My second book about the RMS Titanic and her passengers and crew along with some movie talk. Same rules apply, no drama, trolls, and disrespecting the people on this ship
اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
October 5th, 1893 - September 24th, 1968
She is a Libra.
Catherine "Kate" Murphy was born in Frostragh, Killoe, Co Longford, Ireland to Michael Murphy (born 1841), a farmer, and Maria Lyons (born 1845), who had married in the Ballinalee Roman Catholic Church in Granard, Co Longford on October 24th, 1872. The youngest of 12 children born to her parents, with several surviving into adulthood, Kate's known siblings were: John (June 8th, 1874), Ann Maria (May 24th, 1875), Patrick (October 10th, 1880), Bridget (born 1881), Rose Ellen (March 16th, 1884), Margaret (March 17th, 1887), Michael (July 22nd, 1889), and Mary (March 11th, 1892).
Michael died from quinsy at 11 months old on June 24th, 1890 whilst Mary died from whooping cough at the age of 2 months old on December 12th, 1892. Another unidentified child was also lost in infancy. Catherine and her family appear on the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses living at Frostragh. By the time of the latter record she and Margaret were still at home and without any stated profession. Her father would die from heart disease later that year on June 28th, 1911.
Several of her siblings lived in the USA and Margaret had spent some brief years there but returned home sometime prior to 1911 and had become engaged to a Cavan-man named Matthew O'Reilly, who was forced to make an early return to New York. That same year an old neighbor from Frostragh returned to the village to pay a visit from his new home in Jersey City, New Jersey, John Kiernan. Margaret's desire to be reunited with Matthew was perhaps heightened by Kiernan's arrival and when it came for the time for John and his younger brother Philip to leave Ireland together, Margaret determined to join them, with an impressionable Catherine making the same decision.
Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912: Margret had promised her mother to remain in Ireland until such times as Matthew was settled and financially sound, with John forbidding her from going to the USA. Along with Catherine, she are clandestine plans to slip away at the same time as the Kiernan brothers and for weeks the sisters built up their luggage in secret in their barn. They would join other siblings already in the USA; Annie lived in rooking and Patrick is believed to have lived In Philadelphia. It's to the latter city that Margaret and Catherine were stayed to be headed when they boarded the RMS Titanic at Queenstown on April 11th, 1912 as 3rd class passengers. They slipped away without the knowledge of their friends and family, as Margaret later related:
"The night before the little group in our village was to leave to go aboard the Titanic, together with several other young women and men, I slipped away from my home, carrying all the clothes I could, and went to the Kiernan home, where a farewell party was being held. At that time I had promised to wait at home, until Mr Kiernan would come to this country and make a place. Then I was going to join him. But the thoughts of being separated from him was too much for me and I decided to run away from home. At the Kiernan home I was received kindly, as we were all neighbours. At the first opportunity I told Mr Kiernan of my purpose. He reluctantly agreed. He was twenty-five and I am nineteen..." - Altoona Times, 2 May 1912.
The interview, widely syndicated, incorrectly states that Margaret and John Kiernan were sweethearts, a myth that has continued to be perpetuated. Whilst aboard the sisters shared a cabin on E-deck with 2 other Longford girls, Kate Gilnagh and Kate Mullin, and they were also acquainted with others from Longford, including James Farrell and Thomas McCormack, the latter reportedly being a relative, possibly a 2nd cousin. They possibly also associated with the McCoy siblings (Agnes, Alice, and Bernard) and Ellen Corr, also from Longford, whilst aboard.
On the night of the sinking, the sisters later recalled crewmen blocking their way up to the upper decks and they recalled seeing lifeboats leaving the ship only partially full. She also reported scuffles breaking out between some 3rd class passengers in their place whilst she saw women and children deep in prayer nearby. Lore has it that it was intervention of James Farrell, who threatened to punch a crewman if he didn't let the women past to the boats, who became the women's savior. Catherine, Margaret, and the two Kates from Longford were rescued possibly in lifeboat 16 alongside an interloper, Thomas McCormack (he claimed to have been picked up from the water and helped into the lifeboat by the 2 sisters). The Kiernan brothers and James Farrell were lost in the sinking.
After The Sinking/Later Life/Death: Upon landing in New York, Catherine had saved a few years from her age and was described as a 16-year-old domestic. She and Margaret gave their next of kin as John back in Ireland whilst their destination was given as to the home of Bridget in Manhattan. Family and friends greeted them at the Cunard pier. Following recuperation, in St Vincent's Hospital, Catherine and Margaret accompanied Matthew and his sister to their home at City Hall Place, New York and whilst there, a portrait of the pair was taken and later printed in The Advocate, an Irish-American newspaper on April 27th, 1912.
Catherine was married in Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan on July 17th, 1913 to Michael Guiltoyle, who's brother Denis had married Kate's sister Anna the previous year; the pair met through their respective siblings. Michael Joseph Guilfoyle (September 13th, 1899) was born in Cregg, Co Clare, Ireland to shopkeeper Michael Guilfoyle and the former Bridget Hogan. He had emigrated to the USA in November 1907 aboard Celtic, becoming a Brooklyn policeman and later an inspector for the US customs service. Catherine and Michael made their home in New York and had 3 children: Marie Josephine (June 2nd, 1914), Michael Joseph (August 8th, 1916), and Rita Catherine (January 16th, 1919). In the late 1910's they lived in Brooklyn.
By the time of the 1920 census they were living East 38th Street and on the 1930 census at Third Avenue, both in Manhattan. The 1940 census shows the family living in Brooklyn. Around the 1930's the family acquired a second home in rural Swan Lake, Sullivan County, New York to where Catherine and Michael eventually retired and where they dabbled in real estate. Although Catherine never returned to Ireland, in December of 1919 she sent her 3-year-old son to the old country to spend time with Catherine's mother. Her mother was most anxious to meet her grandson and extended leaving to him her estate upon her death. The visit turned into years and Catherine's son Michael and Catherine weren't reunited until May of 1924. Catherine's mother died on April 29th, 1929.
Catherine never cared to discuss the Titanic disaster in later years and she was fated to outlive Margaret with whom she escaped the sinking, Margaret passing away in 1957. Catherine and Michael spent their final years living at their Swan Lake home where on October 2nd, 1962, Michael passed away following a protracted illness. Catherine passed away on September 24th, 1968 whilst visiting relatives in Brooklyn. Only weeks shy of her 75th birthday (although her death notices stated she was 68), Catherine and Michael were buried together in St. Peter's Cemetery in Sullivan, New York. Marie (later Mrs. John Gary) died in Florida on October 22nd, 1996. Son Michael, later a WWII veteran, remained in New York where he died on October 3rd, 1981. Rita (later Mrs. Floyd Townsend) died in Florida on September 22nd, 2016 at the age of 97.
