Public meeting on Orphanage fire memorial

A public meeting will be held next week to explore and build a campaign around the prospect of erecting a fitting memorial in memory of the 36 victims of the Cavan orphanage fire tragedy.

The event will be held at the Bridge Street Centre on Friday, March 13, starting at 7:30pm.

“We encourage everyone interested in helping the campaign to attend and we would really love to engage with the relatives and loved ones of the victims,” a spokesperson for the event told The Anglo-Celt.

Among those who died in the February 1943 St. Joseph’s Industrial School blaze were 35 young girls and 80-year-old orphanage cook, Mary Smith. The youngest who died was Elizabeth Heaphy, from Swords, Co Dublin, aged just four years, while the eldest was 18-year-old Mary Cassidy from Drumcassidy, Co Cavan.
Girls were sent to the orphanage from as far afield as Dublin, Wicklow, Belfast and Fermanagh, and from all parts of the county of Cavan. Of the 35 girls to die in the fire, 13 were named Mary and there were nine sets of siblings among them.
Despite the tragic loss of life, some 50 others were saved that night by the quick actions of local electricity worker Mattie Hand and businessman Louis Blessing among others.