My father played Gaelic football most of his life. He was the captain of the County Leitrim team that won the New York G.A.A. Football Championship in 1932. Sundays during the spring and summer months were a big day in the McGuire household. Mass in the morning was followed by a hearty breakfast and then off to Gaelic Park where Dad would either be playing or checking out the … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Men in Shorts
Photo Album
Photo Album: The Queen of the May
This photograph of my grandmother Ella Theresa Shea was taken in 1880 when she was 14 years old. She was crowned the Queen of the May at the traditional May Day Festival in newly-opened Golden Gate Park. Ella was born in San Francisco on May 18, 1866, the second of nine children, to James Shea (born James Sheahy), from Barlogue Lough Hyne, Co. Cork, and Anna Shipsey of Cape … [Read more...] about Photo Album: The Queen of the May
Photo Album: Reaching For The Sky
Who could guess the financial disaster brewing in New York City, 1929, when my father, Mick Connolly gathered a few friends on his tenement roof to capture the joy of a baptismal celebration several floors below. The third of his seven children, Mary Elizabeth, was being feted with a large gathering at East 97th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan after a May ceremony held … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Reaching For The Sky
Photo Album:
Home at Last
We lost my mother, Mary Ellen Smith, née O'Connor last April, 2002. She was 86 years old. She emigrated from Ireland in 1929 when she was almost 14 years old from the Derries, Co. Mayo, a small village near Ballinrobe. At that time she came to the States with her older brothers James and Pat, 15 and 16 respectively.
Mom settled in with her mother's sister Aunt Mary Weimer, née … [Read more...] about Photo Album:
Home at Last
Photo Album: All in the Family
1972: The Noone Family, Brooklyn. Little did Luke Noone and Mary Ellen Doherty dream when they left Ireland that they would leave a legacy of five children, 20 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren – a total of 55 good-looking, God-fearing Narrowbacks (as Luke often referred to his family). Luke emigrated from Curramaeigh, Kilkerrin, Co. Galway in 1922 at 20 years of … [Read more...] about Photo Album: All in the Family