Mayo memories: From Muckanagh to New York in 1929

By Tom Gillespie

IN the Parke & Turlough magazine ‘Yesterday & Today 1911-2011’, Eileen Tolan (nee McHale) recalled this story of her parents in Muckanagh in the 1950s.

Her mother Eileen was born on January 15, 1908, in Cuingmor, Foxford, and travelled at the age of 20 to Philadelphia, USA, in 1929. She returned in 1932 and later met Tom McHale of Muckanagh at a fair in Foxford. He had also travelled to the States and worked there for 14 years on the buses.

They were married the following year in Knockmore on April 11, 1933, and had seven children - Mary (died at five months), Sean, Seamus, Davy, Nancy (her twin died in childbirth) and Eileen.

Anybody who visited the McHale household was reminded of Eileen’s trip to the States, a part of her life that had a major impact on her. Eileen was openly too delighted to tell of her experience to anyone who had the time to listen, including the doctor and the postman.

Eileen was a true homebird, yet nevertheless decided to seek a living in the US. She brought with her, wrapped safely in a cotton napkin, some hay from Cuingmor, and Eileen to this day has that keepsake that her mother held close to her when she missed her homeland.

Her sisters had travelled to New York already and had found employment there. Eileen made her way to Cobh in Cork and boarded the US steamship the SS Adriatic on October 20, 1929, and travelled for eight nights before reaching the USA. Eileen was not a good traveller and was seasick for the entire journey.

Before any intending passenger set sail from Ireland they had to be deemed medically fit for the journey by the health authorities and have their documentation stamped to prove it.

In Eileen’s case, there was a mistake with her documentation where it was not stamped and she had to undergo a further medical and theory exam in Ellis Island before being allowed enter the USA. If she had failed she would have been deported home to Ireland.

While most immigrants entered the United States through New York Harbour, others sailed into many ports such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Savannah, Miami and New Orleans.

First and second class passengers who arrived in New York were not required to undergo the inspection process at Ellis Island. Instead, these passengers underwent a cursory inspection aboard ship - the theory being that if a person could afford a first or second class ticket they were less likely to become a public charge in America.

The Federal Government felt that these more affluent passengers would not end up in institutions, hospitals, or become a burden on the state. However, first and second class passengers were sent to Ellis Island if they were sick or had legal problems.

This scenario was far different for 'steerage’ or third class passengers. These immigrants travelled in crowded and often unsanitary conditions near the bottom of steamships, with few amenities, often spending up to two weeks seasick in their bunks during rough Atlantic Ocean crossings.

On arrival in New York City, ships would dock at the Hudson or East River piers. First and second class passengers would disembark, pass through customs and were free to enter the United States.

The steerage and third class passengers were transported from the pier by ferry or barge to Ellis Island where everyone would undergo medical and legal inspections.

If their papers were in order and they were in reasonably good health, the Ellis Island inspection would last from three to five hours. The inspections took place in the Registry Room (or Great Hall), where doctors would briefly scan every immigrant for obvious physical ailments.

The ship’s manifest log, that had been filled out post embarkation, contained the immigrant’s name and his/her answers to 29 questions. This document was used by the legal inspectors at Ellis Island to cross-examine the immigrant during the legal or primary inspection.

The two agencies responsible for processing immigrants at Ellis Island were the United States Public Health Service and the Bureau of Immigration.

Eileen’s final question in the theory exam was: ‘What’s the capital of the United States’? She replied Washington DC.

When telling the story at home she would ask the same question of others and if the reply was Washington she took pleasure in making them wiser that it was Washington DC.

Eileen passed all tests and worked as a domestic in Philadelphia.

Eileen’s aunt Kate professed that Eileen’s heart was broken from the day she left until the day she returned.

While she was in the States, her mother, Mary Burke, passed away and this was Eileen’s great excuse to return home to Cuingmor and look after her father, Pat.

She returned home in June 1932, and married Tom McHale the following year.

Eileen McHale kept all her possessions locked in a trunk. None of the family were allowed open it. That, Eileen Tolan wrote, was why all the documentation existed in pristine condition.

Tom McHale’s day started at dawn. The cows were milked by hand before he cycled to work making roads and draining bogs for the Board of Works. When he arrived home, the farm work was waiting.

Tom was the local butcher and his job was to kill the pigs in Muckanagh and the surrounding villages.

Tom make headlines in the local and national newspapers where on June 18, 1980, when turf cutting in a nearby bog, he came across a keg of ancient bog butter which was dated by the National Museum to be nearly 3,000 years old and weighed 12 oz.

Tom and Eileen McHale lived to the ripe old age of 98 and 97 years respectively.