Patrick Fahilly's Story
By Sarah Costello

Patrick was a very old man when he told this at a meeting many years ago.

He said he was about seventeen years old when the famine struck. He knew that if he wanted to live he had to leave Ireland. He managed to be taken aboard an old wooden ship bound for Boston. It seems that an insurance company called Lloyds of London would only insure ships in use. So great was the need for ships because of the famine that old ships that were in dry dock for repairs, were hurriedly taken out and put in use. The ship that Patrick was on sank at night, while still some distance from Boston. However, he and some other young men managed to swim ashore. All others went down with the ship. This was the fate of many who tried to cross the ocean in those days.