Annie’s iconic immigrant tale rewritten

RESEARCHERS have reportedly discovered the true descendants of an Irish girl who was the first person to pass through New York’s historic Ellis Island immigration centre.

Annie Moore, who was celebrating her 15th birthday on the day she arrived from Co Cork in 1892, is immortalised in bronze statues in New York Harbour and Cobh.

The famous story goes that she was bustled ahead of a burly German by her two younger brothers and another Irishman who shouted “Ladies first” as they disembarked from the steamship Nevada on January 1, and ended up being the first of 12 million immigrants to set foot on the island.