MacAuliffe Memorial Page

This page is dedicated to all those McAuliffes who down through the ages have lost their lives in defending their clan, their country, their loved ones and their way of life. We honour those who suffered at the hands of the foreign invader, the innocents brutally massacred in assaults on Clanawley, their homeland. We honour those who, forced to leave their homes, fought and died on the battlefields of Europe in the service of others, often confronting in battle the oppressor of their own people. We honour also those who died of starvation or illness during the Great Hunger, and those who died at sea or in some place far from their homes when the McAuliffes, dispossessed of their lands and oppressed in their own country, were scattered far beyond Clanawley and to far parts of the earth. We honour, too, those McAuliffes who have died in the service of their countries and the communities in which they lived.

I hope that this page can be a memorial to those McAuliffes who have died in the course of giving service, whether it be military or civil such as police, firemen, nurses etc. The webmaster will be pleased to hear of people who might fit that criteria. The page will honour those who have died in the course of carrying out their work, or who have been victims of war or violent event.

Numerous famine crosses in memory of the victims of the famine of 1845 - 47 can be seen throughout Ireland. This one can be seen at Clonfert Cemetery near Newmarkert, County Cork. Poiganantly, the inscription reads: "An event has happened upon which it is difficult to speak and impossible to be silent".

Clonfert is the ancient cemetery of the McAuliffes and is situated not far from the site of Castlemacauliffe, the traditional seat of power for the clann. It is known that a number of McAuliffes died during the famine but just how many appears not to have been chronicled. Perhaps a subject of research in the future?

The monument at left, in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago, honours Charles B. McAuliffe, 1877-1898, who died in the Spanish-American War. Charles McAuliffe is buried about two hundred feet from the entrance of the cemetery, beneath this statue of an era soldier dedicated by his family

Christa McAuliffe was to make the first broadcast to schools from space but disaster intervened. Sharon Christa McAuliffe (nee Corrigan) was a 37-year old high school social studies teacher in 1984 when she was selected to become the first teacher in space. A special NASA video network was set up so that thousands of school children across the country could watch America's first space teacher go into space and teach classes from earth orbit.

Disaster struck after the launch at 11:40 a.m. EST. An explosion occurred 73 seconds into the flight as a result of a leak in one of two Solid Rocket Boosters that ignited the main liquid fuel tank. The explosion became one of the most significant events of the 1980s, as billions around the world saw the accident on television. Christa's fellow crew members on the ill-fated launch were flight commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka; Judith A. Resnik; and Gregory B. Jarvis. More on Christa. in the MacAuliffe Hall of Fame.

MacAuliffe Memorial Page
Site designed and maintained by Bob McAuliffe, New Zealand.
This page last updated 28 June 2009

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