The Leaving of Loughrea

About the Book

This is the story of the Lally family between 1818 and 1848. It could just as easily be your story if you have ancestors who were among over a million people who left the beautiful and tragic land of Ireland in the 1840s. This family lived in the Loughrea area, County Galway, Ireland, and their story is similar to that of so many Irish families as they struggled against the odds, were overwhelmed by the tragedy of the Great Famine, and were forced to leave their beloved homeland. This book explores how the Irish lived at this time, how they thought, and the reasons for their situation in Ireland. It brings together the many strands of Irish society and the economics, politics, and philosophy that dominated their lives. It describes the terrible journeys that members of the family undertook to reach England, America, Canada, and Australia.

About the Author

Stephen Lally lives near London, England, and has had a successful career in sales and marketing. He has had a life-long interest in practical history. He is an acknowledged motoring historian and is actively involved with vintage cars. Among his other interests is working with young people. Stephen has, over the years, built up a large collection of information, photographs, and memorabilia relating to his family history. His interest is in how people lived in previous times. He is not satisfied with the bare bones of a family tree that can be assembled from birth, marriage, death, and census information. The lives of previous generations were so different to ours, and he is keen to visualize this in the small details of their lives. To achieve this has involved widening the search for information beyond the normal genealogical sources. Stephen now has more time to discover how his forebears lived nearly 200 years ago, and the breadth of this study, described in this book, is an eye-opener to all family historians, particularly those with ancestors from Ireland.