The Titanic's Tralee Doctor.
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FRIENDS TO HONOUR HIS MEMORY. |
| Queenstown, Monday. |
It is a pleasure to know that the many memorials which are to be raised in
connection with the Titanic disaster, the popular Irish physician, Dr F N
O'Loughlin is not to be forgotten. In him the White Star Company lost the doyen
of their medical service—their loved Commodore, one of the most lovable of
men. Although well advanced in years, Dr O'Loughlin was full of the ardour of
youth. He knew no dull moments and always looked at the bright side of things.
One of the last scenes on the deck of the Titanic is said to
have been a sad one, namely that of a group of officers, including Dr
O'Loughlin, the two pursers of [sic] their assistants, and some others, all
joined in arms waited the final plunge of the great ship they were on.
The following notice of the proposed memorial to Dr O'Loughlin
appears in the “New York Herald”.—
“As a memorial to the late Dr William Francis Norman
O'Loughlin, surgeon of the Titanic, friends in New York have put under way a
movement to establish a pathological laboratory at St Vincent's Hospital,
Seventh avenue and Eleventh-street. For this institution, Dr O'Loughlin had a
special affection, and to it he sent his patients when in port.”
Already several subscriptions have been promised, and the
committee hopes that the many friends of Dr O'Loughlin in America, Ireland,
England and France will join in the project. A tablet is to be placed in the
laboratory commemorative of Dr O'Loughlin's life and heroic death, and
expressing something of the affection in which his memory is cherished. |
Sad Drowning Fatality.
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| A sad drowning fatality occurred at Inch on Thursday
evening. It appears from the meagre account to hand that a number of students
from the Killarney Seminary went on an excursion to Inch, and during the evening
some of the youths went for a bathe. Timothy O'Connor, son of Mr Timothy
O'Connor, The Square, Kenmare, was seen to have got into difficulties, and his
shouts for help were responded to by two fellow students who reached him in good
time. The two brave youngsters, whose names have not reached us, were swimming
with their exhausted comrade when a huge wave swamped the three, and poor Connor
was not seen again. The two brave would-be rescuers reached the shore after
considerable difficulty. The body of young O'Connor has not, up to the time of
writing been recovered. |
The Recent Illness of Mr T Gibson, Listowel.
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HIS RECOVERY AND WELCOME HOME.
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| After an absence of five months in the metropolis, through
illness, Mr Thomas Gibson has returned to his splendid and well-known
establishment and home in Listowel fully, we are glad to say, recovered to
health and vigour. Mr Gibson was, needles to say, in the hands of the best
members of the medical faculty in Dublin, including his own talented and able
son, the distinguished master of the Coombe Hospital, and as a result of this,
of course, considerably aided by his own magnificent constitution, we have once
more amongst us one of Listowel's most popular and genial citizens. |
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A Tralee Surgeon's Memory Honoured.
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REQUIEM MASS. |
In the University College Chapel, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, on Monday,
the memory of a former student of the old Catholic University (of which the
present institution is the legal successor), Dr Wm F N O'Loughlin, was honoured
by a solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul. Dr O'Loughlin was chief
surgeon of the ill-fated ship Titanic, the details of whose loss on the 14th
April two continents are deeply interested in. He went down with his ship at the
post of duty. He was well known to the older alumni of the Cecilia Street
Medical School, who held him in high esteem. The Rev Dr Hickey, Dean in
residence, was the celebrant of the Mass. The choir was composed of clericals
and students, and Mr Dillon Kelly presided at the organ.
The Rev P J Walsh, M.A., delivered a brief panegyric of the
deceased doctor. The wreck of the Titanic, he said, was the most appalling and
disastrous in the history of the mercantile marine. Dr O'Loughlin was commodore
surgeon in the service of the White Star line, a distinguished student of the
Catholic University of Ireland. In 1869 Mr O'Loughlin completed his course at
the Cecilia Street School, and one would naturally expect that he ought to have
received from his University a medical degree. But the Catholic University had
neither public endowment nor a charter from the Monarch enabling her to confer
degrees. He could obtain no medical degree from his own University. To Trinity
College, a Protestant institution by its general flavour and complexion, he
would not go, and consequently, like many another distinguished Catholic student
in those days, he obtained no University degree, but only a license to practice.
He became a licentiate of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians in
Ireland. Dr O'Loughlin, though he protested against the continuance of
Protestant domination, did not in private complain of the bar to professional
advancement which the sacrifice he made might have entailed. Had Dr O'Loughlin
survived, the rev preacher felt confident that he would receive a degree from
the National University—a medical degree—against obtaining which in his
student days his uncompromising Catholicity had been his only bar.
There was a large congregation. Among the clergy present were:—
Right Rev Monsignor Fitzpatrick, Very Rev Dr Watters, Very Rev
N J Brennau (Blackrock College), Very Rev J Cogan (Terenure), Very Rev T
O'Hanlon (Rathmines), Rev Canon Dunne (Clonliffe College), Rev G O'Neill, S.J. ;
Rev W F Byrne, O.C.C. ; Rev M Dwyer, Rev P J Hooke, Rev Prof Shine.
Among the laity were:—
Sir Christopher Nixon, Vice-Chancellor National University ;
Dr D J Coffey, Right Hon Dr Cox, Sir Joseph M'Grath, Mr A W Conway, Mr Swift
M'Neill, K.C., M.P. ; Mr A M Sullivan, K.C. ; Prof R Donovan, Prof Cadic, Mr
Hugh MacNeill, B.A. ; Dr J F Knott, Dr M'Walter (Alderman), Mr J W Bacon, Dr P J
O'Farrell, Mr W S Meade, F.R.C.S.I.
[Dr W F N O'Loughlin, the senior surgeon of ss Titanic, and
who went down with her on the morning of the 15th April, was born in Tralee. He
was second son of the late Mr Wm O'Loughlin, and grandson of the late Mr
Benjamin Mathews, of Nelson-street, Tralee.] |
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