A tragic early-morning accident near her home resulted in the grisly death of a mother of eight on the edge of Waterford City in November 1946.

Hannah O’Brien of Lower Ferrybank was picking up cinders for firing from a heap of ashes close to the railway line at the marsh, not far from the electric ferry, on the north side of the River Suir. A special ballast train carrying ashes (clinkers) for the filling up of the marshy ground in the vicinity of the proposed new bus depot site, had just come in shortly before, and was at a standstill.

In the course of his duties, the driver of the train began shunting operations. Mrs. O’Brien, who was preoccupied with her task of picking odds-and-ends of fuel, was either unconscious of the movement of the five laden wagons, to which she was in close proximity, or hadn’t time to jump to safety.

She was struck by the wagons and knocked down, the lower part of her body lying on one of the rails of the permanent way.

The poor woman had no time to extricate herself from her perilous plight and one side of the train’s wheels passed over her, ultimately with fatal consequences. She was administered to at the scene by Rev. P. Halley, C.C., Ferrybank, before being removed by ambulance.

Denis O’Brien, chief clerk, Operations Department, C.I.E. and Church Road, Tramore, gave a blood transfusion in an effort to save the deceased. However, Mrs. O’Brien, 50, succumbed to her awful injuries at the Waterford County Hospital that evening.

Her heartbroken husband, dock worker William, was present at the Coroner’s Inquest the next day. He told how on the morning of the tragedy she told him she was going to pick cinders in the railway siding in the Marsh Field. About 50 or 60 men, women and children were doing likewise, divided into groups along the train.

Evidence was given that people had been warned against doing so. Mary Sutton, 68, told how when the train stopped, she crawled under a wagon to get to the other side and Hannah went after her but got caught by the last wagon.

Mrs. Sutton said her son was prosecuted the previous summer and “I knew we should not be there”.