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Remembering our great grandfather on the anniversary of his death

Our great grandfather Daniel Gallagher was born in Co Donegal in 1849, one of the worst years of the Famine. He was the son of Owen, mother unknown.He had 10 children with our great grandmother, Isabella Mulloy. He died of influenza and pneumonia on this day in 1929 at the age of 80 years in Mulnamina Glenties. He is an ancestor I would love to meet. He would often have walked up and down…

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Reclaiming dignity.

It has been over 1,200 days since our sister Eva died in a hospital room in Western Australia in December 2021. It was bad enough that due to Covid and closed borders we were unable able to visit her in her final weeks and days. It was bad enough that I had a message that I was not to contact her following her terminal diagnosis as it was ‘upsetting’ her. It was bad enough that she felt lonely…

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An unspoken grief

Our youngest sibling, Eva, died in December 2021. The grief at her death has not abated, nor will it. Life throws a lot of heartache and loss at all of us. Over my decades on earth, I have grieved for many people that I loved – grandparents, beloved aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbours, friends, including those who chose their own time to leave; tragic losses of a one year old brother, a…

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These Little Shoes

Yesterday, as often happens, these little shoes were rediscovered on a wardrobe shelf. A poignant rediscovery, as today, June 30th, marks the 55th Anniversary of the day they were last worn by our 15 month old baby brother. Canice’s shoes, last unbuckled on this day in 1959, 55 years, just a brief moment away, as the terrible details of the tragedy spring to mind in a flash with as much…

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A last farewell

On March 7, 2020, I said goodbye to my sister in Perth Western Australia at the end of my holiday. I had been staying with her during my almost annual trip down under to visit her and my daughter and my grandchildren. She was looking forward to a holiday in Ireland and would see me soon. Donegal she called her ‘happy place’ . Tra na Rossan. A local beach where Eva grew up, Little did either of…

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Great walks around Mevagh /Rosguill Parish, Co Donegal

Great walks around Mevagh /Rosguill Parish, Co Donegal

This walkers guide is the latest walking guide for our parish compiled by Caoimhín Mac a’ Bhaird. This handy booklet, Carrigart-Walks and Explorations has details of 11 walking routes with distances. It is a gem! The latest walks booklet from Kevin was published this year. – A labour of love, it is much more than a list of walking routes. It is a pocket guide to our local heritage and…

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One of these days: A Winter Solstice Birthday

One of these days: A Winter Solstice Birthday

Our family Solstice birthday

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The Handkerchief - Memories of Eva

The Handkerchief – Memories of Eva

Thoughts of my sister Eva, gone 64 days today, come flashing through my head from the most unexpected sources; some like storm clouds are gloomy and dark, some are as joyful as catching a glimpse of a shooting star. Recently, a Twitter account I follow, Fermanagh County Museum, referenced an article in The Guardian newspaper about the history of the hanky and that was the trigger that opened the…

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Eva

School Photo from c. 1961. Wearing her favourite dark pink jumper handknitted by our Mother. (image thesilvervoice) My sister is dead. The vast emptiness astonishes me. The lonely painful journey she made, angers me. Her life unlived, dismays me. She had dreams and hopes of change, which may have come in the silence of her final hours. She had the courage to stay until then. Is it ever too…

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Eva... a new arrival

Eva… a new arrival

Our sister Eva arrived into our world on November 15 1956, a day I remember so well. We were a family of 4 – boy aged 9, girl (me) aged 8, boy aged almost 4, boy aged 2. So Eva was number 5 in our family and for her recent 65th Birthday, I remembered that day with her. A new baby, they said. Oh, I groaned – another boy I suppose. I was escorted to the ‘big room’ where babies mysteriously…

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Eva - a lament

Eva – a lament

Eva, the youngest member of our Gallagher family died on December 31, 2021 in Perth Western Australia. Mise Éire (I am Ireland) Her family, in Ireland and overseas, grieve for her. Her wish is to be laid to rest in our family grave in Carrigart, Co Donegal, Ireland in due course.

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Railway Children - Clinton and Judge

Railway Children – Clinton and Judge

Our family has a very proud family history of service on the Irish national railway systems. Starting with our great grandfather John Clinton, who married into another railway family headed by our great grandfather, John Judge. John Clinton’s brother, our granduncle, also served on the railways, as did descendants of John Judge. The network of Irish Railways in 1908. (Image Railway services…

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Postcards from South West Donegal.

Postcards from South West Donegal.

After months of so called ‘cocooning’ as we sheltered from Covid-19, it was with some trepidation that we headed north west to my home county of Donegal for a holiday. Our chosen location had been determined by a road marathon that had been cancelled due to the pandemic, but we decided to go anyhow. And what a great decision it was!

The neighbours (Image Thesilvervoice)

A babbling brook…

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'Let's Roll': Flight 93, 11 September 2001

‘Let’s Roll’: Flight 93, 11 September 2001

19 years after the 9/11 hijackings, another look at the site of the Shanksville Crash site in Pennsylvania. The eerie silence of the landscape, pierced only by a whistling strong breeze, has remained with me. I am very pleased to have this record of the crash site, now utterly changed by the massive memorial that is now there.

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Remembering our brother

Remembering members of our family is part of my ‘mission’ in life as the self appointed curator of the family history. So many close relatives have lived, loved, been loved and died, and are never ever remembered again. I like to try to find out about them, even if I never knew them, and keep them relevant by remembering them on anniversaries of birth, marriage or death.

There is one I did…

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Mevagh Moments - Old Postcards tell a story

Mevagh Moments – Old Postcards tell a story

The pandemic lockdown led me down a number of ‘rabbit holes’ sorting old photographs and letters. Among the boxes were a number of old postcards of the parish of Mevagh where I grew up. Postcards were essentially the ‘text messages’ of their time and it was almost mandatory to post one to friends, neighbours and relatives from your holiday resort. Bounded on the east by Mulroy Bay, on the west by…

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From inside the 'Cocoon' - Fluttering away

From inside the ‘Cocoon’ – Fluttering away

As the COVID-19 statstics in Ireland continue to decline, rules for ‘cocooners’ are being eased on a phased basis and the horrid term ‘cocooning’ is falling out of use.

After 100 days we take tiny little steps back to a new normal. A ‘normal’ that is as yet unknown and possibly fraught with danger. As the ‘lockdown’ is phased out I will end this series of posts with some reflections on the…