Krista Luttrell

The East and North Galway Irish were among the first Irish Catholics to settle down in Greater Portland, Maine, arriving as early as the mid-1830s. Their arrival preceded the flood of refugees escaping Ireland’s Great Hunger (1845–1852). Once settled, these early immigrants sent funds home to help family and neighbors make the transatlantic journey. This pattern of chain migration persisted for decades and continued well into the 20th century. Some of these families remained in Portland, while others moved elsewhere in the state or beyond.

Being among the earliest Catholic arrivals, Portland’s East and North Galway Irish were also among the first congregants at St. Dominic’s Church and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. They appear in the earliest Civil War enlistment records and in the rosters of Portland’s first Grand Army of the Republic post. These immigrants laid Portland’s roads and sidewalks, installed gas lamps, and helped construct many of the city’s prominent stone buildings. They worked as laborers, blacksmiths, and boilermakers at the Portland Company, the city’s largest employer at the time. They laid down tracks for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad and Grand Trunk Railroad systems, travelling all over Maine, New England, and beyond to do so. They dug canals and drainage systems for factories and mills. They worked as carpenters, brickmakers, dressmakers, domestic servants, firemen, gardeners, grocers, hack drivers, harness makers, laborers, publicans, police officers, politicians, stonemasons, teachers, and business owners. Today, their descendants span every socioeconomic class in Portland.

☘️ Portland’s Two Irish Neighborhoods

The 1850 U.S. Census-the first to record names of all household members-shows two prominent Irish enclaves in the city of Portland. One formed on the city’s west side around St. Dominic’s Church and Gorham’s Corner; the other arose near the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and Munjoy Hill on the city’s east side. The Munjoy Hill Irish neighborhood was quite large. The community’s geographical footprint spanned from the Portland Company and the Grand Trunk Railroad on the waterfront at Fore and Commercial Streets, stretching all the way to the Tukey’s Bridge area at the mouth of Back Cove. Meanwhile, about an hour’s drive south of Portland, Greater Amesbury, Massachusetts, also received many immigrants from East and North Galway. Family and friends lived in both places, so communication and movement between the two communities were common.

☘️ A Few Families and Figures

The following are brief profiles of a few Irish families and individuals from East and North Galway who made Portland their home. Their stories help illustrate the diversity of experiences and contributions within the local Irish community.

• Bernard Daly was a Sexton, and the first Catholic Undertaker in Portland, and an active member of the city’s Irish American Relief Association, established in 1862 to “elevate the Irish, and bring out the beautiful traits in their character.” He arrived c. 1840 with his wife, Bridget Haley. The couple lived at the foot of Munjoy Hill. They are the ancestors of Portland’s well-known antique bookseller, the late Francis O’Brien.
• James Quinn was affectionately known as “Uncle” by the many who knew him, according to his obituary. He was born in Tullyroe, Ballygar, Killeroran. In 1868, James built a home at 130 Cumberland Avenue in Portland. He became a successful Boiler Maker at his machine shop business, Quinn & Co., on the corner of Commercial and Franklin Streets. Before starting his business, he worked for The Portland Company. He served as a Portland City Councilman and Treasurer for the local Irish American Relief Association. On October 5th, 1843, James wed Eleanor “Ellen” E. McLaughlin from Ballinasloe, in Providence, Rhode Island. The couple had 11 children, according to her obituary. In the summer of 1856, Ellen placed an “Information Wanted” advertisement in the Boston Pilot newspaper, hopeful to find her sister, Anne Clarke, whom she had not heard from in five years. It was in this notice that Ellen’s birthplace was named.
• Thomas Gantley arrived in New York in 1844 and settled in Portland by 1848. He married Catherine Burke in 1851 at St. Dominic’s church. They lived on Fox Street off Washington Ave. His signature is found as a witness to the naturalizations of fellow Irishmen. A John Gantley from Ireland, possibly a relative, appears in the 1850 census in Bethel, Maine.
• Patrick Greally arrived in Portland after 1858, and his name was enumerated in the 1860 U.S. census as lodging with the family of Michael Burke and Bridget Greally. His relationship to Bridget is likely that of first cousins. Patt was the godfather to some of their children. He married Julia Hession, of Ballintleva, and they lived for a time in a tenement building on the corner of Fore and Hancock Streets, the place where poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born. Patt was a fireman and was likely on duty during the Great Portland Fire of July 4th, 1866. Patt and Julia are the ancestors of the celebrated World War II and Korean War soldier, Charles J. Loring, who made the ultimate sacrifice in combat. A monument in his name is erected on Munjoy Hill facing Tukey’s Bridge at Back Cove. A short stretch of roadway at Tukey’s Bridge and an air force base in Aroostook County, Maine, are named after him, too. Patrick’s brother, Jeremiah “Darby” Greally, also settled in Portland after staying in Amesbury, Massachusetts, for several years. Darby married Sarah Quinn and they had several children. Patt’s wife, Julia’s nephew John Augustine Healey, who also grew up on Munjoy Hill, became a wealthy philanthropist.
• Lawrence Newell and Margaret Greaney, natives of Ardrumkilla, Belclare, emigrated in 1882. They are the ancestors of Matthew Jude Barker, a local history author and long-time volunteer researcher at MIHC.
• Patrick Dorsey (Darcy/D’Arcy), a laborer from the parish of Leitrim, arrived in America via New York in 1837. He and his wife, Jane, lived on Ingraham’s Lane, off Washington and Cumberland Avenues, at the foot of Munjoy Hill. In the 1850 U.S. census, however, Patrick Dorsey, 40, is enumerated in a boarding house in the town of New Gloucester, approximately 20 miles outside the city, with 29 other men and two women, one of whom is Margaret Dorsey, 30, all of whom were born in Ireland. At this time, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad/Grand Trunk Railroad had just opened a line to the interior of the state and built a train station close to Captain Woodman’s large farm in that rural town. Patrick died in 1877, and Jane died in 1888. She left her estate, a sum total of about $700, to the new St. Joseph’s Home in the Deering neighborhood of Portland.
• The Silk families from Annaghdown-siblings John and Bridget Silk, children of Patrick and Eleanor “Ellen” Burke-lived on Adams Street on Munjoy Hill, in the 1850s, with their mother. John, a laborer, married Hannah Walsh; Bridget married Michael Minnough of County Clare. John Silk(e), a son of Thomas and Bridget “Biddy” Ford, arrived in America in 1866 and, a few years later, married Mary Foley/Folan at St Dominic’s church. This couple lived at various addresses at the foot of Munjoy Hill. A son, Patrick Martin, became a priest, serving various Catholic communities around Maine and eventually at St Dominic’s parish. Another son, Thomas Joseph, was a General Yardmaster with the Grand Trunk Railroad and became an active local politician.
• John Creaven (Craven), of Ballintleva, and Catherine Greally, of Belclare, were married in 1865 in Belclare. They were living in Amesbury, Massachusetts by 1867, and moved to Portland by 1875.
• John Shaughnessy, a laborer, hailed from Gort and frequently served as a witness for mid-19th-century naturalizations.
• Thomas McCormick, born in Gurteen ca. 1844, found work as a laborer at the Portland Rolling Mill Company.
• Michael Skerritt of Kilgill, Annaghdown, and Bridget “Annie” Curran of the Headford area settled in the St Dominic’s church neighborhood on the west side of the city. Michael worked at the Portland Gas Company. They are the great-grandparents of Steve Luttrell, former Poet Laureate of Portland, founding editor of The Cafe Review Art & Poetry quarterly magazine, and husband of this author.
• Ann “Nancy” Houlahan of Eyrecourt married Michael Carroll. The Carrolls settled on Cumberland Avenue with their family, and were joined by her relatives, Patrick and Michael Houlahan.
• Patrick J. Burke of Headford married Annie E. Staunton of Mossfort, Caherlistrane, in 1885 at St. Dominic’s church.
• Michael Burke and Bridget “Delia” Greally of Annaghdown and Belclare, respectively, married in 1857 at St. Dominic’s church in Portland. John Costello and Mary Walsh were their witnesses. Michael found work as a laborer and boiler maker with The Portland Company, and they settled on Adams Street. Their descendants include this author.
• At the turn of the century, a trend of young single Irish women immigrated from Galway to America, and some of them found steady work as Domestic Housekeepers with wealthy families in the city. One of these women was Catherine Elizabeth Steed, born in 1868, in the townland of Glennafosha, Belclare. On her 1924 declaration to naturalize as a U.S. citizen, she reported being employed as a “lady’s maid.”

Some East and North Galway surnames found in Greater Portland:
Burke, Barrett, Brehaney, Carr, Carroll, Connolly, Colleran, Costello, Craven/Creaven, Cunningham, Cullinane, Curran, Delaney, Dorsey/Darcy, Fahey/Fahy, Faherty, Flaherty, Gantley, Glynn, Grealy/Greally/Greely, Grady, Hannon, Hession, Higgins, Houlahan, Joyce, Kelly, Mannion, McCormick, McLaughlin, Monaghan, Moran, Newell, Quinn, Rainey, Shaughnessy, Silk, Skerritt, Stanton/Staunton, Steede, Tiernan, Thornton, Walsh, and many more.

Did your ancestors hail from East or North County Galway and settle in the greater Portland area? Where did they work and what type of work did they do? Drop a little note about your ancestor’s story in the comment section below.

♥︎ Krista

Note: Some details of this post were extracted from a brochure that fellow researcher Matthew Jude Barker and I created for distribution at the 2016 Galway Diaspora Conference held in Galway City.