Meet the fierce Irish mom behind the Oasis reunion

Fans of Oasis long feared that Liam and Noel’s feud was too entrenched to ever be resolved, even with huge money to be made from a reunion tour, but one formidable force they may not have counted on is the influence of a fiercely determined Irish mother. 

Her sons are two of the most famous men in music with an estimated net worth of around £60m between them – but it’s their redoubtable mother Peggy, 81, who still calls the shots in the Gallagher family. 

This morning, Noel and Liam Gallagher put aside their 15-year feud and announced Oasis’ long-awaited reunion tour – much to the delight of their 81-year-old mother, who is said to be ‘thrilled’, and insisted years earlier that this day would come. 

In 2019, Peggy told her youngest son that he was going to bury the hatchet with his brother the following year, firmly declaring: ‘And that’s it.’

While her edict might have taken some time to come to pass, there’s no doubt that fulfilling their mother’s wish would have played on the warring brothers’ minds, and there are few people who would want to thwart determined Peggy’s will.  

The mother-of-three, who is originally from Co. Mayo and was one of 11 children, has been through her fair share of hardship in her life. 

While seeing her children fall out has no doubt been painful, history has taught her the fortitude to weather a crisis. 

Peggy moved to Manchester to work as a housekeeper and childminder when she was 18 years old. 

There, she met fellow Irishman Tommy Gallagher – who ran his own concrete business – and the pair married in the 60s, settling in the Lonsight area of Manchester.

Over the years, Noel and Liam – whose older brother Paul also works in the music industry – have both made reference to their ‘horrific’ childhood in interviews and the abuse they suffered at the hands of their ‘violent, alcoholic’ father. 

In 1984, the Gallagher matriarch was offered a council home and left with her sons in the middle of the night to get away from Tommy – telling the Supersonic documentary-makers that she has ‘spent her life worrying’ about her children.

Despite Noel and Liam’s repeated attempts to buy their mother a new home over the years, Peggy has always insisted on remaining in the same council house in Manchester – and only ever asked them to replace her garden gate.

Since Oasis’ split in 2009, Peggy is said to have continually urged her sons to put aside their differences – telling Noel and Liam that putting an end to their feud would have been the ‘best 80th birthday present’.

Here FEMAIL delves into the story of the fierce Irish mother who escaped an abusive marriage, encouraged her sons’ musical abilities and played a key role in the Oasis reunion.

Working for £1 a week after being forced to leave school 

Margaret Sweeney was born in Charlestown, County Mayo, on 30 January 1943 and named after her mother.

According to music writer Paolo Hewitt, author of Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis, Noel and Liam’s mother was forced to work from an early age to support her family.

The biographer claims Margaret suffered periods of poor health – meaning Peggy, who has rarely given interviews over the past 30 years, got a job as a cook and cleaner at a seminary. 

Delving into Peggy’s childhood, Paolo claims: ‘Peggy would have liked to have stayed on at school.

‘She love reading and learning about Irish language and culture. But the luck was against her. The family turns to Peggy. There are eleven [children] now.’ 

At the end of every working week, Peggy’s mother Margaret would arrive at the seminary to collect her daughter’s wages, which was £1.

The biographer claims Peggy – who was their fourth child – would sometimes receive half-a-crown back – but this was dependent on her family’s needs. 

In 1961, Peggy emigrated to Manchester – where she met Thomas Gallagher, who was originally from Meath – just over 100 miles from Charlestown.

According to Hewitt’s biography, Thomas had grown up with six siblings and left home at 17. 

It is not known how Thomas and Peggy met but they reportedly dated for nine months before marrying at the Holy Name Church in Medlock in March 1965.

When Peggy was seven months pregnant with their son Paul, they moved into a council house on Sandycroft Street in central Manchester. The modest property had just four rooms and an outside toilet.   

The couple welcomed their first son Paul in 1966, with Noel following 18 months later. Five years after this, Tommy and Peggy welcomed Liam.

Escape from domestic violence  

However, the Gallagher family’s happiness was short-lived – as Tommy’s drinking and gambling problem spiralled into violent outbursts.

Although Peggy has never spoken about her marriage, Liam opened about his childhood in a 2018 interview with The Telegraph.

He said: ‘I was about seven when my mam left my dad. He was out all the time, fighting, beating my mam up, beating Noel and Paul up. Never touched me, though. 

‘Then, one night, while he was out, my mam got her brothers round, got all our gear in a truck, left him a mattress, and we went off to our new house.’ 

Noel and his older brother Paul have both previously revealed that the stress of their home life caused them to develop stammers. 

In his memoir Brothers from Childhood to Oasis: The Real Story, Paul wrote: ‘At play time I was always on my own, the other kids used to make fun of my stammer. I had a really bad one, and so did Noel. 

‘Our stammers were so pronounced that in the end our mam took us for speech therapy every week for four years to clear them up.’

During his appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2015, Noel reflected on his ‘horrific’ childhood and said his father’s behaviour made him question if he could be a parent.

The star said: ‘What kind of dad am I going to be? I haven’t got anything to base this on apart from my old fella who was a bit rubbish.’

Speaking to the Irish Independent 2019, Noel Gallagher admitted his father ‘doesn’t mean anything to me’ and doubted whether they would ever make amends.

Peggy and her three sons moved into their new council home in Burnage in 1984 and she divorced Tommy two years later. 

By the time she was starting fresh a working single mother, four of Peggy’s brothers and two of her sisters had moved to the local area.

She then got a job working in a biscuit factory to support the children – but told biographer Paolo Hewitt it ‘wasn’t a very happy time’ for the family.

Peggy explained: ‘I had to go to work, I had no other choice. I had to feed them and clothe them.’

The mother-of-three’s job involved afternoon shifts – meaning she wouldn’t get home until the evening.

Appearing on the Late Late Show in Ireland in 1996, Peggy said Noel and Liam’s musical talents came from her mother’s side of the family – as her uncles were ‘always into Irish music’ and played ‘the fiddle and the accordion’. 

When he was 12 years old, Peggy bought a guitar for Noel – who was ‘obsessed with music’ – and paid for him to have lessons. The star joked in an Icons YouTube interview that he started writing his own music because he ‘was not very good at playing other people’s songs’. 

Meanwhile, Liam became interested in music when he was 15 after being expelled from school for fighting. The star said he discovered his musical ability while singing along to the Top 40 hits on his mother’s radio.

In a 1996 interview with Bravo, the star explained: ‘Music has been the only way to escape the sadness and the misery. At 15 I was expelled from school and I was too lazy to learn a work habit. I knew that the only thing I had was my voice. 

‘That was it, because I don’t play an instrument. In 1990 I went to a Stone Roses concert and I knew that I wanted to do the same as their lead singer, Ian Brown. That’s why I gathered my friends: Bonehead, Guigsy and Tony. That’s how Oasis started and I became a singer.’ 

At the time, Noel was touring with a band called Inspiral Carpets – and joined Oasis when he was passed up on the lead singer role.

Following the success of Definitely Maybe, Peggy appeared on the Late Late Show in Ireland where she gushed about her sons’ recent Cork concert and shut down the host’s suggestion that the band was ‘too loud’.

Elsewhere in the interview, Peggy confirmed that Noel and Liam would ‘buy her anything’ and ‘couldn’t understand’ why she wanted to stay in her council home.

Appearing on The Late Late Show in 2021, Noel added: ‘We offered to buy her a house but where we’re from in Manchester, she’s got seven sisters and about five of them live about a 15-minute walk from each other so she wasn’t going to move.

‘The one thing she requested was we had a garden gate which was really squeaky and she said, “If you could just change the gate.”

‘We bought her a brand-new gate with a gold number 5 on it and she was happy as Larry after that.’

He added: ‘I don’t think she ever accepted that we were in a band or any good until she saw us on Top of the Pops and then she said, “Oh, is this what you’re doing?”‘

Growing up, Peggy would take her sons back to Charlestown to visit and local pub owner John Finan told The Sun how Noel and Liam would spend a lot of time in their establishment, which had a lively music scene.

He told the publication: ‘When their granny died about 20 years ago we had the wake here. I remember setting up a drink for both of them at the bar and they toasted her memory. They were very close and had great respect for her.’ 

A ‘rock’ to Liam and Noel who encouraged Oasis reunion 

Ever since Oasis broke up in 2009, Peggy – who is a devoted grandmother to Noel and Liam’s six children – has reportedly been urging her sons to end their feud.

Appearing in the Supersonic documentary, Peggy explained that the brothers’ feud dates back to their childhood.

She said: ‘I think there was that bit of jealously with Liam and Noel. Noel was beautiful as a baby and then Liam comes along – it takes the limelight off you. 

‘You could tell disagreement was there with them. I was glad they were in a band together. I would not have wanted Liam in a band without Noel. But it all happened too quick.’

Meanwhile, Noel joked in an interview with The Guardian in 2019: ‘I liked my mum until she gave birth to Liam.’

A source close to the Gallaghers told The Mirror that Peggy ‘would love to see them back playing together and has always urged them to stop arguing and put the past behind them’. 

‘She will be thrilled too with what has happened,’ they said.  

Peggy had told Liam last year to mend his rift with Noel during a mother and son spa break at the five-star Cliveden House in Berkshire ahead of her 80th  birthday. 

An insider told The Sun last January: ‘In recent years there has been distance within the family, especially with Liam and Noel at war.

‘Peggy has told Liam to mend the rift and she is hoping there will be genuine reconciliation. 

‘Peggy was in a reflective mood and it would be the best birthday present if they’d finally make some steps towards patching up their feud.’ 

In Liam’s 2019 As It Was documentary, she opened up about her hopes of a reconciliation.

Sitting beside her youngest son, Peggy was bullish as she declared how they are all going to get along and ‘that’s it’. 

As Liam begins to say how he gets on with his other brother Paul so ‘two out of three ain’t bad’, she says: ‘No, but the way I look at it, darling, life is very short and if anything happened to either one of you, you’d never…’  

That year, Noel hinted he was finally willing to sort things out with Liam for the sake of his mother. 

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Noel said: ‘Our family has never been close. I don’t know one person, one single person, in my life who is living in the perfect family. Not one.’ 

He then added: ‘Reconciliation is a good thing.’   

The Mancunian brothers have been estranged since 2009 – enduring a number of rows during their time in Oasis before the band finally split that year.

Tensions reached their peak in August when the siblings endured a fierce row backstage in Paris, which reportedly saw Liam throw a plum and smash Noel’s guitar.

Their appearance at the Rock en Seine festival that evening was cancelled minutes before it was due to begin, leaving thousands of fans disappointed. 

Speaking to Absolute Radio in 2017, Noel admitted Peggy is a ‘rock’ to him – but joked that his three children think their grandmother is ‘absolutely f***ing mental’.

The star went on to joke that Peggy is ‘obsessed with people dying’ and delights in informing him of neighbourhood news.