The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-08 00:00:00

FURTHER PARTICULARS

We yesterday published an account of a frightfiul accident
which happened on the Great Southern and Western Rail-
way of Ireland, on Wednesday night. We now give more
detailed particulars of the deplorable event, including the
proceedings at the inquest, which was opened yesterday.
Since the announcement of the fatal occurrence, quite
a gloom has been cast over the city. People talk of
nothing else. This being actually the first terrible
accident of the kind in Ireland, has infused a sort of horror
into everybody, and indeed there :are only few in Dublin,
who have not some friends or acquaintances in some wav
injured by this calamity. There have been thirteen death's
up to the piesent, but there are six more still in a preca-
rious state, five at Stephens's hospital in Dublin, and one
at Straffan, the place near which the accident happened.
It is said there are altogether about fifty people, more or
less injured. There have been eleven bodies already iden-
tified, namely those of Mr. M'Sweeney, solicitor, and his
wife, Kenmare ; Mr. T. W. Jelly, of Straboe, Queen's
County, one of the most extensiye farmers in Ireland;
Mr. Egan, Shopkeeper, Parsonstown ; Mr. Christopher
M'Nally, a solicitor in very good practice in Dublin ; Mr.
Bateman, Cork ; Joseph Sherwood ; with the following
ladies :—Clare Kerwan, Abbey-street, Dublin; Margaret
Leathby, Eccles-street, Dublin ; Mrs. Knapp and Miss
Palmer, English ladies. On the body of another lady, a
prayer-book has been found with the name of Kate
Hamilton Plaines ; and there also remains the corpse of a
gentleman unknown.

- Captain Collis, master of the Times steamer, which, it
will be recollected, was blown up a short time since, near
the Pigeon-house fort, was amongst the passengers. . He
appears to have acted, after the fatal occurrence, in a manner
which cannot be too much lauded. He exerted himself
most strenuously in extricating the wounded passengers,
and, but for his presence of mind, many more lives, as will
be seen, might have been lost. He has given a clear and
succint account of all the circumstances, which, in itself
shows how well he must have retained his self-possession all
through. Captain Collis states, that shortly after passing '
Pallins station, which is about twenty miles from Dublin,
the train stopped, and he, with five others, got out to ascer-
tain the cause. They then discovered that something was
the matter with the engine, which hindered its further pro-
gress, and that, as a goods train was expected within half-
an-hour Mr. Croker Barrington, one of the solicitors of
the Company, who happened to be a passenger, had sent a
man back with a red signal light, as a warning to the driver
of the goods train engine. The messenger had been gone
from ten to fifteen minutes," proceeds Captain Collis, "when
we saw the lights of the cattle train approaching. We all
thought of course, it was coming along quite slow. Mr. Jelly,•
who had got out, stepped back into the doorway of his carriage
In it also were two English ladies, the wife and sister of an,
English gentleman. They wanted to get out, but Mr. Jelly
bid them not stir, as he was going to get in himself. Mr..
Kelly, another gentleman, was also about to step in, he
having left his carrirge pr eviously, when I said : " Stop a
little, there is no hurry ; the train will not go without some
warning, and, at all events, you and I are active enough to
jump on it if it should ; but just wait till this train comes
up." "Oh ! " said he, "it is merely walking up to us ; "
but, nevertheless, he waited. I stepped close to the line,
and cast my eye along, when I saw, by the reflection of the
light upon the shining rails, that it was coming at full speed,
and I heard by the beat of the engine that the steam was
not eased off. lat once shouted out, " Good God!" she is
coming at full speed—look out, look out ! " and I jumped
over the wire fence into the field, and looked around me.
I saw the cattle train running right into the last carriage of
the passenger train, indeed through it. In an instant all
was in a pile of ruin.. I ran back and saw the driver of the
cattle train, who seemed horrified at the frightful calamity.
I asked him was he hurt ? He replied, " No, but I'll never
get over it." He then proceeded to assist the wounded
passengers. I perceived that the steam was being generated,
and that in a minute more we would all be blown away by
the explosion of the engine, andl sang out for the engineer and
bid himblow off the steam. He did so, and then we set to work."
Captain Collis then gives an appalling description of the
scene of ruin which he witnessed. They first found the dead
bodies of two women, and near them that of a priest or friar.
After extricating several ladies and gentlemen, who were
more or less severely injured, they next came to the body of
Kr. Jelly, which could hardly be recognised, his head being
torn and smashed off, his legs both cut off, his body torn up,
and his clothes torn all off him. Having adjusted the corpse,
they found the two English ladies quite dead, and mutilated
in a horrible manner. One of them had a little baby in her
arms, which was and is still alive. "We then," continues
the narrator, " went to the first-class carriage that had. been
first struck by the engine, and there we saw the bodies of
two ladie, apparently cut in two at the waist. Near.them
was the body of another lady, whose dress only we could
see, she was so buried in the ruins. The cries of a little
boy then attracted me ; he was about eight years old: He
was lying under the axletree of a carriage, which had broken
both his legs, and was lying across them. With great diffi-
culty we got him out by raising the axle with a crowbar. I