The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe
IN MARCH 2020, Pat Gallagher had an idea. He asked his brother, Owen, what he thought of writing a book about the family of their father, James Gallagher, who grew up in the early decades of the 20th century in the West of Ireland in the small town of Ballinrobe, County Mayo. The shutdown from COVID-19 was just beginning, and the thinking was they would have more time on their hands than usual. What better way to spend quarantine than exploring the stories of our aunts, uncles and other relatives. The task turned out to be much more complicated (and rewarding) than anticipated. It involved sifting through ship manifests, census, birth and marriage records, newspaper archives, and, most enjoyable, sessions delving into the memories of extended-family members. Sorely missed was the chance to hear first-hand the tales from our deceased cousins John O'Brien and Pete Gallagher. This book's stories and more than 500 images are the result of the past year's journey. The goal was both simple and ambitious: making the memories of the Gallaghers of Ballinrobe ours forever.
IN MARCH 2020, Pat Gallagher had an idea. He asked his brother, Owen, what he thought of writing a book about the family of their father, James Gallagher, who grew up in the early decades of the 20th century in the West of Ireland in the small town of Ballinrobe, County Mayo. The shutdown from COVID-19 was just beginning, and the thinking was they would have more time on their hands than usual. What better way to spend quarantine than exploring the stories of our aunts, uncles and other relatives.
The task turned out to be much more complicated (and rewarding) than anticipated. It involved sifting through ship manifests, census, birth and marriage records, newspaper archives, and, most enjoyable, sessions delving into the memories of extended-family members. Sorely missed was the chance to hear first-hand the tales from our deceased cousins John O'Brien and Pete Gallagher. This book's stories and more than 500 images are the result of the past year's journey. The goal was both simple and ambitious: making the memories of the Gallaghers of Ballinrobe ours forever.
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Aunt Catherine's wedding party begins the short walk down Valley Road to St. John the Evangelist Church
for her marriage ceremony in 1958. From left are nurse and friend Lena Marinelli, ring-bearer Bart Gilson,
Bayard Hoopes, Ann Gallagher, Ann (Hoopes) Gilson and Dot (Hartman) Conticello.
Room at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, and at the start
of World War II was declared essential personnel by the
hospital. Aunt Catherine boarded at the nursing school
residence and continued living there after graduating. It’s
unclear why she and one other girl did so. It could have
been because of the distance from Hockessin to
Wilmington, the lack of a car, no bus service or the war.
Aunt Catherine kept a newspaper clipping from
her time as a nurse showing her working a blood drive in
1956. She also was mentioned in the News Journal in a
brief item in 1952. She was the driver of a car that struck a
girl walking at Ninth and Market streets in Wilmington.
Just to be safe, she took Barbara Silver, 11, of 3017 Van
Buren St., to St. Francis, but the girl was uninjured.
Aunt Catherine said nothing ever bothered her in
the ER except the one time her Grandfather George May
was hurt in a fall on the railroad tracks and brought in while
she was on duty. At the hospital, everyone called her Cathy.
Cathy Hoopes had a reputation for being kind to
younger nurses and for keeping her composure when events
got hectic. Once, a fellow nurse, Mrs. Francis DeJulius,
was brought into the ER on a stretcher with blood all over
the sheets after putting her hand through a barber shop
window. She had fallen while holding her young son and
was trying to protect him. Aunt Catherine was able to calm
the patient and those around her by asking her friend, in her
kindest of voices, “DeJulius, what did you do to yourself?”
Patsy remembers Aunt Catherine as totally
devoted to what she was doing but with the ability to
switch seamlessly from the professional to the personal. At
St. Francis, Patsy remembered, she was a hundred percent
Cathy Hoopes; when she left to get married, she was a
hundred percent Mrs. Gallagher. But even three or four
years after she left St. Francis, Patsy remembers a doctor,
frustrated because he couldn’t find a medicine he needed,
lamenting, “Where’s Miss Hoopes?”
MARRIAGE AND A FAMILY
After their St. Patrick’s Day blind date and
subsequent meeting of the family, Uncle Jim married Aunt
Catherine on a beautiful, sunny Sept. 6, 1958, in Hockessin.
The wedding party marched out of the Hoopes’ farmhouse
and made the short walk down Valley Road to St. John the
Evangelist Church.
In addition to Bayard and Margaret Hoopes, the
parents of the bride, the wedding party included
groomsmen Uncle Tom, Aunt Catherine’s oldest brother
Francis and Uncle Pete’s son, Pete. The bridesmaids were
Aunt Ann Gallagher, Catherine’s sister Ann Gilson and Dot
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