Lives Lost to Covid-19: The vaccine offer arrived two days after Eileen’s funeral

This article is one of a series about people who have died with coronavirus in Ireland and among the diaspora. You can read more of them here. If you would like a friend or family member included in the series, please email liveslost@irishtimes.com

Eileen Gallagher

1923-2021

During the second World War, Eileen Mallon worked in the local linen factory in her home town of Lurgan, Co Armagh, making uniforms for American soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland.

"She often told us that they put small cards in the pockets of the uniforms with their contact details and a note saying 'If you are single drop me a line, if you are married, they'll be fine'," recalls her grandson Michael Fegan.

Eileen's destiny, however, was not as a GI bride but much closer to home. She loved to go dancing every weekend at a time when jiving was all the rage. It was at a dance in Castle Lane, Lurgan, where she met her husband Hugh Gallagher from Co Leitrim, a great jiver and a groundskeeper on a large estate near Moira.

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Dancing led to love and then marriage in October 1952, and a week-long honeymoon in Dublin, a rare and exotic trip at the time. Hugh and Eileen Gallagher returned to Lurgan with just five shillings to their name, staying with a close friend before they got their own home in the town.

Born on April 29th, 1923, Eileen grew up on Clara Street in Lurgan, the daughter of Catherine and Patrick Mallon and the eldest of seven. She outlived all her siblings – Seamus, Joseph, Laurentia, Thomas, Patrick and Andrew.

She went to a local primary school and after working in the linen factory she later got a job in Wade’s factory in Portadown which made porcelain, and then as a school cleaner at Sacred Heart primary school and then in the school canteen of St Mary’s secondary school.

During her childhood Eileen spent a lot of time in Bundoran, Co Donegal, where her own mother's family lived, a tradition the following generations took up.

She and Hugh went on to bring their three daughters – Deirdre, Majella and Edel – to the Donegal seaside town for holidays, and in time their grandchildren too. Her grandson remembers with a smile her enthusiasm for the amusement arcade where she’d go with her grandchildren. “She would pitch herself up with a cup of coins to play her favourite game, the ‘tipping point’,” where coins slide from one level to the next.

Eileen and Hugh loved Bundoran so much that in later years they lived there six months of the year in their caravan at Dartry View mobile home park, usually from Easter to Halloween. Hugh took care of the grounds and the owner looked out for the Gallaghers, who stayed there every year until Hugh’s death in August 2015 aged 95, after 63 years of marriage.

Eileen enjoyed the simple life and never drove, says her grandson. But she loved style and fashion and going to clothes shops. “Even when she wasn’t very mobile any more she made sure she was taken out to the shops.”

She was also very proud of her nine grandchildren – James, Gareth, Ross, Michael, Paul, Gary, Grace, Adam and Laura – and their achievements, coming as she did from a background with little educational opportunity.

In recent years, as her mobility reduced and carers took a greater role, her daughters each spent two days and nights a week with Eileen from their own homes in Letterkenny, Dungannon and Warrenpoint as part of efforts to keep her in her own home in Lurgan where she wanted to be.

Eileen died on January 10th, aged 97. A letter offering the vaccine arrived two days after her funeral. But, says her grandson, “You can’t argue with 97.”

Eileen Gallagher is survived by her three daughters, Deirdre, Majella and Edel, her nine grandchildren and her two great granddaughters Grace and Aoife.