In April I visited the Donegal Tunnel Tigers Memorial on the grounds of St. Crona’s Church in Dungloe, County Donegal. The statue and information panels honor nearly six dozen emigrants from the county who died in overseas in tunnel and mine accidents. The list includes seven men who were killed in the United States, a small subset of the Irishmen who died below the American landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries.

A few details about these seven workers from US newspapers and other sources are found below the monument photo. They are listed in chronological order with each man’s age and place of birth and death.

The monument was dedicated in 2019.

James O’Donnell, 29, B: Crolly, D: Butte, Montana

Killed with eight other miners on November 3, 1891. The cage in the Anaconda mine shaft was overloaded with 18 to 20 men.^[1]“Hurled To Eternity”, Butte (Mont.) Daily Post, November 4, 1891.

Hugh Carney, 42, Glebe, B: Mountcharles, D: Butte

Was dislodged from the cage being lowered into the shaft at the Diamond mine on January 6, 1909. Seven other miners were in the cage when the door, said to be bolted, was torn off. Another man sustained right hand and arm injuries. The accident occurred about the 400 level of the 1,600-foot shaft.^[2]“Falling Of Gate Remains Mystery”, The Anaconda (Mont.) Standard, January 9, 1909.

Philip Boyle, 34, B: Calhame, Annagry, D: Butte

Lost his footing on a wall plate  of the Modoc mine shaft and plunged 50 feet to the sump on December 22, 1912. He had arrived from Ireland in October and only begun to work at the silver and copper mine a week earlier. He left a wife and newborn son that he had not yet seen in Donegal. “A cablegram conveying the sad news to the young mother was sent last night, bringing sorrow at the happy Christmastide.”^[3]“Killed Before He Could See Newborn Babe”, The Butte (Mont.) Miner, December 23, 1912, and “Misses His Footing, Plunges To Death”  The Anaconda (Mont.) Standard, December 23, 1912.

• Neil Doherty, 26, B: Mullaghderg, D: Butte 

Shortly before midnight June 8, 1917, fire broke out more than 2,000 feet below ground in the North Butte Mining Company’s Granite Mountain/Speculator shaft. A total of 164 (some accounts say 168) miners died as flames, smoke, and poisonous gas spread through the labyrinth of underground tunnels.^[4]Michael Punke, Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917, [New York: Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group), 2007] Contemporary newspaper accounts list Doherty’s age as 46.

• John J. McGuinness, 39, B: Molville, D: Butte

Also died in the June 1917 Speculator fire. In 2000, Stewart Norris of Molville visited Butte and located the weather-beaten wooden marker over the McGuinness grave at the Holy Cross Cemetery. Norris made arrangements for a stone marker, according to a newspaper report. The contemporary story says McGuinness was 49.^[5]“Irish visitor finds grave of friend’s grandfather, who died in Speculator fire” The Montana Standard (Butte), November 12, 2000.

Up to one quarter of Butte’s residents were from Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. They came from Mayo, Cork, and Kerry in addition to Donegal. Irish leader Eamon de Valera visited the town in 1919.

Neil Doherty and John J. McGuinness were listed among the “Identified Mine Dead.”

Cornelius Boyle, 28, B: Dungloe, D: New York City

On Friday, April 13, 1928, he was struck by a dislodged boulder while working on a subway tunnel under the East River between 53^rd Street, Manhattan, and Long Island City, Queens.^[6]“Bayonne Man Crushed To Death” Bayonne (NJ) Evening News, April 14, 1928.

Niece McCole, 32, B: Keadue, Burtonport, D: New York

The memorial panel says he was killed in 1932 in New York, though it is unclear if this was the city or state. I could not find coverage of this fatality in US and Irish newspaper databases. A coal miner named Niece McCole is mentioned in a 1906 story about Pennsylvania mine owners blocking unionized labor from their properties.^[7]“Whistles Will Blow But No Union Men Will Respond To The Summons”, Buffalo (NY) Courier, April 2, 1906.