born in the bushy park area around 1870, o'halloran lived alone in little/leetle st (now called newcastle road from cooke's corner to the presentation road turn) at the time of the 1911 census. by his own account, he was one of a number of dock labourers who met one evening in august 1911 at cromwell's fort, near renmore, to discuss the establishment of a union to represent general workers. over the following days, news of the al fresco discussion spread around galway, and a considerable crowd attended a subsequent public meeting at the racquet court theatre. at that meeting, the galway workers' and general labourers' union (gwglu) was established and o'halloran was elected as its first secretary.