‘It lives among us still’: Dromcollogher remembers 48 killed in cinema fire
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and culture minister Patrick O’Donovan hosted a commemoration to mark the centenary of the Dromcollogher Cinema fire. Picture: Arthur Ellis
The names of the 48 people who died in the Dromcollogher cinema fire were read aloud at a State commemoration on Saturday, marking the centenary of one of Ireland’s worst post-Famine disasters.
A crowd of approximately 600 people gathered in the West Limerick village for a midday ceremony to remember those who died in the tragedy, which is still remembered locally as ‘The Burning’.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, culture minister Patrick O’Donovan and Limerick mayor John Moran officiated at the formal event, which honoured the memory of those lost in the fire, who represented about one in 10 of the village’s population at the time.
On the evening of Sunday, September 5, 1926, approximately 150 people climbed an external wooden ladder to crowd into a makeshift cinema in the wooden loft over Patrick Brennan’s hardware shop in Dromcollogher.
The loft was regularly used for community gatherings and dances, and that Sunday night, it was to host a film show.
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Local man William ‘Babe’ Forde had an arrangement with Patrick Downing, a projectionist who worked in the Assembly Rooms cinema in Cork’s South Mall.
With Cork cinemas closed on Sundays, Downing would unofficially borrow films and bring them on the train to Charleville, where Forde would meet him and bring him to Dromcollogher.
They hired Brennan’s loft and their first show took place on Friday, August 27, going without a hitch. Their second night would end in tragedy.
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Forde brought the highly flammable nitrate film reels to Dromcollogher without the metal cases in which they were stored – it has been suggested this was done so that a casual observer in Cork would see the cases and not realise the films were missing.
Sunday night’s event began at 9pm, allowing locals to attend devotions in the nearby St Bartholomew’s Church beforehand.
The first short film, The Decoy, passed without incident, but around 9.40pm, with the main feature, The False Alarm, underway, a candle fell over and ignited the film reels.
Fire spread rapidly in the loft, as did panic, and those not close to the sole exit became trapped.
Many ran to a room at the other end of the loft, and although some escaped through a window, one woman became caught in it and died in the fire, trapping those behind her.
Forty-eight people died in the fire, about a tenth of Dromcollogher’s population. Nineteen of those who died were under 20 years of age, as Taoiseach Micheál Martin noted in his keynote address.
The youngest victims were Tommie Noonan and John Kenny, both of whom were only seven years old.
Mr Martin said those who died would never have the chance to write their own stories, see Ireland grow around them, or hold their own children or grandchildren.
“For them, it all ended this night in 1926,” he said.
“There is an important lesson to take from the disaster, I believe, and that is on the fragility and preciousness of life. The fire was a terrible accident, with a candle knocked over in the worst possible place. It could have happened at any similar gathering at that time.
“A century on, I am honoured to join this community as it remembers those who lost their lives on one of the darkest days in the history of the State.”
In his speech, Mr O’Donovan said the loss from the events of a century ago had resonated for decades beyond 1926.
“It is not a thing of history, forgotten and resigned to irrelevance and dust,” he said.
“No, it is a thing of today, it lives among us still.” The eerie coincidence that the 1981 Stardust disaster had also cost 48 lives was noted by Mr O’Donovan, and he welcomed some of the survivors of the St Valentine’s night fire that gutted an Artane nightclub, killing 48 young people.
“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making what we know is a very difficult journey for you here to Limerick, and I know that the people here appreciate your presence,” he said.
The Dromcollogher Community Choir performed One Touch of Nature – an original commission by composer Liam Bates.
Local young people from Hazelwood College recited reflections by Thomas Moore and local poet Michael Hartnett.
The names of each of those who perished in the Dromcollogher fire were recited by master of ceremonies Bryan Dobson, who chairs the Commemorations Advisory Committee.
Prayers were led by the Defence Forces Head Chaplain, Rev Fr Paschal Hanrahan HCF.
Mr Martin unveiled a commemorative plaque and planted a rowan tree, assisted by students Sadie Scollard, Amelia Nix and Daithi Noonan, all from Scoil Naomh Iosef.
Mr Martin and Mr O’Donovan laid a wreath at the mass grave outside St Bartholomew’s, where 46 of the victims were laid to rest.
This was followed by a minute’s silence, the Last Post, the raising of the National Flag and the National Anthem.
After the ceremony, Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan laid her own wreath, a white heart shape, with the number 48 picked out in red.
She was 18 when she survived the fire that killed 48 people – among them her sisters Mary (19) and Martina (16).
Later on Saturday evening, Dromcollogher Library, which was constructed at the site of the cinema, was illuminated and remained lit up for the night.
William R. Aherne (31) Mary Barrett (35) Mollie Barrett (10) Thomas Barrett (eight) Thomas Buckley (62) Jeremiah Buckley (52) Ellen Buckley (47) Bridget Buckley (10) Margaret Collins (60) Kate Collins (58) Kate Collins Jr (22) Mary Egan (37) Anne Fitzgerald (36) Margaret Fitzgerald (10) Daniel Fitzgerald (eight) Nora-Mary Hannigan (11) Maurice Hartnett (12) Daniel Horan (10) Violet Irwin (15) James Kenny (12) John Kenny (seven) James Kirwan (60) Margaret Kirwan (21) Nora Kirwan (18) Nora Long (60) Catherine McAuliffe (56) John McAuliffe (11) Mary McAuliffe (15) Anthony McCarthy (31) Ellen Madden (54) Ita Noonan (14) Tommie Noonan (seven) May O’Brien (24) Mary B O’Brien (51) Ellen O’Brien (18) Mary Anne O’Callaghan (61) Patrick O’Donnell (64) Nora O’Sullivan (22) Moira O’Sullivan (21) Eugene O’Sullivan (11) James Quaid (40) Willie Quirke (20) William Savage (56) Bridget Sheehan (12) Edward Stack (22) Mary Turner (73) Kate Wall (45) John J Walsh (47)
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