Little is known about this next victim of the Pit Disaster, but there is some information to be had. Michael Brannan was born in 1851, the son of Irishman John Brannan, farm labourer and Catherine Haggan.
Michael came to Blantyre in either 1876 or 1877. He never married, nor had children. Like many other young Irish immigrant males, he sought employment in Blantyre’s mines. Working for Dixons Coalmasters as a coalminer, he was given a tied house at Dixons Rows, Blantyre.
It is thought he spent around a year or so in Blantyre.
Michael Brannan was brought up deceased from the pit at High Blantyre on Wednesday 24th October 1877 at 4pm, just two days after the disaster. He was just 26. With his father deceased by 1877, a cousin who lived further up the street, signed Michael’s death certificate. Michael M. Brannan was buried in Dalbeth Cemetery in Section 9.
It was reported in the Scotsman that this particular funeral was particularly sad, having very few spectators. Such commentary in newspapers was common place, reporters finding a story in even the smallest detail of this terrible disaster. Perhaps his distraught mother from Ireland was amongst that small attendance.
