How strong Irish roots shaped the Gallagher brothers to become Oasis

Sunday World

4 days ago

As they gear up for big croker gigs, we reveal how Noel and Liam consider Ireland home.
Liam and Noel set aside their differences to reunite for this year's Oasis tour, which has been hailed as a triumph
Next week's much-anticipated Oasis shows at Dublin's Croke Park will be the first time the brothers will have played the historic stadium together – and will be a homecoming of sorts for the superstar duo with Irish parents.
Their Mayo-born mother Peggy has already said she'd be coming over to see her sons play their first Irish gigs since they rocked Slane in 2009.
Back in 1996 this reporter brought out a book on the band, Oasis: The Word On The Street, and it's the only tome on the supergroup written by an Irish person.
Today, we reprint an abridged version of the opening chapter about their Irish heritage, with some updates on their deep links to the Emerald Isle.
School photos of Noel
Oasis's roots lie in the south Manchester suburb of Burnage, where they grew up in a working-class background.
The original band line-up shares with another great Manchester band, The Smiths, the intriguing connection of Irish lineage. Most members of both groups derive from Irish emigrants who fled their mother country in the 1950s and 1960s to seek work in the then industrial hub of Manchester.
The Gallagher brothers' parents originated in Ireland. Their mother, Margaret, more commonly known as Peggy, came from the quiet west of Ireland town of Charlestown in Co. Mayo, while their father Tommy grew up in the village of Duleek, Co. Meath.
The other original members of Oasis, Paul 'Guigy' McGuigan, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs and Tony McCarroll also had Irish roots, but more distant than the Gallaghers.
So it was with more than a touch of irony that the 'Irish mafia' link in Manchester should prove so important.
For it was Johnny Marr (of The Smiths) who became so enthused after hearing a demo tape that he contacted Noel and eventually persuaded his manager, Marcus Russell, to take over at the helm of the fledgling Oasis.
Noel and Liam with mum Peggy and their older brother Paul
The Gallaghers themselves grew up in Burnage, a dreary area sometimes referred to as 'Boring Burnage'. Noel was born on May 29, 1967, while Liam was born 'William' on September 21, 1972, (he later shortened his name to the Irish version, 'Liam'). They have an older brother, Paul, born in 1965.
Liam's only interest at school was in football but he often played truant and sniffed glue. He'd later say: 'I sniffed cans of gas at the age of 12, took magic mushrooms at the age of 12. Not 20 mushrooms, more like 150.'
He left school without a qualification but while there he strangely took an interest in learning the violin at music classes.
Noel's schooldays also involved a lot of truancy, smoking marijuana and sniffing glue.
When he too left with no qualifications, a careers officer said he'd end up working at the local McVitie's biscuit factory where their mum used to toil.
A photo from a Gallagher family wedding in Ireland around 1973 shows Tommy holding Noel
Their dad Tommy formed his own Under-14 Gaelic football team and Noel recalls scoring a point in Croke Park in Dublin during a schools tournament.
They were also cub scouts and they made their debut stage appearance in the annual school nativity play at St Bernard's Roman Catholic primary school in Burnage, with Liam donning a fluffy suit to play the part of a lamb!
Both brothers had run-ins with the law in their early days. Noel was put on probation when he was caught robbing a corner shop at the age of 16, while Liam's only known misdemeanours involved driving cars and motorbikes without insurance.
Their parents used to bring the whole family to Ireland every year.
'Until I was about 15 myself and my two brothers would spend six weeks every summer and three weeks every Christmas in Mayo,' Noel recalls .
Oasis rocking Slane in 2009
'That's a lot of time when you're a child. Mayo had a church, a post office and about 300 pubs. It was all farmland and I was a bit freaked out by all the sheep because I'm from Manchester.
'We'd never seen the likes of nettles and fields and stacks of hay and all that. But it was great — the three of us used go fishing all the time.
'Our cousins there never dared laugh at our English accents because they would have got a clip around the ear if they did. It was a great childhood and it's something I talk a lot about to Johnny Marr, who had a similar upbringing.
'Me Mam was determined to give us some Irish culture 'cause we were used to concrete flats and stuff. It was a bit of a culture shock for the first four or five years but we just grew to love it. I still do to this day and the great thing about coming to Ireland is at the airport when you know that smell in the air is turf burning. It almost brings a tear to your eye.
'I think that being brought up an Irish Catholic is both the best and worst way of being brought up. The whole thing is all that religion b***ks, which I don't go for at all.
'The best thing is the culture, particularly the music. I mean, I really don't like ceilidh music, it's not my cup of tea, but at least I can understand where it's coming from.
'I really believe that the whole Irish Catholic thing does shape the way you view the world. I still have this guilt thing, it never really leaves you. But then I think I have it less than my parents and the next generation will have it less than me, so maybe it will just wither out.'
Peggy (left) is from Mayo while Tommy hails from County Meath
Their early jobs were pretty manual and a lot of their teenage years were spent on building sites as labourers, mainly with their dad.
He owned his own business, laying down concrete floors, and the three brothers, their dad and a couple of uncles and cousins used to turn up to work in a yellow transit van and toil away until late at night.
There were lots of arguments among the siblings in those days too, and Noel says they were a type of 'Burnage Hillbillies'.
Many of Noel's and Liam's jobs were part-time on Saturday and Noel also spent time as a signwriter for an estate agent, was a baker, worked in a bed factory and was even a fish tank maker.
Liam spent time as a car valet and signed on the dole for four years before Oasis took off (his friends jokingly nicknamed him 'Doley').
The two brothers are both fanatical Manchester City fans. Noel's been going to see City since the age of four and admits he was in tears when he first heard their fans taking up Wonderwall as a terrace anthem at Maine Road.
In 1986 the Gallaghers had their biggest domestic crisis, one which would shape their whole future.
After years of tension and during one particular argument, Noel and his father allegedly came to blows.
Peggy immediately left the family home for a nearby council house to start a new life for her three sons.
Peggy recalls she used to despair at the thought of her sons' future when they were growing up. She recalled the two younger brothers having an early love of music, particularly Noel.
'He was always banging my knitting needles along to The Beatles of the Sex Pistols,' she reflects. 'Liam was obsessed with John Lennon. He bought every Beatles record.'
Tommy recalls Noel as being a bit of a ladies' man in his youth. 'Noel was the champ with the girls, he had a good few girlfriends,' he confirms. 'He used to sneak girls into the house. He usually took girls upstairs because that was where the record player was. He'd play music to them all night, but up until he was 14 Liam used say 'I hate girls, they do my head in''.
Then just before the big bust-up at home, Tommy took Liam on a trip to his native village of Duleek.
'He was good at pool, but he was also good at the pull too,' Tommy chuckles. 'All the girls in the village were mad for him. I made a man out of him — he was drinking pints of lager in Big Tom's pub, winning games of pool for a fiver and being a bit of a hit with the birds.'