A MAN living thousands of miles away in California is helping to reconnect people around the world with their roots in a small village in the west of Ireland.
Brian O'Halloran, who lives in San Jose, has been working with the Moycullen Heritage Group on a DNA project that has already mapped more than 25,000 people connected to the Galway parish.
“My grandparents came from Moycullen in the 1920s to New York,” he said. “I was a student at Trinity College in the 70s, and I would go out and visit my cousins in Moycullen. So our family has kept those connections.”
Now retired and with an undergraduate degree in history, O’Halloran said he wanted to devote more time to genealogy.
Using local parish records, he managed to trace his family tree all the way back to the 18th century.
Although based in the United States, the pandemic allowed him to become more involved locally through Zoom.
John Brown's Map of the Province of Connaught and Clare.Library, Trinity College Dublin
It was O’Halloran who proposed the idea of a dedicated DNA project to help connect families and expand the historical record of the parish.
“We used our social media to collect funds worldwide and asked for donations to buy DNA kits that we would then give free to people who represented old Moycullen families,” he said.
The initiative quickly gained support.
They ended up collecting £4,000, which was used to buy 60 DNA kits that were distributed throughout the area.
Participants were also offered detailed genealogical research.
“When we were doing the DNA kits for people, we also committed to doing a family tree for them,” O’Halloran said. “After we did a number of these, we realised we could put these trees together because everybody seemed to be related either through marriage or blood.”
The result was the creation of a vast parish family tree.
“These are people that go back to the 1780s and also include the diaspora that left to go to the UK and the US.”
O’Halloran said the findings highlight how closely connected rural communities once were, since people often didn't travel further than the neighbouring parish, and marriage and community ties were very localised.
Farm building at Moycullen Lodge 1 July 1921 Photo Credit Norman AbbottSusan Abbott (Moycullen Heritage)
The project has also helped strengthen ties between the village and the global Irish diaspora.
A Facebook group for those with Moycullen roots now has around 900 members living across Britain, the United States, Australia and Canada.
Visitors frequently travel to the village to explore their ancestry.
“When they say they are coming to Moycullen, we do a family tree and find out exactly where their family came from,” O’Halloran said. “If the cottage is still there, we bring them to it.”
He said the impact of these visits can be profound.
“It’s really emotional when they come back and are able to touch the stones where their family came from originally,” he said.
The group now hosts around 20 visiting families each year, and interest continues to grow.
Feeneys of DanesfieldCourtesy of Mary Tuohy and Angela Murphy (Moycullen Heritage)
Among the many stories uncovered through the project are reunions between long-lost relatives.
One visitor, a senior executive from HBO who was involved with filming for the TV series Game of Thrones, discovered his family’s true origins in Moycullen.
“He thought his family was from Northern Ireland, but we figured out his family was from Moycullen,” O’Halloran said. “He was just so overwhelmed that we were able to get information he hadn’t been able to get his whole life.”
Another case involved a man from Birmingham who had been adopted as a child.
“He did a DNA test and had a match to several people in Moycullen,” O’Halloran explained. “We were able to identify which family he came from."
Although his biological father had since passed away, he was met with open arms by his cousins and extended family.
For O’Halloran, the project reflects the enduring connection between Irish communities and their diaspora.
As Moycullen Heritage chair Hazel Morrison often says, you don’t have to live in the community to be part of the community.
“That is really what Moycullen Heritage is doing,” O’Halloran said. “They are creating a local community linked with the diaspora.”
He believes his grandparents would be proud to see those connections continuing today.
“They left and never returned to Ireland.”
“But through this project, people are coming back.”
Michael Andrew O’Halloran and Winifred Cloonan. Photo Credit: Brian O’Halloran (Moycullen Heritage)Everything from irishpost.com and the print edition is available on the Irish Post App — plus more! Download it for Android or Apple IOS devices today
