Maureen O’Gara (1916 – 2009)

(18th January 1916 – 19th October 2009)

Bridget (L) and Maureen (R) O’Gara

Maureen, the eldest of the O’Gara family was born at Mín na bhFachrán in 1916. She played the fiddle as a young girl, where growing up in the 1920s and 30s she was exposed to the best of local traditional music through her father, Denis. Like many of her generation she was emigrated to the United Kingdom in the mid 1930s where she trained as a nurse. Maureen had a very distinguished career, caring for the sick and wounded in various wars throughout the twentieth century, including at Normandy during the D-Day landings in 1944. In 1970 she was awarded the Royal Red Cross medal by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Maureen retired from nursing the following year.