Mary Agatha Glynn

Miss Mary Agatha Glynn ¹ was born in Slieveanore², Scarriff, Co Clare, Ireland on 4 August 1893.³

She was the daughter of Patrick "Pat" Glynn (b. 1856), a farmer, and Ellen Guilfoyle (b. 18 April 1867). Her parents had married in Clonusker Roman Catholic Chapel on 5 March 1889 and bore thirteen children, ten of whom survived infancy.

Mary's siblings were: Patrick (b. 8 April 1890), John (b. 7 July 1891), James (b. 22 June 1895), Kate (b. 4 May 1897), Ellen (b. 13 July 1898), Anne (b. 10 July 1899), Bridget (b. 7 November 1901), Thomas (b. 17 July 1903), Margaret (b. 15 December 1904), Michael (b. 10 August 1906), William (b. 29 August 1908) and Peter (b. 7 August 1909). 

Her sister Ellen lived only a week and died due to convulsions on 20 July 1898. Sister Margaret was only a month old when she died on 8 January 1905. The baby of the family, Peter, lived three weeks and died on 27 August 1909, also from convulsions. 

The family appear on the 1901 census living at house 4 in Slieveanore and on the 1911 census at house 32 in the same locality. Mary was not present with her family at the time of the latter record and was listed elsewhere as a domestic servant in a hotel in Scarriff, Co Clare.

Mary boarded the Titanic at Queenstown on 11 April 1912 as a third class passenger (ticket number 335677 which cost £7, 15s). Her destination was to Washington, DC where she had a cousin, Mrs D. Courtney at 715 North Capitol Street. Whilst aboard she shared a cabin with three Co Cavan girls, Mary McGovern, Julia Smyth and Kate Connolly. She may also have known the only other person from Co Clare travelling third class, Martin McMahon.

On the night of the sinking Mary related that she and her cabin mates felt the sensation of the ship striking something. Enquiring from passing crewmen as to if they were in any danger, they were reportedly ridiculed for their anxiety and told to go back to their bunks. Shortly after however they were told otherwise they left their cabin and went into the communal third class areas. In terror, she and her friends knelt in prayer but a man she identified as Martin Gallagher, a Galway man, found them and led them into a second class area of the ship. She and the other three girls from her cabin were rescued in lifeboat 13. Mary described the perilous moment that the lifeboat, unable to release itself from the falls once lowered, was threatened with being crushed by lifeboat 15 which was lowering rapidly overhead. She also claimed to hear the orchestra play Nearer My God to Thee.

Mary eventually reached America aboard the rescue ship Carpathia and was described as a 19-year-old maid and her destination was to the home of her cousin Mary Courtney at 715 North Capitol Street, Washington, DC. She spent time in hospital to recuperate and also received modest monetary assistance from the American Red Cross before she continued her journey to Washington where she remained.

Mary soon met her future husband, Patrick Joseph O'Donoghue (b. 2 November 1887), a streetcar conductor from Co Kerry who had emigrated in 1907, and the couple were married in the US capital on 18 October 1917 and made their home there where her husband later managed a restaurant.

They had six surviving children: Margaret Mary (1918-2007), Ellen Mary (1920-1983), Katherine Ann (1921-1988), Patrick Joseph (1926-1959), Nicholas John (1927-1988) and Francis James (1932-1973). Their last born child, a son, was stillborn on 31 January 1934.

Mary died whilst visiting her daughter in St Petersburg, Florida on 26 February 1955. She was aged 61 and was later buried in Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Washington, DC. Her widower Patrick died just over a year later on 10 October 1956.

Her parents had remained in Ireland, living in the Slieveanore area; her father died 5 July 1923 and her mother on 10 February 1946.