{"id":1991,"date":"2025-08-16T08:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/1991\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T08:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:36:08","slug":"how-irish-are-oasis-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/1991\/","title":{"rendered":"How Irish are Oasis? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a much remarked phenomenon that two of the most important British bands since the Beatles<\/a> \u2013 The Smiths<\/a> and Oasis<\/a> \u2013 were almost entirely Manchester-Irish. <\/p>\n

Smiths\u2019 guitarist Johnny Marr<\/a>, whose parents were from Athy, Co Kildare, told The Irish Times some years ago: \u201cI\u2019ve never described myself as British or English. I\u2019m either Mancunian or Mancunian Irish<\/a> \u2013 that is a culture and a nationality that is a thing unto itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oasis, too, come from a working-class Irish background. Along with the Gallagher brothers, original members Paul \u201cGuigsy\u201d McGuigan, Paul \u201cBonehead\u201d Arthurs and Tony McCarroll all have Irish roots. <\/p>\n

The Gallaghers\u2019 father Tommy was from Duleek, Co Meath<\/a>; their mother Peggy Sweeney from Charlestown, Co Mayo<\/a>, a place synonymous with mass Irish emigration. <\/p>\n

Peggy was one of 11 children and emigrated to Manchester at the age of 18 in 1961 sending back \u00a31 a week to help her family. Many of the Sweeney family moved to Manchester \u2013 five of Peggy\u2019s sisters lived nearby. <\/p>\n

Tommy Gallagher worked as a builder in Manchester and moonlighted as a country and western DJ at the Carousel Club. Big Tom MacBride of Big Tom and the Mainliners fame remembers attending the club and seeing Noel<\/a> and Liam<\/a> there. \u201cThey were only skitters of gossons at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overseas faithful go the extra mile to relive childhood memories of Britpop brothers. Credit: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

When the Gallagher brothers were young, their summers were spent in either Charlestown or Duleek. Noel Gallagher told Gay Byrne on the Late Late Show in 1996 that his mother used \u201cto drag us religiously by the earhole for six weeks because we had never seen the likes of nettles. We run around the fields throwing things at cows. She was determined to introduce us to Irish culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Being the sons of emigrants helped Oasis Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was a bit of a culture shock but \u201cwe grew to love it and we still love it,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

For their parents, the summers provided an antidote to the concrete jungle they grew up in. <\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily portrait of the Gallagher family in the mid 1970’s, from left to right Noel, Paul, Liam and mum Peggy Gallagher. Photograph: Dan Callister\/ Liaison via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Tommy Gallagher bought Noel his first guitar and brought him to Maine Road to see Manchester City, but Noel has no time for him. <\/p>\n

Peggy later left Tommy and recalled years after: \u201cI left him a knife, a fork, and a spoon. And I think I left him too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her children left the family home in Burnage for a council flat. She took several jobs to provide for her three boys, Noel, Liam and Paul and kept the family together saying in later years: \u201cWe\u2019re Irish Catholics and we\u2019re that kind of family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy became completely estranged from his family. In one notorious incident at the height of the band\u2019s fame in March 1996, he turned up at Dublin\u2019s Westbury Hotel where his sons were staying. <\/p>\n

He arrived in the bar at 2am and ended up in a screaming match with Liam. Tommy had to be escorted off the premises. <\/p>\n

Noel said of his father: \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, I haven\u2019t got a father. He\u2019s not a father to me, y\u2019know? I don\u2019t respect him in any way whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OasisOasis playing in New York in 1994. Photograph: Steve Eichner\/ WireImage via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Tommy would continue to pontificate on his estranged sons saying that reports of him being a bad father were exaggerated. He even held out hope of a public reconciliation with his sons, but it never came. <\/p>\n

The question of Oasis\u2019 links with Co Meath<\/a> came up, inevitably, at a press conference to announce their gig at Slane Castle in 2009. Noel Gallagher recalled that approximately 80 relatives turned up to the band\u2019s earlier Slane gig in 1995 when they played support to REM. <\/p>\n

Both Tommy and Peggy Gallagher are still alive. <\/p>\n

Peggy\u2019s family home, which she later used for holidays, was sold last year for \u20ac300,000. Locals said Mrs Gallagher was no longer able to come over to the house on her own and there was no one locally to look after her any more. <\/p>\n

As a Manchester City fan, Noel was asked last year about the club\u2019s midfielder Phil Foden. <\/p>\n

\"NoelNoel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher at a photoshoot in a hotel in Tokyo, September 1994. Photograph: Koh Hasebe\/ Shinko Music\/ Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you care how he plays for England in the Euros this summer?\u201d asked the interviewer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not an England fan, I\u2019m Irish,\u201d Gallagher replied. \u201cGood night!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a much remarked phenomenon that two of the most important British bands since the Beatles \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,1006,2353,2354,1005,1004],"class_list":{"0":"post-1991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-liam-gallagher","13":"tag-manchester-city","14":"tag-mayo","15":"tag-noel-gallagher","16":"tag-oasis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}