People on board

HEALY, Lizzie

Elizabeth Healy was born 10 July 1897 in Tralee to Matthew Healy, a Baker, and Hanoria Sullivan. Matthew and Hanoria had married in 1875 and Lizzie was the tenth of eleven children, one of whom died of diphtheria at the age of four months in 1900. When they married, Matthew was living in Rock Street and Hanoria in Brogue Lane (also known as Brogue Makers Lane) in Tralee and that is where the family settled. There were sixty-seven houses in Brogue Lane, mostly of three or four rooms, and while most had slate roofs in 1901 several were still thatched. Looking at the censuses it is clear that most of the inhabitants followed trades such as victualler, tailor or baker, or were employed in the iron-works. However, in 1913 a local doctor, Michael Brick found it necessary to call attention to what he described as “the unsanitary conditions of Brogue Lane and Steepleview, where there were no WCs, water accommodation or any kind of drainage associated with those houses.” Matthew Healy died that same year of acute bronchitis.

The newspaper reports following the sinking of RMS Leinster on 10 October 1918 give no clue as to why Lizzie Healy, or Chrissie Murphy from Steepleview, was travelling to Holyhead. Neither girl survived but their bodies were recovered and were brought by train from Dublin to Tralee. They were both buried in Rath cemetery, Lizzie in the Healy family grave. The funerals were attended by large numbers of people as reported by the local papers.