Tragedy as Dunleer priest dies after swim
August 1916
IT was with the keenest sense of painful surprise, we might almost say of shock, to the people of Drogheda particularly, many of whom had seen him, and perhaps spoken to him in health and strength the previous afternoon, that the news was received on Friday last of the death at Bettystown at an early hour of that morning of Rev J P Branigan , CC, Dunleer, eldest son of Mr LF Branigan, Shop street.
He was a young man in the prime of his health and was just 29.
It seems that on Thursday last, he left Dunleer and made his way through Drogheda for Laytown, apparently in his usual health.
At Laytown, he accompanied his brother in a boat for the purpose of enjoying a bathe, and did plunge in from the boatside to swim.
On his returning to the boat, Mr Branigan noticed that he had difficulty in getting in, and had, in fact, to assist him into the boat.
Shortly afterwards Father Branigan became helpless and his brother, who had to assist him in dressing and to bear him up in tbe boat, got him to the shore aa quickly as possible.
On shore he was attended by Dr Tallan, who happened to be close at hand, and he was borne on a stretcher to the house at which Father Branigan’s family were stopping at Bettystown. Everything possible in the way of medical assistance was rendered by Dr Tallan and other doctors, but he succumbed at 1 o’clock on Friday morning.
He received his preliminary education at the Diocesan Seminary, Armagh, afterwards proceeding to Maynooth College for a year, and thence to the Irish College, Rome. After a successful career, he was ordained in Rome in 1911, and was appointed in 1912 as curate to Dunleer.
He was beloved by all in Danleer parish, as well as in Drogheda.
He was entirely responsible for the formation of the Dunleer Pipers’ Band, a combination of Irish musicians who enjoy more than local fame, and a touching feature of the funeral on Monday was a body of the bandsmen who marched in the cortege with draped instruments as a mark of respect to his memory.
The chief mourners were—Laurence F Branigan (father); W A Branigan and L F Branigan, jun (brothers); W J Branigan, Dublin (uncle); Edward Crinion, Beauparc (uncle).