Search Results for 'Mercy National School'

William Joyce was born in Herkimer Street, Brooklyn, New York in 1906 to Gertrude (who was originally from Lancashire) and Michael Joyce, a native of Killour, Co Mayo. Michael had taken American citizenship, which automatically made his family citizens. In 1909, the family returned to Ireland, initially to Mayo, then to Galway.

Nora Barnacle was born on the night of March 21/22 1884 in the maternity ward of the workhouse, part of which served as a hospital. At the time her family were living in Raleigh Row. Her parents were Thomas Barnacle, an illiterate itinerant baker whose heavy drinking kept the family in poverty, and Annie Healy, a member of a family of substance who believed in education and hard work. They married in 1881 and for the next 26 years, led a nomadic life as they moved from tenement to tenement almost with the birth of each child. They had eight children in all, one of whom, John Patrick, died in infancy.