Six relatives of Nora's: Patrick Lyndon and his sister Mary along with Michael Scanlon and his three sisters, Mary, Katie and Bridget Scanlon, were among 17 people drowned on 15 August 1893 in a boating accident on the Shannon near Tarbert.
Fifteen young people from the area had hired two boats to take them the three miles from Tarbert to Co. Clare on an excursion. It was the Feast of the Assumption, traditionally a day of celebration at the end of the year's harvest. One of the boatmen didn't turn up on the morning of the 15th, so all the passengers crowded onto the other boat with the second boatman and his son. On the way across, the boat began to take in water through some loose laths, but the passengers bailed it out with their boots and they made it across.
They weren't so lucky on the way back that evening. There was a strong tide and when the boat was within a few hundred yards of the shore, it was seen to drift downriver. Cries and shouting were heard on shore, but they were taken to be cries of excitement rather than cries for help, and the alarm wasn't raised until the next day. It was too late - there were no survivors. The tragedy was a devastating blow for the Tarbert area, and for many years afterwards, people refused to go boating on the Shannon on 15 August. A plaque in memory of the victims was erected on the coast road near Tarbert about 1993.
