Eric Gallagher

Rev. Dr Robert David Eric Gallagher CBE, BA, BD (24 August 1913 – 30 December 1999)[1] was President of the Methodist Church in Ireland during 1967.[2]

In 1974 he was one of a group of Protestant clergymen who met with Provisional IRA officers in Feakle, County Clare in the 1970s to try to broker a peace after achieving a temporary ceasefire. The meeting was broken up by the Gardai but the IRA officers had already left. He spent 22 years as superintendent of the Belfast Central Mission, from 1957 until 1979.

He died on 30 December 1999, aged 86, and was interred at the Lisburn New Cemetery at Blaris, County Down.[3]

Legacy

At Rev Gallagher's funeral in January 2000, Cardinal Cahal Daly, with whom Gallagher had jointly chaired a social issues group behind the Violence in Ireland report to the churches stated: "Not many people have been clear and steady beacons of light in the darkness of the last 30 years. Eric Gallagher was one ... [I]t was a privilege to work with him ... he took risks for peace."[4]

Other

Rev. Gallagher was the subject of Peacemaker, written by Dennis Cooke.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Eric Gallagher". The Times (London, England). 24 January 2000. p. 19 – via The Times Digital Archive 1785–2008.
  2. ↑ His father had also been so honoured in 1946 > "History of Methodism in Ireland Volume I" p 128: Clonmel : Tentmaker Publications, 1994 ISBN 1899003037
  3. ↑ Irish News obituary
  4. ↑ Irish News obituary
  5. ↑ Peterborough : Methodist Publishing House, 2005. ISBN 1858522633 . British Library web site, accessed 17:55 GMT Monday 19 May 2014

External links