The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe

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TOM GALLAGHER
1914-1994
Pictures from when he was a boy in Ballinrobe and from his brother Jim’s wedding in America show Uncle Tom in a
familiar pose – with his arms crossed. At the wedding, he is between his sister Delia and nephew John O'Brien.
There is a grainy picture from the 1920s of four
young children sitting on a wall somewhere in Ballinrobe.
Three are identified on the back of the photo as cousin
Tommy King, Aunt Mary and cousin Delia Connell. The
fourth, a boy between Mary and Delia, is listed as Tommy
Gallagher. In discussions of the photo, an initial thought was
the boy might be Eugene Gallagher’s brother Tommy, the
son of “Peter Gallagher Next Door.”
But it soon became clear that Tommy was our
Uncle Tom. Patsy DeAscanis was the first to recognize him
– “That shock of hair is how I remember him,” she said. The
other telltale sign was how the boy had his arms crossed in
front of him. It was a favorite pose recognizable from other
times and photos. It is the same one he strikes in a video
from his brother Jim’s wedding in 1958. Shortly after that
ceremony, Uncle Jim had the person with the video camera
pan across a lineup of his family attending the wedding,
apparently recognizing the opportunity to record a slice of
family history. There was Uncle Tom, stylishly dressed in
his tuxedo, with his arms crossed, a cigarette in one hand
and a confident, charming smile on his face. Patsy described
the look as “almost as if he is holding strong feelings inside
while appearing debonair from the shoulders up.”
That was Uncle Tom.
We don’t really want to call any one of the brothers
and sisters from his generation of Gallaghers a favorite, but
Uncle Tom would have to be in the running.
Uncle Tom arrived in America on
May 28, 1940. The following
January, he served as best man for
his brother Pat's wedding.
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