Glencolmcille woman Ann Cawley to receive Hall of Fame award in Philadelphia

Glencolmcille native Ann Cawley has been confirmed as the recipient of the first Donegal Business Initiative Hall of Fame Award.

The award will be presented during the inaugural Donegal Diaspora Initiative, a three-day event in Philadelphia in March which will include a business forum, a Gaelic football tournament and music festival.

Ann (nee Boyle) and her husband, John Cawley, purchased a pub, Duffy’s Bar, in Upper Darby in 1974. It became Cawley’s Tavern and later changed to Cawley’s Irish Pub.

Throughout the years at Cawley’s, many of the staff and customers were from all parts of Ireland and became like family to Ann, who attended weddings and christenings. 

She did everything at the bar from cooking to tending bar and was known to treat the staff like her own family; with a smile and a chat for anyone who entered Cawley’s. 

Ann remains the heartbeat of the pub and has become a real staple of Delaware County.

Born in 1945 Killaned, Glencolmcille, she was one of nine children born to James and Mary Boyle

After leaving school at the age of 14, she started to work at the mart and the local pub. 

However, with her sister Brid and aunt Mary already living in the United States, she yearned to go across the Atlantic.

On Halloween Day in 1962, she attended for an interview at the embassy in Dublin to get her Visa and she bumped into a May man, John Cawley. 

Both happened to be readying for the voyage to Philadelphia.

Ann left on the SS United States from Cobh in November ’62 and arrived in New York, where she was met by her aunt and sister. She soon got a job working as a nanny and then in Church rectories. As a woman of deep faith, she loved this role.

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On Ann’s first night out, at the Shamrock Club in Philadelphia, she again bumped into the Mayo man from the embassy and in November 1968 she married John Cawley.

Ann and John had four children - Charlie, Annmarie, Sean, and Brian - and Ann traveled home every year with her family.

Despite all her years in America, her love of Glencolmcille and Donegal has never dimmed.