Eliza MacGilligan, the third child of Harold and Rebecca MacGilligan was born in the spring of 1823, and was named out of respect after Harold's younger sister who died of consumption age 10. The family resided in Limerick, and peddled fruits and vegetables everyday. As a young girl Eliza would help her father on some days peddle fruits and vegetables to the public up and down the streets of Limerick, however most of her youth was spent helping her mother out with her daily work in the house. In helping her mother do her work, Eliza gained a vast amount of knowledge in how to be a good housekeeper. Around the age of 19 Eliza started to think about what she would do in life, whether she would find a nice man to marry, and where they would live. She had seen her brother Luke go off to England, but she was too proud of her heritage to leave Limerick, so leaving was definitely not in her plans. So in 1843 at the age of 20 she had gathered up enough funds to start a boarding house in Limerick. The daily management and operation of such a venture left her with little time for a marriage in her mind, so she quickly put away any notions of that sort. The first two years of operation of the boarding house went quite well. Eliza had, along with the knowledge she gained from her mother, become an excellent cook and housekeeper. Her skills in the kitchen, and her polite and friendly nature drew many folks to the boarding house. Travelers and people new to Limerick would hear about the boarding house and arrange with Eliza to stay there. The residents of the boarding house would be as generous with their money to Eliza as she was with her service. This help Eliza gain a sizeable wealth.

However in 1845 things started to change, the potato crops all around Limerick started to contract the fungus that had been reported by boarding house travelers to have been occurring outside the area, in fact it had now spread all over Ireland.(1) Business at the boarding house had started to drop, but Eliza was still well off, and didn't rely on the potato crop to live. However, many of those around her did, and Eliza with her good nature started to help them out. All over the countryside around Limerick tenants were being evicted from their land for not being able to pay their rents to the landlords, and also at the request of the some British officials.(2) Eliza had grown outraged at the treatment of her fellow Irishmen that she started to take in those that she could into the boarding house, and allow them to have a safe, clean place to stay while they looked for new opportunities. Some stayed and paid Eliza when they could, and were grateful to her for what she had done for them, others saw nothing bright in the future in Ireland and set sail to America for new opportunities. Eliza would get a letter every so often from one of those people. They would write about the troubles they were facing in America getting jobs, and the horrible trip across the Atlantic in ships so dirty and crowded that many of her countrymen had not survived from the extremely poor conditions.(3) However they let her know that it was still better than being stuck in Limerick and having to starve from the blight, and thanked her for the kindness and compassion that she had shown them when they needed it, including in the letter a small payment for their appreciation. These payments from her boarders and those abroad were small in size, but were more than most Irishmen were making during the famine, and helped her keep the boarding house running at the same level of service as before the famine struck.

One of her tenants was a man named Enis Maguire. Enis Maguire was the first son of Sheamus and Shannon Maguire, born in 1829. The Maguires' had four brother and two sisters that along with him helped out with the family farm. The Maguires' were devout Irish Catholics, and had the family had lived in Limerick on this land for generations. However, as the British started to take over Ireland, they had to give up most of the land, but were still able to keep a small tract of it from the new landlord to live and farm on.(4) The Maguire family then became small farmers who relied solely on the potato crop for their survival. So in 1945 when the blight hit Limerick, they were left penniless, and without much means of survival. Enis' parents had become ill shortly after their crop had been wiped out, and died soon after that. Because of the situation all over Ireland, Enis' brothers and sisters had given up any hopes of survival in Ireland, and emigrated to America and England, but he would not let this dire situation make him leave his homeland. Soon after his parents had died, he came to town to try to find some kind of job to survive, but there were not many available, so he though he had nothing else to hope for, until he heard from a friend about Eliza and her boarding house. Enis decided that this was probably his only chance of survival, and went to see Eliza. He then told Eliza his story and she was happy to take him in.

Life at the boarding house had become crowded, with most rooms being filled to double or triple their normal capacity, but things were still ran smoothly, and the boarders were well fed and the place was kept clean with everyone helping out as they could. It was a much better place to be than starving on the streets or living in the poor houses that had sprung up all over Ireland including Limerick.(5) Things continued on like this in the boarding house until the end of the famine, although its' affects would be felt for many years to come. After the famine had ended Enis stayed at the boarding house, and helped Eliza with the daily running of place. Enis had developed a bond with Eliza, and they had started relationship together, although he knew with her lifestyle that they would never become married, and be able to have a family. He didn't mind this thought much, mainly because he knew Eliza was happy, and saw her tenants as her children. The two ran the boarding house together from then on, although some onlookers wondered about their relationship, nothing ever became more than a friendship, except in rumors. In 1855 Eliza suddenly came down with an illness and died at the age of 32. Enis was left with all of the money that Eliza had made from the boarding house, but he did not know how to run the place by himself. A few months later he sold the place, and left for America, seeing that even after the famine Ireland was still miserable under the British rule. Having a bit of money to use he found himself a nice transport across the Atlantic, and arrived in New York, and settled in Boston. Once in Boston Enis settled down and opened a bar in the heart of the Irish part of the city. He gained respect from the local Irishmen, and developed a reputation as an honest, friendly, hard working man. He attended mass every week, and tended to the business of the bar the rest of the time. Boston he saw a place where his people were succeeding, unlike many other places in America. Sure there was still tension between the Catholics and the Protestants, but the Irish people were finally getting a chance, if only a little one.(6) In 1858, at the age of 29 he married Eve Sullivan, who was a waitress in his bar. She was 21, and her family had immigrated to Boston early in the famine years. Together they had five children, the first one in 1860 was a girl that he named Eliza in honor of his friend who had helped him out, and the rest were boys, Patrick, Sheamus, Samuel, and Ryan who arrived within the span of nine years. His family earned a modest living with the family's bar, and along with the other Boston Irish they struggled constantly to gain equality in the eyes of the Protestants that were there before them. In 1886 the Maguires along with the rest of the Irish community celebrated the achievement of the first Irishman being elected mayor of Boston.(7) Enis and Eve's children went on to receive educations at various universities throughout Massachusetts. In 1890, at the age of 61, Enis died in the family home.