Ireland

Death in a Coal Mine

My Irish great-grandfather left County Mayo for England because he couldn’t find work. He never returned.

My grandfather to the left, with his brother. I’m not sure when this was taken. Photo credit: Family member of Author.

There’s much of this story I can’t confirm. And an equal amount that comes from family folklore. I say folklore because they are stories that just keep being told at family gatherings.

The setting is County Mayo, Ireland. County Mayo is in the west of Ireland, a world away from fancy Dublin. This was especially true back in the 1910’s. Like most in County Mayo, my family was poor.

My grandfather was born in 1906 and his mother passed away soon afterward. My great-grandfather remarried, marrying a woman with three children adding to his five.

As the story goes, my great-grandfather could not find work in County Mayo, so left for the north of England where he got hired to work in a coal mine. Sometime during the decade of 1910 he was killed in a coal mining accident. After years of searching, I still have not found the location of his death. In fact, I have been surprised by how many mining accidents, and people killed in them, occurred in England during this decade.

I had no idea.

I have no evidence that my great-granfather died in a coal mine in England. I know he didn’t…