Shamrock n' roll stars

Irish roots of Gallagher brothers is traced with ancestral links to villages in Mayo and Meath

- BY SANDRA MALLON Showbiz Editor

OASIS are set to reunite on stage in Dublin's Croke Park on August 16 and 17 in front of an excited sold out Irish stadium.

Ahead of the gigs, their deep Irish roots, shaped by summers in Mayo and Meath and lifelong family bonds, have been explored.

The Gallagher brothers have regularly boasted about their Irish background, with guitarist Noel famously telling a TV reporter prior to the last European football championships: "I don't follow England, I'm Irish".

And research shows that the band, whose original five members all had Irish parents, really are deeply connected to the Emerald Isle.

According to Irish Heritage, they have traced back the Gallagher brother's genealogy to show how they are just as much Irish as they are British.

Born in Manchester to Catholic working-class parents, the Gallagher brothers are the sons of Margaret "Peggy" Sweeney from Charlestown, Co Mayo and Thomas "Tommy" Gallagher from Duleek, Co Meath.

In the early 1960s, Peggy and Tommy were among thousands of Irish emigrants who moved to Manchester, drawn by a boom in the city's construction industry.

MANCHESTER

The pair met for the first time in Manchester. Peggy and Tommy's first child was Paul, followed by Noel, born on May 29, 1967 and then William “Liam” on September 21, 1972.

The Gallagher family lived in a council estate and were part of Manchester's vibrant working-class Irish community.

Several of Peggy’s sisters and brothers also settled in the same part of Manchester, creating a tight-knit family network.