Opinion

Righting a historical wrong

The weekend burial of a Tyrone woman in her native county almost two centuries after she was murdered within weeks of emigrating to the US was a hugely poignant occasion.

Catherine Burns (29) left home in 1832 in search of the American dream, but is thought to have been killed because some residents near Philadelphia wrongly suspected that her group of newly arrived Irish railway workers was the source of a cholera epidemic.

Her remains lay in an unmarked grave ever since until they were excavated in 2010 as part of academic research into the deaths of the 57 Irish people who died either through cholera or violence at a site known as Duffy's Cut.

Great credit is due to all those who helped to organise the funeral Mass in Clonoe, which, as one participant said, helped to right a historical wrong.