Catherine McDonald’s Story
It must have been hell for Catherine that evening, finding herself alone in that way. Once the train left the only sound would have been the wind and the rain and the sea. It was after six o’clock on November the 15th so it was dark. While she was only half a mile from Greenore and perhaps a mile from Carlingford there would have been very little light pollution adding to the scene in 1882. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, perhaps I should go back and follow Catherine’s journey from the beginning, to the shores of Carlingford Lough on that tragic night. Catherine Mc Donald, my great grandmother, was born in the late 1830s in County Louth, less than a decade before the Great Famine. No records of her birth or her baptism have been found and we also know nothing about whether or not she attended school. In 1901, when Catherine filled in the census form, she said she was 65 years old, that she was born in County Louth and that she could read but not write. She signed the form by placing her mark, as she was unable to sign her name. It is likely, therefore, that Catherine got little 81
