Survivor of Cleggan '27 disaster dies at 92

Connacht Tribune, Friday, April 3, 1992.

Introduction

The death last weekend of Mr.Festy Feeney of Rosadillisk, Cleggan severs the last remaining link with what was probably the worst tragedy to hit Connemara this century — the Cleggan Disaster of 1927.

Festy Feeney who reached the age of 92 when he died last weekend was the last remaining survivor from that terrible night when 25 fishermen were drowned in Cleggan Bay on the 28th of October, 1927.Festy Feeney skippered one of the four Rosadillisk boats on the Bay that Friday evening when the freak storm struck. He came ashore on Salema strand near his home.

Connemara

Sixteen men from Rosadillisk died in Cleggan Bay shortly after 7 p.m. that October evening. Nine men from Inisboffin also perished. It was a calm but cold evening in the middle of an excellent herring season giving no hint of the terrible wind which would sweep away part of a whole generation in the area.

The first indication of the winds was a roaring sea from the far side of Inisboffin and no amount of seafaring skills could save those caught in the tornado type wind.

With the death of Festy Feeney, the last living link to the Cleggan Disaster has now gone. Mr. Feeney's burial took place at Omey Cemetery.