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Sorry - I should have given more information, I was so frustrated at not finding her birth cert when I thought it would be easy.  I have:

Mary Ann Mullin, married Albert Clayton 6 Aug 1910. She lived at 32 Nebo Street, Bolton at St Peter and Paul's RC Church in Bolton. She gave her occupation as card room hand and was a spinster.  Father - John Mullin (deceased).  Witnesses - Catherine Mullin (sister) and James Corless (cousin).  I honestly can't remember why I think she knocked a few years off her age, it's one of those assumptions I've never challenged, perhaps something I heard in childhood. I've been through the BMDs and can't find one which is right...there's a Mary Ann of the right date in Liverpool but the father's name is wrong. 

I had a real success tonight tracing an ancestor who should have been untraceable...just one of those strokes of luck....but Mary Ann is proving elusive!

Thank you for the idea about the Mc.  That hadn't occured to me. I've become all too accustomed to the forms of spelling in Irish research but Mc is one form I'd not considered.

Absolutely.  Too many unknowns.  No mother for Julia, no idea where in Galway she came from, no idea of previous or even other existing siblings - I'm reduced to guessing to see if following a wild card produces any information.  Thanks for trying to help, though.  It's the usual Irish history "black hole" I'm afraid.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I feel so stupid missing the obvious - too much time staring at printouts and end up seeing nothing.

...except for maybe one thing, which is why I started looking at the Flaherty family.  Julia and Ellen (age 10) are lodgers with no mother in sight, and I can't find her.  I wondered about Julia's name - not that common an Irish name (Julia) - and their apparently motherless state.  However, it makes sense if Julia Flaherty is in fact Aunt Julia. She's about the right age.  Which makes her unmarried name Julia Corless (or have I missed something else obvious here?).  If that's right, it makes it a whole lot easier to identify the family in Galway.  They're not identified as nieces, though.

I have five children listed on a census for a particular address, all identified as "son" or "daughter", specifically of John and Julia.  But no John or Julia.  Would this be because John and Julia were missing on census night or might there be another reason?