The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe

Uncle Tom and Aunt Ann moved into their home on Champlain Avenue
around 1964. It was the site of frequent visits by their brother Jim and other
family members.
way to Mass when he was informed, presumably via
telegram from the U.S., that his brother Jim had become a
father for the first time. Pat Gallagher was born Friday Aug.
14 at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, Del. For Pat,
learning recently that Uncle Tom was in Ireland at the time,
helped him understand a story his father told him when he
was young. He knew Uncle Tom had sent his brother a
telegram congratulating him on the occasion. But why a
telegram? It finally made sense after finding out Uncle Tom
was an ocean away in Ballinrobe.
Unfortunately, the telegram concerning Pat's birth
was not the only overseas communication sent during
Uncle Tom’s 1959 visit.
On that July 19, Honor Burke died at the home of
her daughter on New Street in Ballinrobe. A High Mass
was said the next day at St. Mary’s. Honor, also known as
Honnie, was a daughter of John and Honour (Hyland)
McCormick and cousin of our grandfather. She married
Rick Burke in 1908. And Honnie was the woman who lit
the lamp at the head of the bed when our grandmother lay
after her death in 1942. A published acknowledgment a
few weeks after Honnie's death thanked those who had sent
telegrams, Mass cards and letters of sympathy to the family.
The notice specifically thanked the Sisters of Mercy and
members of the Mayo County Council. The obituary had
been copied to newspapers in America and England.
A MUGGING AND A STROKE
In addition to his real estate savvy and intellect,
Uncle Tom was very fit. Aunt Delia’s son, John O’Brien,
remembered that his uncle could hold a broomstick in his
hands and jump over it back and forth. When he would do
something like that, he had a way of smiling, as if he were
a little embarrassed that he might be showing off. One story
that sounds incredible is that Uncle Tom once walked home
to Wilmington from Lenape Park. The journey would have
been more than 20 miles from the old park, now called the
Brandywine Picnic Park off Route 52 on the Brandywine
River near West Chester, Pa. Patsy DeAscanis said that in
her mind, she would think the story could not have
happened, but in her sub-, sub-, subconscious,
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