February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Dr. William Watson of Immaculata University is leading the effort to find out whether the workers died of cholera, or, in some cases, from deliberate negligence or violence from local vigilante groups.
Excavation work on the site has already uncovered a piece of the track from 1832 as well as other artifacts including a belt buckle, a coin, pickaxes and all kinds of spikes and nails.
The artifacts are being shipped to Pennsylvania’s railroad museum near Starsburg for further examination.
The burial site, in a place known as “Duffy’s Cut,” covers roughly an acre. The exact whereabouts of the remains of the Irish workers within the boundaries of the site is unknown, so the excavation has been a slow and painstaking process.
However, one find could turn into the major breakthrough desired by Watson and his colleagues.
“We found a bone using ground radar. We’re not sure yet if it is animal or human but if human it is the bone of a child,” Watson said.
The bone was found about five feet under the surface.
Watson believes that some of the Irish workers at Duffy’s Cut might have been buried alive during the stage of cholera known as cold cholera.
During this stage of the disease, it is possible to appear dead, though the individual is still alive.
Watson also suspects that some people may have been murdered by local vigilante groups who were violently hostile toward Irish immigrants.
Separate to the excavation at Duffy’s Cut, Watson and his team have been working to trace the arrival of the rail workers through shipping records for the port of Philadelphia.
The team has uncovered records for the arrivals of eight ships in Philadelphia at the time, all carrying immigrants from Ireland.
Most of the immigrants were natives of counties Tyrone, Derry and Donegal. According to Watson, almost all of these new arrivals were skilled workers.
Only one ship carried unskilled workers. It was a barque called the “John Stamp,” most of its passengers hailing from Donegal and Tyrone.
Watson believes it was this vessel that carried the ultimately doomed Irish rail workers across the Atlantic.
Any confirmed human remains uncovered at the dig site will be studied by the county coroner’s office, and possibly by a cultural anthropologist from Ireland.
There is also the possibility that facial reconstruction might be carried out if intact skulls are recovered.
NEW HEARING DATE
A pre-trial hearing in the case of a man accused of fatally shooting Monaghan native Eugene McMahon on a Queens street was adjourned by consent last week.
June 2 has been set for the next hearing in Queens Supreme Court where Taiquan Williams has pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder and robbery.
Williams is charged with fatally shooting McMahon during a botched robbery attempt in the early hours of Aug. 9, 2002.
Williams was already serving a 1-to-3 year term at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility near Albany for weapons possession when he was indicted for murdering McMahon.
He confessed to his involvement in McMahon’s death when questioned by detectives investigating the robbery.
McMahon, who was 46, was working a night shift supervisor for the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Water and Sewers and was in his official car when he was shot once in the head and mortally wounded. He was married with three children.
Williams faces up to 25 years to life if convicted on the most serious charge.
A month prior to the shooting, Williams was released on parole after serving four years for stealing property and drug possession. In late 2003, Williams was back in jail after being arrested for shooting his gun in the air.
FIFTY URGE 500K
Fifty members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have backed a proposed allocation of $500,000 for the George Mitchell scholarship program.
The fifty have conveyed their support for the funding to the leaders of the various congressional appropriations committees.
The number of pledged congressional supporters was a record total, said Trina Vargo, president of the US-Ireland alliance, the group that allocates scholarships.
The program, named after former senator George Mitchell, architect of the Good Friday agreement, was inaugurated in 1998 with an initial endowment from the Irish government.
Twelve scholarships are awarded each year to selected U.S. college students who then spend a year at an Irish university.