Extracted from The Freeman’s Journal, Dublin
January 6, 1844
MELANCHOLY FATE – EXTRAORDINARY CONCIDENCE
An inquest was held at Newtownstewart, before the coroner, MR. ORR, and a respectable jury, on Friday the 22nd ultimo, on the body of MARY GORMLY [sic], which was found in the river, a little below the town of Strabane, and which had been conveyed thither by the orders of CAPTAIN LYNCH, of the constabulary, Strabane. It appeared on the evidence that the deceased had been in company with her husband at the fair at Cranag, near the Plumbridge, whence it was supposed they were returning about eight o’clock in the evening, and having to cross the Glenelly river, which was much swollen, the deceased took her husband on her back across the river, and they were both swept down by the stream. The body of the husband, JAMES GORMLEY, was found four miles below the ford, and that of his wife was born by the current a distance of 13 miles past the town of Newtownstewart. They had been married only a few weeks. It is a remarkable circumstance that the aunt of the woman, and the uncle of the husband, man and wife, were drowned 25 years ago at the same ford under similar circumstances.