The McAuliffe story

My paternal Grandfather left West Cork having worked in the mines at Alihies Cork to work in the mines in Butte Montana. The McAuliffies later returned home to Cork and he and my Grandmother raised 17 children. The youngest of the 17 was my father Kevin who along with the majority of his brothers and sisters followed in their father’s footsteps to seek a life in the USA. Following a few years in Canada my parents and I moved to New York and lived in the Bronx.

My Father was a carpenter and at that time my parents sponsored my cousin John from Donegal to come to the US and work as a carpenter. John eventually moved to Alaska where he worked for many years on the pipeline. My twin brother and sister were born in the Bronx NY (the photo that I uploaded is of me outside the apartment block in the Bronx where we lived), and are US citizens. In the early 1960s our family returned to Ireland. This move was prompted by the cost of accommodation for a larger family and the upturn in the Irish economy.

At around the same time as my Grandfathers adventure to Butte my maternal Grandmother emigrated from Donegal to Boston with her sisters and she also retuned to marry and raise her family in Donegal. Her sisters stayed, married and raised their families in the Boston area. As a result our family have always had close ties to the US with family in Massachusetts, NY and Philadelphia. In the early 2000s we connected with McAuliffe families in DC and Virginia and have researched connections and remain in contact and have visited with them and they with us.