The Gallaghers of Ballinrobe

A monument marks the area northwest of town where Felix Waitkus crash-landed in 1935 as he
attempted to fly from New York to Lithuania.
Counter-Reformation. The Cillín (pronounced Killeen), a
cemetery for unbaptized babies, was Ireland’s answer. But
it was an answer that a Catholic family would do its best to
avoid. It is difficult to imagine the depth of grief a bereaved
family underwent when an infant died. It would be made
worse by being denied the comfort of the normal funeral
rite and burial with family in consecrated ground. When
such situations were unavoidable, fathers would sometimes
take care of the burial themselves, often outlining the grave
with small, white quartz stones. Many such infants were
buried on the family farm to be close to the mother. By the
end of the 19th century, changes were happening with the
practice, though it continued into the 1950s in Ireland
before being discarded after The Second Vatican Council.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church from 1992 no longer
mentions Limbo. Rather, it teaches that infants who die
without Baptism are entrusted to the mercy of God.
The importance of having a baby baptized would
not have been theoretical for Michael Gallagher’s parents.
He would not have been 2 years old when the family’s next
child, Mary, died soon after she was born. Although there is
no civil record of Mary’s birth, the rectory at St. Mary’s in
Ballinrobe shows she was baptized in 1899. Mary was
buried in the Abbey Cemetery, along with her Great-
Grandparents Michael and Bridget Gallagher.
A PROUD FAMILY
Mary’s death left Michael as an only child until
his sister Delia came along after three or four years. In the
meantime, Michael’s Grandmother Bridget (McCormick)
Gallagher, who would have been in her late 50s, was left to
dote on him. She would have been proud to show him off to
neighbors and others as she pushed her grandson around in
a pram, or perambulator, the Irish/British term for a baby
carriage. By the late Victorian era, more people could
afford such a carriage, and they were becoming very
popular. Still, it’s hard to imagine there were too many in
the town of Ballinrobe.
As he grew, Michael apparently showed the same
quick, dry sense of humor that was common to Uncle Tom,
Uncle Jim and the others. The story goes that one day
Michael was walking down the road when a person he met
offered him a penny. Michael declined the offer. “No
thanks,” he said. “I have one of those at home.”
At some point, Michael was the recipient of his
uncle’s pocket watch, a prized possession that was
presented to him by his grandparents. His father’s brother
Michael had immigrated to New York, probably around
1890. When that Michael died, his widow sent his watch
home to his parents, Peter and Bridget Gallagher, in
Ballinrobe. It was a very nice watch, with a silver case and
gold chain, made in the late 1800s in Lochel, Switzerland,
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