The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe

“Once I culled a bunch of shamrocks
In the golden long ago
While my heart was throbbing wildly,
Struggling with itself to know
If it were right for me to send them
To a dear one far away,
Just to wear in loving token
Of a coming Patrick’s Day.”
A cherished memory of Aunt Nora for her nieces
and nephews in America were the shamrocks and small
medals and pins she would reliably send from Ireland when
St. Patrick’s Day came around each year. Those gifts, as
well as the many letters she would write to her brothers and
sisters and their families across the sea, were an indication
of Nora’s generous heart and love of family. She was
always willing to make personal sacrifices to help others.
If Aunt Delia was the matriarch of the family in
America, Aunt Nora served that role back in Ireland. She
stayed at home and did not marry until after her parents
died in 1942. She likely saw off each of her six brothers
and sisters when they left for America. More than anyone,
she reliably kept in touch with them about the latest
happenings in Ballinrobe. Six years after her parents died,
she married Pat Murphy, who became a great friend of
Uncle Owen, soon Nora’s lone brother remaining on the
family farm. She cared for Owen and her husband until she
passed away in 1980.
Pictures of Nora as a young woman attest to her
closeness to her brothers, sisters and cousins. By all
accounts, her younger sister Ann felt a strong bond. One
photo, which starts this chapter, shows the pair sitting on a
stone wall in a field, maybe around 1940. Aunt Ann would
not yet have been 20 years old. A broadly smiling Ann
looks very pleased, if a little chilly. She wears a fairly light
jacket, with her arms folded to keep herself warm. She
holds a card or letter in her right hand. To her right, is Aunt
Nora, looking cozy in a heavier woolen coat. She has a
patient smile on her face, seeming to enjoy whatever had
Aunt Ann in such a pleasant mood that day.
Nora, or Honor, or Honora -- the name just sounds
Irish -- had a way of charming people. When her Aunt
Annie Sheridan came home from America for a visit, she
developed a strong affection for young Nora and later
offered to pay for her ticket if she would come to America.
Nora declined the offer, with potential reasons ranging
from wanting to help her parents to having a boyfriend. The
decision allowed Aunt Delia to be the first of her generation
to emigrate, in 1924.
Aunt Nora’s communications with her family in
At top are some of the medals Aunt Nora would send to
her nieces and nephews in America. Above, Uncle Jim's
daughter Margaret wears one the pins on her uniform
for St. Thomas the Apostle School in 1971.
America usually focused on what was going on at the
moment. But she would occasionally grow nostalgic. She
once explained to niece Patsy DeAscanis that the Gallagher
children in Cornaroya would know Christmas was coming
when the piece of furniture called a settle bed would be
folded up to use for extra seating. Christmas dinner would
include lamb or duck garnished with slices of oranges.
Another tradition was helping set up the manger scene at
St. Mary’s Church. In a letter only months before she died,
Aunt Nora wrote to Patsy about the great happiness the
season could bring. It is typical of how family was always
her focus.
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