A focus on Tommy Gallagher's remarkable life of helping so many others

Well, Tommy Gallagher – the towering teacher, athlete/coach, farmer and politician from Belleek – is a true educator in the best sense of the word.

And, if real communication is largely about listening before opening that potentially most treacherous of organs, the mouth, then Tommy is right up there with the very best communicators.

He would never be into quick, sugary soundbites, but his views are balanced and measured almost to a fault.

Add in a natural gravitas, presence and a deep rich voice that always held a room, and you see why he has made such an impact on the educational, sporting and political worlds.

He was at the hub of community life in North Fermanagh for almost 25 years.

Tommy taught in St. Mary’s High School, Brollagh for 29 years, played Senior football and hurling for Fermanagh for around 11 years, and was Under-21 manager and a Senior county selector.

These days, he is a very fit 81-year-old, and still has the build of the tall, lean midfielder he was for many years, when he was young and truly invincible.

Sporting career

The Romans also believed that a healthy mind lay in a healthy body, and Tommy embodied this in a long sporting and coaching career.

He was an SDLP Fermanagh District Councillor from1989 to 2002, and an MLA from 1998 until he retired in 2011.

And he was also a senior negotiator for the SDLP during those manic April days leading up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, as well as being the party’s spokesman on Health and Education.

Those were days that needed cool heads and real steel, but as on the football field, Tommy was always up for the battle when it really mattered.

But you won’t get any glib one- liners from Tommy, who is a deep thinker, naturally understated and discreet, the latter being a ‘sine qua non’, or essential quality in a politician.

His replies to questions are measured, thoughtful and tactful, and you can almost hear him listening to the question.

His early passion for sport meant that he helped to turn a small second level school – St. Mary’s, Brollagh – into a formidable sporting academy from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Brollagh won a few Fermanagh Schools Football titles against much bigger schools, won Feile na nGael hurling titles, and was part of a Fermanagh team that won an All-Ireland U-14 hurling title in 1974.

Player-manager

That same year Tommy was player-manager of a very young Erne Gaels team that reached a Fermanagh county final, but lost out to Teemore.

Tommy had coached around three quarters of that team in Brollagh – a team that went on to win county titles in 1979 and 1981.

He was a key figure on the line when Erne Gaels made a brilliant comeback against Belcoo in the 1981 county final.

And he guided Belleek hurlers to an historic Fermanagh county title in 1984 when they too made the father and mother of a second-half comeback.

Tommy’s teams were always taught the basic skills, just like Jim McKeever had taught him at St. Joseph’s Training College in Belfast in the early 1960s.

But they also never gave in, because he never looked ruffled and always stood tall, and could put belief in even the most fickle of players, and, like all great competitors, defeat was not something he ever entertained.

However, Tommy was no stranger to neighbouring club Devenish either, as he won five county championships and six league titles on a fabulous side from 1960 to the end of that decade that included legends such as P. T. Treacy, J. J. Treacy, the Flanagans, Gerry Regan and Gerry Feely.

Tommy was a young man of 18 when he partnered Sean Gonigle at midfield on the Mulleek Devenish team of 1960, and that is a memory he especially cherishes.

“That was very special and not just because it was the first title, but it was two junior clubs coming together that might not have been given much chance, but they won a county title.

“John James Treacy gelled those two teams together very well. P. T. Treacy was a great player but a very encouraging man as well, and he never got annoyed with some of the shortcomings in some of the rest of us.

“He was one of the top players of that era and he was outstanding and was a real gentleman.

“I was playing midfield along with Sean Gonigle and it is great to look back at it now. Maybe I did not appreciate it fully at the time.”

Like the rest of his family, Tommy was born in Bonhaill across the Donegal Border and went to Belleek No. 1 Primary School.

He then went to St. Malachy’s, Belfast, where he got his first taste of Gaelic Football and Hurling along with his late younger brother, Raymond, who was a gifted hurler.

“Belfast was a different place, but there were parts of Belfast that you were told not to go out to.”

Contemporaries

Among Tommy’s contemporaries at St. Malachy’s was James Milligan, who played centre-field with Colm McAlarney when Down beat Kerry in the All-Ireland final of 1968.

Back home, Tommy can remember the Fermanagh Senior Football League final of 1956 when Belleek were victorious with the legendary McCaffreys, Joe Tunney, Sean Gonigle, and the outstanding Patsy Rooney in the twilight of their careers when they beat Roslea.

He first played in Loughlin’s Field in Corry, Belleek with the likes of Sean O’Loughlin, Pat O’Loughlin and Gerry McCauley.

Magheramena pitch was quite near Tommy’s home in Keenaghan, and the first team he played for was Mulleek.

Tommy can remember a Meath and Cavan All-Ireland in the early 1950s and a great Tyrone team that contained Iggy Jones and Jody O’Neill in the mid-1950s.

While still a student at St. Joseph’s, Tommy played in the Antrim Leagues as there was no competition for the college in those early 1960s days.

“Jim McKeever was a big influence and always emphasised developing the skills of Gaelic Football.

“He was a very skillful player himself, and brought new skills to players and it applied to all aspects of the game – shooting, tackling, positioning yourself, etc.”

Tommy’s long inter-county Senior career debut was a bit of a baptism of fire, as he and Vincent Greene from Kinawley were pitted at midfield against the great Jarlath Carey and Joe Lennon of Down in 1962 when Down were All-Ireland champions, when Tommy was barely 20.

Mickey Brewster, Owenie Callaghan, The Treacys, and “Sean Maguire” were part of that Fermanagh team.

“I loved my time with Fermanagh and always played midfield, and felt I always had good help at midfield.

“I played with Mickey Brewster and Dessie Campbell in that period and had a good team in 1973, but Tyrone beat us in the Ulster Championship.

“Eamon McPartland, Ciaran Campbell and Sean Sheridan were on that team also.

“John Vesey was our manager, and it was Paddy O’Hara who managed us when I played for Fermanagh first. Paddy was a lovely man, and had a great heart, and had a great voice also.

“I played against the Meath team of 1967 and Donegal, who had players like Sean Ferriter and Frankie McFeely, and played against Jody O’Neill of Tyrone.”

Erne Gaels

Tommy came back to his native Erne Gaels in the early 1970s and he became player-manager in 1974.

“There was good potential in Erne Gaels at that time and there were a few older heads as well.

“At that stage, some of our boys were probably on the young side. That was a great squad for the next six or seven years.”

But Tommy stayed pretty youthful and played for the club until he was around 36, and played hurling until 1981 when Erne Gaels won the Fermanagh Senior Football and Senior Hurling county league and championship titles.

He also coached Erne Gaels to a SFL Division Two title back in 1986.

In tandem with this success, Tommy started to put Brollagh on the sporting and educational map until he retired from teaching in 1995.

‘Talented athletes’

“We had some talented athletes in Brollagh and many of them went on to play Senior football for Fermanagh, like Arthur McCaffrey, Pat McCann, Johnny Leonard, Aidan Jones, and Kevin McGuinness.

“As a teacher, it was a privilege to have such a bunch of talented players coming together, and talented pupils.

“Brollagh in that time had considerable academic success also. We beat Lisnaskea in a school’s football final, and that was a great victory in 1975.”

Tommy also revived hurling in the school, having hurled with St. Malachy’s teams as a student.

Success followed at Feile na nGael level and an All-Ireland U-14 title in Limerick as part of a Fermanagh team.

That team formed the bulk of future Fermanagh Senior hurling sides and Tommy was also a selector on the Fermanagh Senior football side in those years.

“But other pressures came in the 1980s and there was not as much time to devote to sport as the curriculum was widened.

“PE time was effectively cut, and it made it difficult.”

Tommy retired from teaching in 1995, but was already involved in politics when he was elected to Fermanagh District Council in 1989.

It was his second attempt, as he first stood in 1985.

“I had been involved in local organisations, apart from the GAA, like the Chamber of Commerce, and was interested in the development of the local area, and the benefits for local people out of that.

“I joined the SDLP in 1973 when it was founded, and Tommy Daly of Belleek was a big influence.

“There were a number of local issues, like the neglect of the area. The campaign of violence had left many people disillusioned; some were fearful, and some were very annoyed.

“It was a combination of all those things, and I did have a belief that things could be better and that spurred me on as well.

“I was not elected in 1985, but the reaction of people gave me good encouragement to go on and win the local election in 1989. I got in comfortably enough, and had a great sense of relief that I had got in.”

In those days, Belleek and the surrounding areas had a major roads problem, in that roads were not treated.

Another major problem was a lack of electricity in rural houses in North Fermanagh.

This was a project Tommy took to heart, and he helped to improve life for so many people in remote areas.

“The NIE brought in a scheme where a grant of 50 per cent was available for getting in electricity.

“I started this scheme in North Fermanagh, and it spread to the rest of the county, and I was urging the NIE to avail of European aid.

“We also addressed some major road issues and drainage problems in the area.”

Belleek

This was also the time when the International Fund for Ireland was just starting to kick in and Belleek, as a peripheral Border area, was one of the first areas to benefit.

“This was regularly brought up at Council meetings. Initially, Unionist politicians were a bit wary, and it took some years later before they embraced [such supports].”

But Tommy was also at the centre of the fight against the closing of the Border roads in the hours of darkness around Belleek.

“The checkpoint on Boa Island was closed, along with the one at Roscor, and people were fearful that at times someone might need an ambulance in the middle of the night.

“This was a time of Direct Rule from Westminster, and decisions were being made over there that had little relevance to rural Fermanagh.”

Those were exciting times to be involved in politics, especially after the IRA Ceasefire in 1994, and the re-opening of the Border roads.

It was a time when all of Northern Ireland was re-energised. Tommy added that he felt very privileged to be elected by the people of Fermanagh for so long.

“I have always looked upon it as a privilege that so many people came out to the ballot box to support me.

“And it also gave me opportunities to become actively involved in the Peace Process.

“John Hume brought me into this process, and it took quite a lot of time, with so many meetings and being on the road at all hours.

“I could not have done all this without the support of my wife, Eileen, and family.”

Tommy first became involved in this process back in 1991 as a key member of the SDLP with all the interested parties.

“Those were frenetic days, and I believed there was an opportunity to change things around violence.

“Sinn Féin had a somewhat ambiguous attitude towards violence but, of course, Unionists had to be persuaded as well.

“In essence, John Hume summed it up very well when he said that an eye for an eye is going to leave everybody blind.

“Violence had not worked, and we were looking for a better way.

“It was a time when people were fearful, and I know some people were not able to complete matters because of understandable fears for themselves and their families.”

Negotiations

Tommy is almost deadpan about the almost manic negotiations that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

“Hopes would build up, and then they would be dashed again. It took a lot of perseverance and Castle Buildings in Stormont was very oppressive.

“But I can remember John Hume as being always optimistic, and working the corridor, bringing some nuggets of hope.

“It was almost too good to be true, and it was great to be part of something that was a landmark achievement right across the islands.”

The elections followed and Tommy, by now, had a profile and was elected to the Assembly.

The first few years were a period when the Official Unionists and the SDLP were the main players.

Tommy was spokesman on Education and Health, and things were “pretty positive and constructive”.

“Even though the DUP and Sinn Féin were still very far apart, they were starting to come together on the committees, away from the spotlight. That, of course, held out a hope for the future.”

Things changed for Tommy and his colleagues in 2007 as the previous four years saw the Assembly suspended, and Direct Rule returned.

Sinn Féin and the DUP seized power effectively in 2007, and have remained in power ever since.

However, Tommy is convinced that the Assembly needs an opposition to balance matters, and is hopeful that it can get up and running again.

On the local front, Tommy was involved in the campaign to get the state-of-the-art South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) to Fermanagh.

Tommy also managed to persuade his colleagues to have Waterways Ireland located in Enniskillen.

In more recent times, he is a very active member of the Belleek Development and Heritage Group, with its aim is to develop Belleek as a heritage village, taking advantage of its historical and natural assets.

Crisis in the SWAH

But it saddens him to see the crisis in the SWAH over the threats to the emergency surgery services where seriously ill people have to travel all the way to Altnagelvin.

“It is very concerning for the people of this area that a new hospital which came into being under the first Assembly [should now have the issues it does].

“Through the Assembly, we eventually ended up with the new hospital for Enniskillen, with great hopes that not only would it have been serving the people of this area, but that its catchment area would spread across the Border.

“There was a willingness at that time to develop the cross-Border aspect and have a very successful hospital for the south-west in Enniskillen.

“Sadly, nothing can really be done until the Assembly comes together again.

“An earlier Assembly produced the Bengoa Report, which was pointing the best way forward for hospital services in Northern Ireland about ten years ago.

“Their plan was to have services rearranged, but at the same time, to have all of the hospitals working.

“But it’s going to take a political decision to implement the recommendations in that report. That can only come from the Assembly.”

He added: “In the meantime, people with medical conditions are being greatly inconvenienced, and it is also a big worry for people who are wondering about, ‘If this happened to me, where am I going to go?’

“That is a constant worry, and that is a very unfortunate thing, and it leaves the population here with no way forward.”

Tommy added that it was a big disappointment that the DUP and Sinn Féin cannot agree.

“We can only hope that they will agree and get back to work for the benefit of everybody, and heal the divisions in our communities.

“They are still there, and the longer this goes on the worse it will get, and it appears that the positions in both parties are hardening.

“This is going to prolong disagreement, and promote further community division.

“That is very unpleasant and unsatisfactory, and while I always promoted the cause of a united Ireland – I remind people of John Hume’s view on that, in that you have to unite the people first.

“What’s happening, at present, is certainly not taking us along that road, and the sooner that changes the better, because everybody here in Northern Ireland wants a democratic arrangement where the parties are working together.

“No matter how long it takes, they will have to come to an agreement at the end.”

When asked if the financial carrot of £2billion would be an inducement to end the stalemate, he said: “I thought it would, but Christmas has come and gone, but there are no encouraging signs that there has been any change in the attitude of the main parties since Christmas.”

So, the tall teacher from Keenaghan has made a real mark on many facets of community life in Fermanagh and further afield quietly, discreetly and efficiently with deep determination.

But this essentially modest man would not have it any other way.

Incidentally the word ‘educo’ can also mean to lead.

Tommy Gallagher has led by example for most of his life.