Culture

In a Word . . .

. . . wrong. Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry's face
Patsy McGarry
Wed Dec 5 2018 - 16:33

One of the more unexpected discoveries of growing older is that one can be wrong. Occasionally.

In 2016, it was brought home to me, twice. I was wrong about the Brexit referendum and I was wrong about the election of Trump. God was dead, Marx was dead, and I wasn’t too good myself.

But I am glad to report I’ve had ‘good wrongs’ too. (Well, one!) It began in 2013. In Dallas! In a pub and I wasn’t there.

It was Malahide man Marius Donnelly’s Trinity Hall pub where he and Ballyhaunis pilot Martin Durkan got talking about an article I wrote in this newspaper. It was about a young man from near Ballyhaunis who, in 1967, was killed in Vietnam.

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On July 18th, 1966, then 23-year-old Cpl Patrick (Bob) Gallagher saved the lives of three comrades and was awarded the Navy Cross, the US navy’s highest honour. On March 30th, 1967, he was shot dead while on patrol in Da Nang.

Marius Donnelly and Martin Durkan decided to launch an online petition to have a US navy ship named in Patrick Gallagher’s honour.

Never in US history had a US navy ship been named after an American non-national. ‘Good luck with that!’, I thought sceptically (very).

The two men were not deterred. They pushed and pushed and when 10,000 signatures were secured they began a political campaign in the US and pushed even more.

It meant that by March 2017 members of our Defence Forces and the US army attended the unveiling of a plaque in Ballyhaunis to honour Cpl Gallagher on the 50th anniversary of his death.

It meant that last March, US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer announced the US navy would name its next destroyer in honour of Cpl Gallagher.

It meant a reception in Dublin’s Mansion House last month to celebrate the US navy announcement. This was attended by members of the Gallagher family, representatives of our Defence Forces and the US military, and General Walter Boomer.

He was officer in command the day Cpl Gallagher died in Vietnam and spoke very movingly about accompanying the young man in his last minutes as he lay dying.

All made possible by two determined Irishmen over a pint in Dallas.

It is good to be wrong. Occasionally.

Wrong from Old Norse rangr, Danish vrang, Dutch wrang.

inaword@irishtimes.com