Margaret Devaney
By: Jessica Kirchner

Margaret Devaney was a nineteen-year-old third class passenger, whose ticket number was 330958. She was traveling with her friends, Mary Burns and Kate Hargadon. Margaret and her friends boarded the Titanic at Queenstown. She was leaving her home in Kilmcowen, Ireland to live in New York City where her two sisters and brother lived.

The girls found out that the Titanic was sinking by a friend from their homeland. When they saw that the gate to the second class was closed, they found a ladder from the Aft Well deck to the second class decks. After they were on the second class decks, one of her friends was seasick.

While her other friend stayed with the sick one, Margaret kept on going. Once she had found a lifeboat, she was going to go back for her friends.  However, while standing near the crowd around collapsible C, she was pushed into the boat, and she was not able to return for her friends. While the boat was lowering, it got caught on one of the ships rivets. The crew members had a hard time getting the boat loose from the rivets. Margaret found that she was carrying the pocket knife that her youngest brother gave to her before she left on the Titanic so she gave it to the crew and they were able to cut themselves free.

After Margaret was rescued, she went to live in New York City and then married John Joseph O’Neill in 1919. Once they married, they moved to Jersey City, New Jersey. They also had six children, and two of them died when they were kids.  Margaret and John had sons named Matthew and John J., and had two daughters whose names I do not know.  After her husband died, she moved to Clifton, NJ. Margaret Devaney O’Neill (otherwise know as Peggy O’Neill) died on June 12, 1974. She was 82 years old. Her daughter, Helen Landsberg, still lives in Clifton, NJ.

Works Cited

Geller "Miss Margaret Delia Devaney." Encyclopedia Titanica. 8 Apr 2008 <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/777/>.

Geller, Judith. Titanic Women and Children First.  London: Haynes Publishing, 1998.