Suicide prevention charity to benefit from raffle of island house

Fancy winning a fully-furnished four-bedroom house with four bathrooms, a large sitting room, an open fire and a private enclosed garden with 180-degree views of the Atlantic ocean?

Well, for €11 you could be in with a chance of owning the property on Arranmore island off the Co Donegal coast, which is being raffled by a family who intend to give part of the proceeds to suicide-prevention charity Pieta House.

Bryan and Lisa Gallagher, who live in Letterkenny, spent seven years building the house, which was completed seven years ago.

Ms Gallagher said the plan had been to move to Arranmore but “things don’t always turn out the way you planned”. Her husband had been working abroad and “wanted to come home with obviously not the same money, so you have to make a cut somewhere”.

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However, Mr Gallagher's parents, uncles, aunts and other relatives still live on Arranmore "so it's not as if we're leaving the island", she said.

“We have three children and they’re just at an age where they’re going to college,” Ms Gallagher said. “We have the property, we don’t use it as much as we should, and we probably need the money for them. So we kind of made the decision that we would raffle the house, with 5 per cent going to Pieta.”

Pieta House “is close to our hearts” as it had been very helpful to a person they know. The family usually takes part in the charity’s annual Darkness into Light fundraising walk in Letterkenny, which like many efforts by charities to raise money has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The couple intend to do the walk on Arranmore next Saturday with their three children.

Ticket sales for the raffle close on July 31st, and the hope is that it will raise a five-figure sum for the charity.

“The UK company which is organising the raffle takes 10 per cent to start with, then 5 per cent will go to Pieta. If we were to sell the full amount of tickets, that’d be 60,000 tickets, they [Pieta House] will get €30,000, but we’re hoping to hit 30,000 tickets going by ticket sales now,” Ms Gallagher said.

Indeed, anyone who buys a ticket will also be entered into a draw to win a break at the house over the August bank-holiday weekend as well as a return ferry crossing for a car, a €100 voucher for Early’s bar on Arranmore and a hamper.

Details of the raffle, including a video about the house, can be found on the Facebook page Prize Home, Arranmore Island, County Donegal.