Posted online: Jun 13th, 2007

A campaign is underway to uncover the mass grave of a group of young Inishowen men believed to have been murdered in the United States.

Fifty seven men emigrated to America in 1832 after securing jobs laying a railway track in Philadelphia.

However, within six weeks, all the men were dead.

A number are understood to have died from cholera but there are suspicions that the rest were murdered by local vigilantes who were fearful the disease would spread throughout the area.

The bodies of the men were thrown into an unmarked grave, the location of which has remained a mystery since.

However, after discovering a secret file about the tragedy several years ago, two American historians are now on a crusade to find the men’s graves and have their bodies reburied in consecrated ground.

And the readers of the Inish Times are today being asked to support efforts to raise the $20,000 (15,000 euro) needed to fund the expensive search operation.

The majority of the men were from Inishowen but there were also emigrants from Derry and Tyrone on board the John Stamp ship which left Derry port in June 1832 for American.

Most of the men were aged between 18 and 25.

They had been promised jobs on the Philadelphia rail track by an Irish contractor Phillip Duffy.

Their job was to fill in a deep ravine so the track could be laid across the land, which became known as Duffy’s Cut.

None of the men’s families ever heard from them again after they left for America.

Derry man Brian Hegarty is taking a keen interest in the tragedy of the Duffy’s Cut men.

His family is originally from Inch Island and many of his descendants emigrated to America, including at least one who worked laying rail tracks around the same time as the Duffy’s Cut crew.

Mr Hegarty said it was a tragic tale of abuse and murder.

“These young men left Ireland for the promises of riches and a better life but ended up dead within weeks,” he said.

“While it may be true that some of them had contracted chorlera, there is no way that the disease killed all of them.

“There is a deep suspicions that a lot of them were murdered by local vigilantes who resented these men, who would only have spoken gaelic, coming to work in their area.

“These Irish men were basically treated as slaves and their lives would have been seen as expendable.”

Mr Hegarty said it was only through luck that the truth about the men’s fate had been discovered.

“Two men, Bill and Frank Watson, were going through files belonging to their grandfather, who had worked for the railway company, when they found a file entitled Duffy’s Cut which outlined what had happened the men.

“Bill and Frank have done a lot of research into the tragedy and they have pinpointed an area where they believe the mass grave is.

“However, they need to raise $20,000 to fund the very hi-tech operation which is needed to locate the exact area.

“If they are successful, the bodies will be exhumed, identified and reburied in consecrated ground.”

He appealed for support from people in Inishowen.

“Many, if not all, of all these young people will have relatives living in the peninsula.

“It would be great if we could get this money together as soon as we can in order to get the work underway in a bid to give these men the dignified burial which they didn’t get 170 years ago.”