The Armagh Rail Disaster – Ireland’s Worst Ever Train Crash
Introduction
On Wednesday 12th June 1889 Ireland suffered its worst ever rail disaster. A freak accident left 80 dead and hundreds injured. The catastrophe sent shock waves throughout the island and left many families devastated. A train trip that was organised as a fun excursion turned into a nightmare.
“The twelfth of June 1889 will live in the people of Armagh as the blackest and most woeful on record. No day ever dawned more auspiciously; no sun ever sat on desolation and agony of greater extent than a few minutes thoughtlessness had wrought on the city of Armagh”
The County of Armagh Directory and Almanac for 1890
A Family Fun Excursion
The day was planned as a special annual event by the Sunday School of the Armagh Methodist Church. A train was organised with the Great Northern Railways of Ireland Company to take children and families on an excursion to the coastal town of Warrenpoint. This was a popular bathing spot in Victorian times. The journey was around 24 miles and would take about an hour.
This trip to the seaside was a much anticipated and exciting outing, with families coming from Armagh and the surrounding districts to join in the fun. Among its organisers was Surgeon-Major Joseph Marshall Lynn, who was a retired army officer and lay preacher of the Abbey Street Methodist Church. Also involved were Robert Gillespie, a Justice of the Peace, J E Peel a local solicitor and the Sunday School Superintendent and petty sessions clerk Mr Samuel Steel.
Preparing for the Day Trip
The lucky families who had purchases tickets assembled outside the church at 9am. The weather was warm and sunny, ideal for a day at the beach.
Such was the ‘holiday spirit’ associated with the event that the military band of the 3rd battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers led the way from Abbey Street to the railway station, with the excited crowd in their wake.
For many families this outing constituted their summer holiday.
The Train
The excursion train was packed with happy and excited passengers, many laden with picnic baskets.
Unfortunately, there were problems from the outset. The locomotive, Engine No 86, built in 1880 by Beyer Peacock, was despatched from Dundalk. It was supposed to consist of 13 carriages (10 third class, 1 first class, 1 brake van with a compartment for passengers and 1 ordinary brake van). The intended capacity was 800 passengers. However, due to the demand for places on the day trip, the holiday train set off with 15 carriages and 941 travellers.
The Railway Staff
The train driver, Thomas McGrath, complained about the extra weight and was annoyed with the station master Mr John Foster for not informing Dundalk of the increase in passenger numbers. He was overruled and told “not to grumble”. However, when offered the assistance of a No 9 banking engine that he subsequently requested, the disgruntled McGrath changed his mind and said that it would not be required.
Mr McGrath had been employed by the Great Northern Railways for 13 years mainly as a fireman or stoker on the trains. This was a ‘back-breaking’ job that involved the continual shovelling of coal into the furnace to power the steam engine. Although he had frequently covered this route as a fireman, he had only been driving for two years and this was his first day actually driving the train to Warrenpoint.
As well as Thomas McGrath the railway staff on the train were James Elliott, chief clerk to the traffic manager at Dundalk who was sent as conductor. Mr Elliott, aged 37, often acted as the conductor on the excursion trains during the summer season. There was also Henry Parkinson fireman, Thomas Henry head porter and William Moorehead under porter.
The Fateful Journey
Trouble Ahead
The excursion train left the GNR station on Railway Street at 10:15am, 15 minutes later than planned.
All was well until it reached a steep gradient 3 miles from Armagh town. The light passenger locomotive now began to struggle to make it up the hill, travelling at no more than 9 miles per hour. Eventually, about 200 yards from the top, close to Dobbin’s Bridge, the engine stalled. McGrath applied the vacuum brake, but there was no possibility of restarting the engine with its heavy load on the steep incline.
A decision was taken by the conductor, Mr Elliott, to divide the train into two more manageable sections. The front 5 carriages attached to the engine were uncoupled from the carriages to the rear with the intention of heading on to the next station, Hamilton’s Bawn, some one and a half miles further along the single line track. Once there, the engine would be unhooked and would return for the stranded carriages.
The conductor then proceeded to the rear of the train and ordered the head porter, Mr Henry, to apply the handbrake, which he did. He enquired if there were any ‘sprags’ on board. These are stout pieces of wood to insert between the spokes of the wheels to prevent movement, but there was none on the train.
The remaining carriages were then wedged or ‘scotched’ into position with ballast (rocks) under their wheels to prevent them from moving. Once this was secure a guard would then walk back down the line with a flag to warn approaching trains.
That, at least, was the plan….
Disaster Strikes
However, as the uncoupling happened at the front of the train, the engine reversed slightly hitting the unhooked compartments. The weight of the rear carriages could not be contained by the stones placed under them.
“….the carriages were driven back upon each other, and bump after bump being imparted down the line of detached carriages the few stones placed to the wheels in the rear became displaced, and to the horror and amazement of its occupants the portion of the train just released from the controlling force of the engine began to slowly move down the incline”
The County of Armagh Directory and Almanac for 1890
The rocks were crushed to rubble and the train began to pick up speed, hurtling backwards down the tracks…
“…as I was putting down the last stone, I felt the carriages coming back. I went on the van, and got in, and tried, with the assistance of two passengers, to get an extra turn of the brake handle, and was still doing this when Mr Elliott jumped up on the left step, and said ‘try and make the best you can without breaking it (meaning the brake handle)’ and I said I can make no more. He then said ‘Oh my God, we will all be killed’ and jumped off. The speed then gradually increased, until it became so fast that we could not see the hedges we passed”
Thomas Henry, railway guard
The passengers on board quickly became aware of the danger as the train reached speeds of 50 miles an hour as it careered down the hillside. As the doors on both sides had been locked (this was common practice on trains carrying children) some passengers tried to throw themselves to safety through the open windows. Some parents in desperation, even hurled their children out thinking this the better option.
Collision
The following passenger train left the Armagh station at 10:38am, 3 minutes later than scheduled. It only contained 14 passengers and a horse in a horse box. The trains operated on a time interval system (a gap of 20 minutes in this case).
The engine driver, Patrick Murphy, had no way of knowing that the line ahead was not clear. As he rounded the track, he was faced with the rapidly accelerating runaway train – a crash was inevitable. The trains collided catastrophically on the 45ft high Killuney embankment at Annaclare and Mullyloughran!
The impact of the collision forced the rear carriages of the excursion train off the rails. The rear guards van and the next 2 excursion carriages were smashed to “match wood”. Many were thrown from the train, others were less fortunate, they were trapped inside. Some of the compartments teetered dangerously on the edge of the embankment. Wreckage was strewn over a wide area.
Ex-military man, Surgeon-Major Lynn, in a letter to the Belfast Newsletter described the scene
“In no part of the kingdom has ever such an overwhelming calamity occurred. Many a bitter battlefield did not display such carnage”
Witnesses recounted survivors staggering about in a daze, frantic parents searching the wreckage, bodies dismembered and mangled beyond recognition and above all the screams of the injured. The accounts in the newspapers are graphically harrowing. I doubt that anyone who was there ever forgot those terrible scenes.
“The spectacle was heartrending. Husbands were looking for wives. And wives for husbands, parents for children, and children for their parents, in that terrible crowd of mangled, disfigured and undistinguishable humanity”
Belfast Morning News 13th June 1889
Assistance
Thankfully help was quickly on site with the arrival of policemen under the command of District-Inspector Starkie and Head-Constable Scanlan.
The army from Gough Barracks led by Colonel Harper, Captain Kincaid and Adjutant Leeper also began the rescue operation. The battalion bandsmen were also on board the fateful locomotive.
Surgeon-Major Lynn, as well as Dr Palmer and local doctors Gray and Frazer aided the victims.
As news spread medical professionals came from the nearby towns of Lurgan, Portadown, Tynan and Glaslough and even as far away as Belfast to tend to the hurt and dying. A special train left Belfast at 1:30pm carrying doctors Fagan, McKisack, Coates and McQuitty and students from the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Many clergy also attended the scene to provide temporal and spiritual assistance. Military ambulances as well as every available vehicle conveyed the injured to hospital. Even the carriage of the Catholic bishop, the Most Rev Dr Logue, “was busily engaged in convoying the wounded to the infirmary”
Aftermath
The remains of those who had perished were carefully laid on the ground before being removed to Armagh. There were too many dead to be housed in the city mortuary, so the bodies were placed in the Market House, the Tontine Rooms (a concert hall) and even the railway station.
The official figure was 80 fatalities; though other victims later succumbed to their injuries.
“A peculiar melancholy attaches to the death roll from the fact that many of the killed are little children, whose minds were full of the anticipation of enjoying a happy day’s outing – a treat which, perhaps, only fell to the lot of most of them at the annual excursion which yesterday was attended with such melancholy results”
Belfast Morning News 13th June 1889
Victims
Each death told its own terrible tragedy. Some families suffered multiple bereavements. Five members of the Cleland family of Railway Street, Armagh perished that day – father James Clelland (aged 58), mother Margaret (45), and their children Charles (13), Samuel (10) and Robert (7). Two McFarland sisters Isabella (22) and Bertha (20), both dressmakers, did not survive. Nor did the daughters of local grocer James Mason – Margaret (18) and Mary Jane (12) and the children of Mr G A Edwards, Justice of the Peace – David (8) and Minnie (7). Farmers daughters Mary (21) and Jane Orr (20) both perished. Husband and wife William and Mary Mitchell and their baby son, 2 year-old William, also died in the collision.
Others who were killed in the disaster included the Sunday School Superintendent Samuel Maxwell Steel and his daughter Sarah Eliza (9) and his 7 year-old daughter Jeannie, who died from her injuries 3 days later. Steel’s 10 year-old niece Hettie Wolfe also perished. William McMullin (18), son of the Rev William R McMullin a Methodist minister perished, as did William Crozier (24) shop assistant, Sarah Scott (49), a farmer’s wife, Eliza Sloan (14) a schoolgirl and Mary Jane Mason (12) a postman’s daughter. Every member of the Abbey Street Choir was either dead or injured.
News of the Disaster
As news of the terrible accident reached the towns of Ireland, folk struggled to comprehend the scale of the disaster.
“…a tragedy which stunned not only Armagh, from where the victims came, but all Ireland and the railway world in general, for it was the worst railway accident to occur up to that time”
J R L Currie The Runaway Train 1971
The Arrests
On the evening of Thursday 13th June, District-Inspector Bonis of Portadown arrested 6 railway staff. They were James Elliott, Thomas McGrath, James Parkinson and William Moorehead from the excursion train and Patrick Murphy and William Herd, the fireman, from the following 10:35am train. Mr Bonis applied for and was granted a remand for 8 days. The prisoners were remanded in custody. Thomas Henry was also to be charged but he remained seriously ill in hospital.
Armagh city itself, was like a ‘ghost town’. Businesses, offices and schools remained closed, while churches took in turn to toll the mourning bells. The terrible event was the subject of every Sunday sermon.
The Funerals
There followed a long week of funerals for the victims of the catastrophe. The first burials took place very quickly on 13th June. David and Minnie Edwards funeral service took place in St Mark’s Anglian church with the Lord Primate officiating. Thirty-three of the dead were buried in St Marks graveyard. The church was packed with mourners at the funeral of Samuel Steel and his daughters and niece.
Other victims were interred in the Catholic graveyard and other local cemeteries, two were interred at Salters Grange cemetery at St Aidan’s church – Wilhelmina Reilly (16) and Mary Hamill (19) a nurse at the lunatic asylum.
“During the day the bells of the different churches were tolled at intervals, and from an early hour in the day the funerals of the deceased took place, and from then until late in the evening the melancholy processions could have been seen wending their way through the streets”
Belfast Newsletter 14th June 1889
Relief fund
A special relief fund was established to provide financial help for the injured and the bereaved families.
Queen Victoria donated £50, as did the Duke of Abercorn and the Marquess of Londonderry gave £100. The board of the Great Northern Railway sent £200 (on the prompting, it is said, of the Dean of Armagh).
So much money was raised that it helped to build a new ward at the Armagh Infirmary.
“The relief committee formed on Thursday are also quietly doing their best for the amelioration of the unhappy condition of the more humble sufferers, and it is gratifying to be able to state that, so far as can be judged from the present amount of the subscriptions, there is no reason to fear for a lack of funds”
Northern Whig 15th June 1889
Legal Consequences
The Inquest
On the evening of the same day as the collision, 12th June, the Crown Coroner for Armagh, Mr T G Peel, convened the inquest. The proceedings commenced in the Grand Jury Room of the County Court House.
The officials and all-male jury, foreman Mr Griffiths of The Mall, visited the scene of the crash and viewed the bodies. The remains were then conveyed to their homes.
Over the next few days much evidence and expert opinions were sought. The inquest concluded on Friday 21st June. The jurors found the railway staff to be guilty of ‘culpable negligence’ and they were remanded on a charge of manslaughter.
The Trial
In fact, only three railway employees were brought to trial – conductor James Elliott, the train driver Thomas McGrath and under porter William Moorehead. (Thomas Henry, the head porter, was still incapacitated). Bail was granted for McGrath and Moorehead but Elliott had to remain in prison.
Due to circumstances the trial was to be held in Dublin
“Public feeling was extremely high, and it would be well-nigh impossible to empanel a jury whose members did not include someone bereaved and incapable of taking a detached view”
J R L Currie The Runaway Train 1971
The case against James Elliott opened on Thursday 8th August 1889 at Green Street Court House, Dublin. However, despite hearing all the evidence the jury were unable to reach a decision.
It was decided a retrial would take place in October. On Saturday 26th October 1889 a second jury produced a ‘not guilty’ verdict. James Elliott was a free man. As the other charged had been acting on Elliott’s instructions, a plea of ‘nolle prosequi’ was entered on their behalf and they too were discharged.
Armagh in Mourning
The awful events of 12th June left their mark on the city of Armagh.
There was hardly a family that was not affected either directly or indirectly by the catastrophe. Many lost children, others the family bread-winner, while many others suffered life-changing injuries. Many more, we can presume, never recovered from the trauma.
Patrick Murphy, the driver of the second train, was never able to work again. He died just 8 months later on 9th January 1890, cause of death “shock from railway accident”.
The Subsequent Inquiry
Immediately after the accident, the Board of Trade appointed Major-General Charles S Hutchison of the Royal Engineers to head an inquiry.
His remit was to investigate the causes of the collision and to make recommendations to prevent similar occurrences.
On 30th August parliament enacted the Regulation of Railway Act 1889. This enforced the use of continuous automatic brakes on all passenger railways together with a block system which divided up ‘blocks’ of track which only one train could use at a time so preventing collisions.
“There is no doubt that Armagh was the most significant railway accident in British history. For it was a turning point. It marked the end of the old Victorian tradition, a political theory, of the non-intervention of government in private business – laissez-faire. It marked the end of the old days of pioneering; the railways had had their childhood and were turning towards maturity”
J R L Currie The Runaway Train 1971
The Armagh Railway Disaster Remembered
In 2014 a memorial statue was erected on The Mall in Armagh, commemorating all those who died on that fateful day in June 1889.
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