.
Tour boats from Quebec City offer daily outings to Grosse Ile in spring and summer, a combination of bracing river voyage and sobering tour through reenactments of how authorities processed the masses.
The numbers wrought by Ireland’s famine, often called The Great Hunger, were staggering. The famine hit its depths in 1847 when 100,000 people, six out of seven of them Irish, headed for Quebec. Some 5,000 died at sea or while waiting offshore of Grosse Ile as the overmatched facility verged on anarchy due to some 12,000 inhabitants, many badly ill.
When the count was taken later, 5,424 died on the island and thousands more died in Quebec City, Montreal and Kingston. For those who survived, tragedy or travail often caught up with them later.
It was mainly Irish who dug the Lachine Canal at Montreal and the Rideau Canal to Ottawa. And it was mostly Irish who died due to typhus and malaria. Even so, as you follow the often-tragic trail of Irishmen and Irishwomen down the St. Lawrence, you see the roots of Celtic culture setting down in a new land. The Irish reel fused into the work of Quebec musicians and dancers and lives on still in the work of groups like Les Cowboys Fringants.
Also, there is a line of thinking in political science circles that it was Irishmen who provided an important bridge between the French and English on the way to Canada’s Confederation in 1867.
Concordia University’s Irish Studies program in Montreal examines this and other contributions to Canada. Robert Baldwin, son of an Ulsterman, was able to forge a Liberal alliance with Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine to get French-Canadian support for responsible government. And a native of Cork, Francis Hinks, nurtured the partnership to take the national railway sea to sea.
But the most colorful Irish-Canadian was Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a brilliant orator and the only federal Canadian politician ever assassinated. He had escaped Ireland with a price on his head for fomenting rebellion and landed in Boston to establish a newspaper pandering to Irish sentiments.
But he grew impatient with lack of movement in government circles to improve the lot of his countrymen and moved to Canada, where he believed Irishmen would get a better deal. McGee was soon elected to Parliament but his political career was marked by differing results: success in fathering Confederation but vicious opposition to his distaste for secret societies like the Fenians.
McGee believed that Canada represented the best chance for Irish people of both religions to coexist peacefully and argued that the improving condition of his countrymen would be lost if they backed an American-led radical movement. He was thrown out of the St. Patrick’s Society of Montreal as a result and his life was threatened.
Still, he prevailed, winning re-election in 1867, Canada’s Confederation year. But the founding father was dogged by extremists and near midnight April 7, 1868, just shy of his 43rd birthday, he was gunned down as he turned the key to his apartment.
Historian Bill Davis wrote “he made precious contributions to his adopted country,” easing “the religious and racial strife that had threatened to tear the country apart.”
You can raise a glass to his memory in the building where he died, D’Arcy McGee’s Irish Pub on Sparks Street in Ottawa, as well as retrace his killer’s steps to the gallows. Patrick James Whelan, a rabid critic of McGee, was hanged in the last public display of its kind in Ottawa, Feb. 11, 1869.
The old Ottawa jail is now a hostel and some inhabitants have claimed to see his ghost over time.
McGee’s dream, offered in a stirring speech seven years before Canada’s Confederation, was prescient.“I see in the not remote distance one great nationality, bound like the shield of Achilles by the blue rim of ocean. I see it quartered into many communities, each disposing of its internal affairs, but all bound together by free institutions, free intercourse, free commerce.”
Hi,
I have written a song in tribute to those who lost their lives on the Hannah and those others who barely survived. If you wish I can send you a copy as it may be of interest to your readers. Can you supply an email I can send it to.
regards
Gerry
Hi I am very interested in your song re: the Hannah. My daughter has been invited to sing at a famine exhibition and concert in
Mullaghbawn. We would be delighted if we could get a copy of words and music of your song.
Thank you
Margaret Strain
I am a descendant of Rose Murphy and her brother Bernard Murphy who survived the shipwreck “Hannah” in April of 1849. She was my Great Great Grandmother (maternal). I am the 4th generation. Her mother was Bridget McParland Murphy and her father was John Murphy.
Just last month July of 2013 I visited the homestead there in Ireland. I was escorted by my cousin Kevin Murphy all over Mullaghbawn.
I am interested in communicating with my family that are descendants.
Hi Janet.
My great grand father was Bernard Murphy. He has a sister called Rose, thar she lived in Chicago. Bernard finally emigrate to Argentina. They are the same person that you comment? Sorry by my english, I speak spanish…
Janet…..All my people came from County Armagh, Mulaghbawn, Forkhill Parish….My people married extensively into the Murphy clan both in Ireland and in Iowa…and my 2X Grand Uncle married a McParkland. I’d really enjoy communicating with you about our common heritage.
Hi Thomas,
Yes,the Mullans/Mullens came mostly from the townland of Maphoner,Forkill parish.Where are you now?
Hello; I am a descendant of several of the families you mention.
My great-great father was Dennis McGrath of Tievecrom Townland, Forkhill Parish, County Armagh. His wife was Bridget Murphy.
Dennis and Bridget and their three oldest children (John, Mary & Patrick) emigrated to Ontario in 1825, Other children were later born in Ontario. Many of their relatives emigrated as well, some in the mid-1820s, others later.
A) My ancester Dennis McGrath had four siblings: Mary, b. Ca. 1787; Murtagh, b. Ca. 1789; James, b. ca. 1795; and Patrick, b. Ca. 1801.
i) Sibling Mary McGrath was married to James Stanley. They had nine children, all born in Forkhill Parish. That whole family emigrated to become farmers near Perth, Lanark County, Ontario.
ii) I do not know what became of sibling Murtagh or James.
iii) But I do know that sibling Patrick married (perhaps in England) Rose McNamee. They had three daughters, Elizabeth, Bridget & Mary. I do not know what became of any of those within the Patrick / Rose family.
B) Bridget Murphy McGrath. b. ca. 1799, was the daughter of Thomas Murphy and Rose McNulty, I think of Forkfhill Parish.
My ancestress Bridget Murphy McGrath had five siblings: Elizabeth, b. ca. 1840, d. 1874; Patrick, b. ?, Ann, b. ?; Cornelius, b. ?; & Rose, b. ?
i) Sibling Elizabeth Murphy was married to Bernard or Barnabus Black. Their first child, Mary Black, was born in 1822 in Forkhill Parish. She was married in Ontario to Bernard McCarey. Their second child. James Black. was born in 1823 in Forkhill Parish. He married in Ontario Alice McCarey. I am not sure where their five remaining children, Patrick (m. Elizabeth Keenan), Rose (m. ?), Arthur (m. ?), Michael (m. ?), & Edward (m. ?), were born
ii) Sibling Patrick Murphy married Catherine Crowley. They had six children: Mary, Bridget, Catherine, Thomas, Rose & Martin. I do not know what became of the Patrick Murphy / Catherine Crowley family.
iii) Sibling Cornelius Murphy married Mary Farmer. They had at least six children.
iv) Sibling Ann Murphy was married to Patrick McCoy/. They had six children. All died in Ontario.
v) Sibling Rose Murphy was married to Luke Hanratty. They died in Forkhill Parish
Regards, Terry Boyle
Hi Janet my dad Paddy Murphy is the one who did all the research.I went to Ireland with my dad for his last trip.Kevin also took us around. I spent a whole day with him.My great Grandfather was Mike Murphy who was Bernard son.My dad’s middle name was Bernard. I have the door hinge and the final off the gate here at my house.I hope you get to see this.
Going further back, Benjamin’s father was Peter Murphy. His father iis not known to me. From stories, he was the one who came over on the Hannah.
Hi Cathy: I lost contact with your mom after your dad passed. Hope all is okay. Would love to connect with her again. We’re distantly related through our Ryan line. Thanks, Dianne
Hello,
Wondering if you are on GEDmatch so we can see if we are related. My family came from Mullaghbawn as well, I had Grant family on the Hannah. Mine is A951473.
Thanks,
Julie
Hi Janet, my family came from the Forkhill area during the Famine. The McCanns moved to Northern England but I am guessing some of the extended family were on that ship . Cheers.
I am a MCCann from Westport trying to learn more about my history. My grandfather was Joseph Coburn my grandmother was Mary Jane McCann
Hi Sheila,
I think that you should talk to Jane Murphy of Westport.She has Coburn ancestors.Are you coming to Ireland(Mullaghbane,Forkill Parish)for the McCann reunion in April 2020?
Hi Kevin. I have lost track of you. Do you know if there is another MCCann reunion planned? I was in Australia at the time of the last one. Also I wondered if you might have an email address of the organizers of the MCCann reunion.
Hi Margaret,
Do you know that there is a McCann family re-union in Tí Chulainn,Mullaghbane,Forkill Parish,South Armagh,in April 2020?It is being organised by Damien McCann of Seattle.
I am the grat granddaughter of Mary McGill who came over on the Hannah with her parents and brother. Fortunately all survived.
I have Irish blood in me and that’s why my mother called me Hannah. I have no idea weather any of my ancestors were on The Hannah but I do feel sorry for those who lost someone in this tragic accident.
My mother was born a Murphy. Her mother , Mae Donnelley, married Ben Murphy. Ben was a descendent of Murphy’s from Co. Armagh. Any conections?
My great great grandparents were Peter Murphy and Catherine Nugent Murphy, and their baby daughter Annetta. All three survived the wreck, eventually settling near Glenburnie, ON. They had several more children, and Peter was frozen to death crossing Dog Lake in the wintertime after cutting wood; his body was found the following spring. He is buried in St. Barnaby’s churchyard on Rt. 15 in Leeds County. His widow and surviving children eventually moved to Rochester NY. Baby Annetta grew up to join the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, her name in religion was Sister Colletta.
Hello,
I am also a descendant of Peter and Catherine Murphy, survivors of the Hannah tragedy. They were my great-great grandparents. I am descended from their daughter Catherine, born in Canada, who moved with her mother and siblings to Rochester after the sad loss of their father, Peter.
If you can please share what you can about our Irish ancestors and other descendants.
Best,
Dave From Rochester
Hi Dave
I’m trying to research the family’s move to Rochester, who helped them, where they found employment and attended church etc. Would welcome any information.
Thank you
Mary Ellen
Hi Dave,
My great grandfather was Peter and Catherine’s son James Murphy. His daughter was Marie Murphy who was my paternal grandmother. She married my grandfather Fred Scheible. My dad was David Scheible (who died in October 2023). I remember him telling me we have Hasenauer cousins who are also Hannah descendants. Feel free to contact me on FB if you’d like
Thank you
Mary Ellen
I am a descendant of John Delaney who was on the Hannah with his wife and sister.
i have found some info that looks like there may have been a passenger named Samuel Henderson on the Hannah but i have never been able to find a full passenger list. would anyone know where i could find a full passenger list for the Hannah?
thanks,
TheShipsList.com is the website. Search the wreck of the Hannah. The passenger list shows Samuel Henderson on the manifest.
Hi Jason, I am a descendant of William Henderson who was on the Hannah with his wife and 5 children (1 lost) and would be interested to know if William and Samuel were related. Do you have anything? Thanks.
Hi all my name is Michael Mc Guigan from Carrive , Forkhill , Co Armagh. I am a Local Historian
I have a list of passengers who were onboard the Hannah that sank in 1849
is your lisr of who sailed or who was rescued. I am looking for information on James Ward and Alice McKinley
thank you
Another heroic figure was a passenger named James Ward of Maphoner townland,Forkill Parish.He was a renowned athlete and when the ship struck the ice he jumped back and forth from the ship to the ice and rescued many children.He survived,along with his wife,Mary McKinley of Clarkill townland,and their four children (living History Ring fo Gullion website)
I found your name on the site about the Hannah and wondered if you could help. I am looking for the Pyar/Pyer family of Aughanduff townland in the 1821 census. I heard it existed but can’t trace a copy?
Any help would be welcome
Thanks
Pat
My Great, Great Grandmother was Eliza Blackstock, who sailed on the Hannah. She apparently according to our records, was the one who took off her red petticoat to flag down the first rescue ship.
I have lately noticed a Blackstock from Ontario on the DNA site Gedmatch.Is this a relative?I would be interested in talking to you.I wrote the book with Una Walsh.
Hi Brian. There are no living relatives with the name of Blackstock in Ont or Canada. Eliza had a brother Thomas Blackstock that went to Wisconson and eventually became Mayor. Eliza married James McBride my GGGrandfather.
Very interesting – Eliza Blackstock was my GGGrandmother as well. Very familiar with the tale of the red petticoat.
My great great great grandfather was captain William Marshall. I guess we are all tied together in history
Hi Janet, sorry for replying so late.. years later. Eliza/James had 7 boys and 2 girls. Which one of Eliza’s children are you related to..
Was just made aware that Captain William Marshall was my great, great , great, great grandfather. Am very proud of him. Gave me the chills thinking about it.
My maternal great grandparents left Mullbawn @ famine time & went to England. They were the McCanns, Mahers & McGuiness.
Just wondering if any of the McCanns might have been on the Hannah ? I live in Canada but only since 1966.
My grandmother is Mary Jane MCCann from Westport Ontario. I am trying to trace my ancestry.
Sheila There is a McCann gathering scheduled for April in Forkhill Co Armagh. People will come from UK, Canada US and of course Ireland. I do not descend from McCann but do descend from other Forkhill Irish who lived in North Crosby. My 3X great uncle Homeward Muholm (Mulholland) was first married to Catherine Murphy a child who survived the Hannah only to die after the birth of their first child. Other surnames Byrnes and Donnelly.
No idea how spell checking first name Bartholomew gave him the first name Homeward.
Hi Mary,
I wrote the book ‘A Famine Link’ about the ‘Hannah’.It would seem that your ancestors were from the Parish of Forkill.The Catherine Murphy you mention was from the next townland,Tullymacrieve.You will be welcome here anytime as many of the ‘Hannah’descendants have visited.
Where can someone purchase your book online?
I also would love a copy of the book. My great, great , great, grandfather was captain William Marshall who commanded the ship that rescued the survivors. I would love to read the story.
Hi Felice,
If you send me your postal address I can send you a copy of the book.It is priced at £10 sterling plus postage.If you can send me a cheque for about £15 sterling,or equivalent,I can send it to you.My address is:CARRICKNAGAVNA,BELLEEK,NEWRY CO.ARMAGH BT35 7PZ,N.IRELAND.
I am a descendant of John Delaney and his wife Rose Delaney who survived the wreck. Rose Delaney later remarried and became Rose Taylor of Belle River, Ontario, Canada
My surname, Rogers, was changed from McGrory. My great great grandfather was a “babe in arms” the night the Hannah sank. His father was Patrick McGrory. They were rescued from the iceberg. News articles say that his mother and 2 other siblings were saved, but 4 others lost. Family folklore says that one sister, thought lost, was reunited with them days later.
looking fir information on J Ward and or A Mckinley
Hello,
I have a third great grandfather that may have been on the ship, that sank with his wife, Jane McCause Lindsay. Unfortunately, she was bringing John Lindsay, her husband, back from their honeymoon, when he died while they were visiting Ireland (where he was from – County Armagh).
An extremely sad journey for her, and cursed as it is written that the ship sank. I am suspect that it was the Hannah, as the timing is 1849 is very possible in concurrence with the family history.
I look forward to more conversation.
Best regards,
Mari Frith, a Lindsay descandant.