Five generations of one family gather for the first time!
From this week's Galway City Tribune - While most families enjoy some quality time together over Christmas, one Galway City family managed to hit quite a milestone when five generations gathered for the first time.
The matriarch, Freda Ryan, from Woodquay will celebrate her 99th birthday next July and only recently moved into a nursing home in Moycullen where she continues to enjoy her full faculties and is in tip-top health.
Her great-great-grandson and the youngest member of the clan is Rio Almanazar, who was born in mid-October.
Rio’s mum Louise Gilligan, who is from Newcastle but lives in Knocknacarra, is understandably proud to have started the fifth generation.
“My great-grandmother is more able to go than the rest of us. If we were to say we were going to Disneyland in the morning, she’d want to come,” she laughs.
Freda had seven children and all but two are still living in Galway. One of them, Liam Ryan, lives in Inverin. His grandfather used to run the old Connemara bus which was so well known around Galway for bringing people in from Oughterard to town that a song was written about it.
His daughter Maura Gilligan continues to live in Newcastle where she raised three daughters. This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here.