It Occurs To Me:  Remembering the wonderful Nellie Gallagher  

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Nellie Gallagher. 

It seems like only yesterday that Nellie attended Christy Gillespie’s Letterkenny launch of The Road to Glenlough. The former cook for Henry McIlhenny had met many of the celebrities mentioned in his acclaimed publication. 

I visited her some six years ago, a few months before her 90th birthday and it is still a warm and vivid memory, as we sipped tea in her home with the most beautiful view over Gartan Lake. 

“I was born in Dunlewy and the only time I was ever out of it was to get my tonsils out in Letterkenny! When I was 16, Mr McIlhenny’s housekeeper, Mrs Whiteside, came looking for two girls to work in the kitchen, so myself and Mary O’Donnell went. I had no say in it because my mother volunteered me but safe to say, I enjoyed every day of my fifty years there. The year after we started work, the Big Snow of 1947 happened and the road to Dunlewy was closed until May! We were stuck in Glenveagh from February until the thaw came but I worked alongside Nellie Gallagher (no relation) and she was great craic and kept us going.” 

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Nellie too is great craic..her eyes twinkle as she recalls some of the famous guests who stayed there. “Lord and Lady Dunsany were regular visitors...at the start he seemed grumpy and had nothing to say but eventually he warmed to us and when we went to his mansion in Tara, we were treated like honoured guests. I took Lady Dunsany and Lady Dunraven to Doon Well and they were fascinated. Lady Dunraven had a sore back and couldn’t sleep but after the visit to Doon, she was cured!” Lord Dunsany...John Plunkett...was a renowned Anglo Irish writer and friend of WB Yeats. 

Another Gallagher landed in Glenveagh in the late 1950s to fix the central heating...his name was Danny. Nellie and he fell in love and married in 1962 but sadly, he passed away suddenly in 1996. They had four children Don, Joan, Fiona and Elaine and have six grandchildren.

The late Nellie Gallagher was the former cook for Henry McIlhenny at Glenveagh Castle

 “Danny was ahead of his time as a husband. He couldn’t boil an egg!” she laughs, “but when I was travelling to Philadelphia, Hawaii, Austria or Australia with Mr McIlhenny, he got the children ready for school and all the other chores a mother would do.”

Nellie still drives, lives on her own, with family nearby, but is glad to be settled above the lake. “I don’t miss the travelling anymore, Frank, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I didn’t get married until I was 31 so I’d seen the world and done many things. When Henry McIlhenny left Glenveagh in 1983, Nellie stayed on when Glenveagh was taken over by the Board of Works. 

“I stayed until I was 65 and missed it...but aren't I blessed to have such a long retirement. Mr McIlhenny died in 1986 and I was very sad. He was very kind to all of us and a great employer locally. My brother Dermot was a chauffeur and Nellie’s husband and son were also employed there. But things change and I love how it's open to the public now and it’s become so popular. Funny how things change...when a car was sent for me and Mary O’Donnell in Dunlewy in 1946, it costs a massive three pounds...two weeks wages!” Nellie keeps up with the times...she’s just been in contact with brother Danny in Florida on ‘Facetime’ and can’t wait to see him when he comes on holidays soon. “Mr McElhinny’s nephew, Alexander, still visits and stays with me here. I’m delighted to keep that connection alive.” 

She had a great reputation as a cook and baker and before I left her, she presented me with her famous treacle bread and scones. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann!

                                             Bacon ‘smokes’ the bank!

Staying with wonderful elderly ladies, the following is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by Sue Bacon, a 96 year-old woman in the US. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times (I wonder did he break protocol and ring her to apologise?) Bernie Sanders should recruit her. For all of you who yearn for the days we interacted with human beings, not buttons and robots…enjoy!

“To whom it may concern, I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his depositing the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly transfer of funds from my modest savings account, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only thirty-one years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

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My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has recently become.

From now on.., I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact Status form which I require your chosen employee to complete.

I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course,

I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Please allow me to level the playing field even further. When you call me, you will now have a menu of options on my new voice mail system to choose from.

Please press the buttons as follows:

Press 1: To make an appointment to see me.

Press 2: To query a missing payment.

Press 3: To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

Press 4: To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

Press 5: To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

Press 6: To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

Press 7: To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. A Password will be communicated to you at a later date… to the Authorized Contact.

Press 8: To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.

To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee of $50 to cover the setting up of this new arrangement. Please credit my account after each occasion.

Your Humble Client…”

                                        Pope Francis RIP

You’ll get the usual suspects whinging about him, but considering the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and the delicate balancing act of the papacy, he achieved a lot, and his humility was obvious to see. I know many Protestant friends who admired him greatly.

A mark of his compassion was agreeing to briefly see the dreadful JD Vance the day before his death, even though it probably made him grit his teeth.

According to one US news outlet: “...he used his last days on the planet to order up a stern dressing down to JD Vance on the White House’s attitude to migrants. It was an entirely fitting final set piece from one of the few world leaders who had the courage—and political immunity—to stand up to and criticize, often in blistering terms, both presidencies of Donald Trump, explicitly calling his migration policies a “disgrace” and “not Christian”.

Coincidentally, I’m reminded of Queen Elizabeth’s last visitor, Liz Truss, who was advised by the monarch to ‘pace yourself!’. She did…and only lasted another 40 days as PM!