Lough Neagh Tragedy in 1880
Now gather round all watermen and.
listen unto me
And those who are unacquainted with
the dangers of the sea.
Until I relate the tragic fate of those .
who sailed away
That evening from the Ardboe shore to
fish upon Toome Bay.
Oh! Lough Neagh thou are treacherous.
thy victims are not few;
How oft the wife, the mother, do thy
cruel tantrums rue!
But the mother's cries, the widow's
sighs will rise for them in vain,
They fought the waves to lull the _
children's wails, but never will
again.
In 1880, in November of that year,
On the morning of the 26th, when
danger did appear
And seemed to be approaching fast,
Death stared at every man,
Right fervently they wished that day to
be upon dry land.
The wind raved in its fury, and the
waves did heave and swell
As rolling, on, like mountains, our doom
they seemed to tell.
The terrors of a watery grave appeared
in every form,
And gaped at fulll 200 soul upon that
fatal morn.
The wind increased in violence our
boats were small and frail.
But most of us that day, thank God,
survived that cruel gale.
But alas! a few amongst us the rest
were doomed to leave
To stand before the Judgment Seat,
their sentence to receive.
I trust these men were well prepared,
their number is four,
And o'er Lough Neagh's angry waves
they'll steer their course no more.
On many stormy evening they left
their fireside.
For their mothers, wives and children
subsistence to provide.
James Campbell struggled manfully
upon that fatal morn,
And battled hard against his fate to
brave the angry storm.
But dreadful hour. his time was come,
Fate whispered in his ear:
"You will never return home again to
your wife and children dear."
Oh! Sad must be the hour and sorrowful the heart,
And dread the separation from all we
love to part.
To launch into Eternity without a
warning sign .
To help prepare the poor soul to meet
the Lord Divine.
1 hope this will a warning be in future
days to come;
Still think of Francis Connolly. James
Campbell and his son.
And likewise Edward Beatson, those
four we'll never See.
Good Christians pray for their souls
repose, for all Eternity.
JOHN COLEMAN
Mullinahoe.
Transcribed by Jonathan Engstrand
