The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe

Aunt Ann, left, and her sister Mary were the babies of the family. Their older sister
Delia would send clothes from America to keep them looking fashionable.
the dead as “men of excellent character.”
The Tourmakeady clash resulted in harsh reprisals,
adding to the local opposition to British rule. Hearing of
such stories as she grew up left Aunt Ann with a lifelong
animosity toward the Black and Tans.
As a young child, Aunt Ann would have had plenty
of family around, including cousins along the boreen in
Cornaroya. She and Mary were the babies of the large
family. But she would not turn 10 before her older siblings
Delia, Pete and Pat left for America. She was 9 when her
oldest brother, John, was killed in a bicycle accident. Seven
years after her parents died, she immigrated to America
herself, following her brother Jim by only a few months.
Before she left Ireland at 28, Aunt Ann worked for
a time as a young woman in a sweets shop in Dublin around
the same time Mary entered the convent. Ann was called
back to Ballinrobe when her mother was dying in December
1942. It would have been an unsettling time for the family,
who had lost their father just six months earlier. Aunt Ann’s
memories of the time included Honnie (McCormick) Burke,
a cousin of her father and close friend of her mother,
standing on a stool and lighting a paraffin lamp as
mourners began arriving.
It could not be determined when exactly Aunt Ann
moved to Dublin (maybe in the months after her father’s
death on July 29, 1942) or if she ever returned to Dublin
after her mother died. There is a story, however, of Ann
greeting her sister at a train station when Mary was
returning from her time at the convent in Monaghan. Mary
had gone there in September 1942. She was away long
enough to have missed the latest fashion developments,
because Aunt Ann informed her at the train station that her
skirt was too short and proceeded to tug it down a bit.
It is unclear exactly when Mary moved to
England, but she probably immigrated by the time Ann left
for America in 1949.
One honor that fell to Aunt Ann was being her
cousin Eugene’s sponsor when he received the Sacrament
of Confirmation. Patsy DeAscanis remembered Aunt Ann
telling her that children being confirmed would look
forward to receiving a special band or ribbon to mark the
occasion. Evidently, after the ceremony, Eugene’s parents
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