Funeral of murdered 1832 Duffy’s Cut female victim in Co Tyrone this week

The remains of a 29-year-old County Tyrone woman, murdered 183 years ago in the US, will be brought home and buried this week.
Catherine Burns was one of 57 Irish immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone, and Derry who were hired to build a railway between Philadelphia and Columbia.
The site is known as Duffy’s Cut.
Within six weeks of their arrival all 57 Irish immigrants were dead of cholera and, possibly, violence.
They were buried anonymously in a mass grave.
In 1832, Burns, a widow at the age of 29, immigrated to America with her father-in-law, laborer John Burns, on board the ship John Stamp. After two trying months at sea, they arrived in Philadelphia on June 23, 1832.
Catherine was one of 70 residents from Co Tyrone among the 160 passengers. Within eight weeks of their arrival, Catherine and John disappeared from the historic record.
But now thanks to the Duffy’s Cut Project Burns’ remains will be laid to rest at Clonoe, near Coalisland, County Tyrone.
On Friday the town of Clonoe will come together to lay Burns to rest. She is the second of the Duffy’s Cut victims to be identified and buried at home in Ireland.
The first body identified was that of 18-year-old John Ruddy from Donegal, who was re-interred at Holy Family Cemetery in Ardara, County Donegal on March 2, 2013.