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Carrickmakeegan tragedy as it is known happened on the 23rd of August 1942 in the town land of Ballinamore, County Leitrim in the Republic of Ireland. The resulting tragedy cost the lives of six young people who drowned while in a small boat on a canal about half a mile from Garadice Lake.
The youngsters cycled to the spot on a Sunday afternoon from Ballinamore. It was not their intention to go boating, but the party of thirteen youngsters saw a local man Vincie Keegan on the side of the canal with his boat and decided to board it. What happened next resulted in a catastrophic tragedy. Apparently the boat was too small for the large number of passengers and badly lopsided with too many passengers on one side. The boat lopsided spilling the majority of the youngsters into the canal. Valiant efforts were made to rescue the youngsters by the boats owner Vincie Keegan and others who came to the scene. As the alarm spread around the countryside more rescuers came to the scene but to little avail for six of the youngsters could not be resuscitated.
It became a national tragedy for so many had died that day. Obviously the small town land of Ballinamore and surrounding area were plunged into mourning and for several days and the entire town was shut down with shops and local business’s closing. Almost all the towns’ population would have known one of the dead youngsters or more which made the tragedy a very personal and had a deep and everlasting impact on Ballinamore.
At a bridge overlooking the site of the tragedy a small memorial plaque has been inserted into to bridge structure inscribing the names of those who died that day.