Dedicaton of the Maypole Room –18 Sept 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008
Mining tragedy recalled: descendants of 1908 victims gather in Mayo

By Tom Shiel
SEVENTY-SIX candles were lit at a ceremony in Co Mayo yesterday in memory of all those who perished in the 1908 Maypole tragedy, one of Britain's worst mining disasters. Among those who gathered at Hennigan's Heritage Farm, Killasser, Swinford, to commemorate long-lost ancestors was Winifred (Freddie) Neighbour from Kent. Her maternal grandfather Thomas Groarke, from Charlestown, was one of the many Irish who died in August 1908 when an explosion ripped through the Maypole colliery in Wigan, Lancashire... [Read more -- 1908 Maypole Tragedy] ...article from The Irish Times