Mr Bernard (Barney) McCoy was born on 24 November 1887 in Carrickithara, Ballinamuck, County Longford, Ireland, the son of John McCoy and Bridget Cole.
He boarded the Titanic at Queenstown as a third class passenger (ticket number 367226, £23 5s). He was travelling to Brooklyn, New York with his siblings Agnes and Alice.
The siblings were from a large family. In 1900 older sister Agnes had come to New York along with brothers William and Patrick and another sister, Mary, had married John Hekel and settled in West New York, New Jersey. Agnes had returned to Ireland and Barney and a younger sister, Alice, were travelling together when the disaster occurred.
Bernard, Alice and Agnes were rescued in lifeboat 16.
After surviving the sinking, Barney seems to have spent most of his life in and around West New York, New Jersey and the Hekel family. He worked in a number of odd jobs and never married. When he registered for the draft in World War I he was living at 420 11th Street in West New York and described himself as being of medium height, medium weight, with brown eyes and brown hair. He was employed as a "motorman" for the public service of West New York. He enlisted in the United States Army on April 3, 1918 at Jersey City under service number 1747065 and served until his discharge from Unit 4 at Camp Dix, New Jersey on June 12, 1919. He applied for naturalization in 1920 (giving his date of birth as September 28, 1889) and claimed to have grey eyes (!). His petition was granted and he became a US citizen on 26 March, 1920. He states also that he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall with fair complexion.
Barney later worked in a laundry and when his health failed went to a Veteran's Hospital in the Bronx where he died on 19 July 1945. He was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery.