The Rossadillisk Laceys and the Cleggan Disaster

In my last post about the Lacey family of Rossadillisk, I shared that three of my great-grandfather's brothers died in a storm called the Cleggan Bay Disaster on October 28, 1927. What exactly was the Cleggan Bay Disaster?

In short, the Cleggan Bay Disaster was a sudden and violent storm that hit seaside communities in central west and northwest Ireland, killing 45 fisherman who had been out in their boats, and devastating families and livelihoods in their communities. The affected areas in County Galway were Rossadillisk, where 16 local men were killed, and Inishbofin, an island just across the bay from Rossadillisk, which lost 10 fisherman to the storm. In County Mayo, to the north, Inishkea, another island community, lost nine men, and the Lacken Bay area on the North Atlantic lost ten fisherman.

Areas affected by the storm are circled in red

Although the Irish Sea took a greater toll on several occasions, the Cleggan Bay disaster of October 1927 was the worst 20th-century marine accident of its type in terms of individual boats and people.¹ 

What kind of storm caused the Cleggan Bay Disaster? I have wondered this a lot, picturing the giant waves seen in the film The Perfect Storm, an adaptation of the Sebastian Junger book recounting the 1991 weather event that killed fishermen off the coast of Massachusetts. Here is an account of that storm:

On October 27 [1991], Hurricane Grace formed near Bermuda and moved toward the coast of the southeastern United States. Two days later, Grace continued to move north, where it encountered a massive low pressure system moving south from Canada. The clash of systems over the Atlantic Ocean caused 40-to-80-foot waves on October 30—unconfirmed reports put the waves at more than 100 feet in some locations. This massive surf caused extensive coastal flooding, particularly in Massachusetts; damage was also sustained as far south as Jamaica and as far north as Newfoundland. The storm continued to churn in the Atlantic on October 31; it was nicknamed the “Halloween storm.” It came ashore on November 2 along the Nova Scotia coast, then, as it moved northeast over the Gulf Stream waters, it made a highly unusual transition into a hurricane.²

A contemporary view of Cleggan and the harbor

In various accounts of the Cleggan Bay Disaster, both at the time and in following years, the weather that caused so much tragedy is referred to alternately as a gale and a hurricane. The storm did more than just sink boats and kill fisherman, it came ashore, ripping roofs from houses, toppling trees, overwhelming rivers and causing floods. Winds topped 70 miles per hour. There were at least another 25 deaths on land as a result of the storm. There are no accounts of enormous waves, like the 1991 storm, but the winds were extreme and deadly.

...wind is the result of air flowing from an area of high pressure to low pressure. This is the reason why there are almost always winds of varying strength present around a low-pressure system. Tropical storms, cyclones and hurricanes illustrate this point very clearly. Depending on the strength of the low-pressure system, winds of gale-force strength are reached very quickly, and can quickly build up to reach hurricane strength wind speeds. Gale force winds are not just formed as a result of storm systems though. Sometimes, on a seemingly otherwise clear day and pleasant day, you can suddenly be hit by winds quickly building up to gale force speeds.³

In accounts of October 28, 1927, the evening of the gale is repeatedly described as calm and pleasant. Fisherman set off in boats with no warning of what was to come. Most were not far from land when the gale hit. Mark, George, and Martin Lacey, the half-brothers of my great-grandfather Thomas Lacey, were still inside Cleggan Harbor when the storm arose, but the wind picked up their boat and threw them against the rocks before they could move back to shore. 

About 45 of these ill-fated fishermen, who had started out on a fine night and were having good catches were suddenly overwhelmed by the gale, driven on the rocks and dashed to death in sight of their home and their wailing wives and children. Three separate fleets of boats were thus overtaken and more than a hundred women and children lost husbands or fathers. Many of the boats were only of tarred canvas propelled by oars and they were helpless against the storm. The fishermen of Connemara are too poor to have better boats.⁴

News accounts describe scenes of terrible, communal grief in the hours and days after the storm. Every person in Rossadillisk lost multiple people they knew and loved, and as the surrounding towns were also filled with relatives and friends of the lost fishermen, they were similarly impacted.

Rev. Father Michael Quinn, parish priest of Cleggan, celebrated a requiem mass for those who had perished, and it was with difficulty he completed the service. Women and children, and even men, cried aloud in anguish, and many were carried from the church in a fainting condition.⁵

In her book The Cleggan Bay Disaster, Marie Feeney provides the best comprehensive written account of the tragedy, interviewing people who witnessed the storm and its aftermath, and documents the names of those lost from Rossadillisk.

Four boats filled with Rossadillisk men sailed from Cleggan Harbor on October 28, 1927. Only one returned. Mark Lacey skippered his boat, with brothers George and Martin on board. Also aboard were Martin Halloran and Mark O'Toole. The Rossadillisk victims:

John Cloonan, 45, skipper

Michael Laffey, 22

Patrick Feeney, 35

Thomas Delap, 50 (father of three children)*

Michael Feeney, 22 (brother of Patrick)

Michael Cloonan, 24 (son of skipper)

Martin Murray, 46, skipper (father of ten children)

Thomas Lacey, 26 (supporter of aged parents)

Michael Feeney, 21 (supporter of aged parents)

Patrick Davis, 40

John Murray, 40 (father of twelve children)

Mark Lacey, 40, skipper

Mark O'Toole, 50 (father of seven children)

Martin Lacey, 35 (brother of skipper)

George Lacey, 25 (brother of skipper)

Martin Halloran 

*Note: Marie Feeney's book claims that Thomas Delap had three children, but I've been contacted by a Delap descendant who confirms that he was the father of six.

A memorial to the Cleggan Bay Disaster victims on Omey Island

After the disaster, a number of publications would lament the poverty of the victims and their families, and express concern for the fate of the survivors.

...following a storm which suddenly burst on the West coast, a number of fishing boats were swamped and 45 lives lost. This appalling disaster is the more poignant in view of the circumstances in which the lost men had found themselves. No less than 16 of the victims were natives of the little village of Rossadilisk, one of the most poverty-stricken parts of Connemara. This village has been deprived of practically every one of its breadwinners. Ten came from the island of Innisboffin, which also is never very far from the starvation line. The remaining victims from the County Mayo were among the poorest of the poor. These fisher-folk of the West carry out their trade at all times under perilous conditions. They go to sea in all weathers in ordinary rowboats or in their "curraghs," which are the frailest of canvas boats. They are too poor to buy more suitable boats and they can only venture to go a few miles off the shore. Their gear is invariably of the most primitive kind, and they fish because their small farms fail to provide them with more than a bare subsistence. Nevertheless, the inadequacy of their equipment, in that it forces them to rely on their own resources, has made them, in all probability, the most skillful seamen in Europe, as well as the most courageous.⁶

A memorial to the victims of the Cleggan Bay Disaster in Rossadillisk

A relief effort was mounted, but it was not enough to replace the incomes of the lost breadwinners. Here the Irish Times relates how these relief efforts are described in Marie Feeney's book. 

A relief fund was set up, and it was only then that the full extent of the poverty in the coastal areas was revealed. There was some controversy over how the funds were dispersed, and the fishing communities of both Connemara and north-west Mayo never fully recovered from the impact, the author says. Many of the dependants had to emigrate, families were broken up, and it was only after the recent publication of Ms Feeney's book that contact has been resumed in several cases. Two children of the late John Murray of Rossadilisk spoke to each other on the phone several months ago after a separation of 50 years.⁷

Mark, George and Martin Lacey were bachelors. They did not leave behind widows and children, but they left a bereaved mother, whom they supported. Mary Coyne Lacey had two surviving sons and a stepson. The youngest, William, had left for America in 1926. I have not been able to find records to determine where her son Patrick and stepson John were living in 1927, and whether they were able to support Mary after the disaster. Mary lived another two and a half years, and those must have been extraordinarily difficult years.

Rossadillisk

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1 Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/cleggan-bay-disaster-of-1927-to-be-marked-this-weekend-1.3270399^↩

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2 Source: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/perfect-storm-hits-north-atlantic^↩

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3 Source: https://ownyourweather.com/what-are-gale-force-winds^↩

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4 Source: The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Quebec, Canada) · 1 Nov 1927, Tue · Page 1^↩

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5 Source: Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) · 31 Oct 1927, Mon · Page 1^↩

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6 Source: The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) · 16 Nov 1927, Wed · Page 18 ^↩

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7 Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/new-book-tells-of-tragic-night-when-45-men-died-1.1053275^↩