Hugh Gallagher: Author, Lensman, Creggan Champion

The late Hugh Gallagher, on left, with Kevin Hippsley, at the launch of A Foyle Tale at Ráth Mór in 2019 .

Our great friend and most-talented colleague Hugh Gallagher has died this morning (September 29), at the age of 76, after a long illness. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé.

Over the past 40 years, Hugh had worked with virtually every publishing organisation in the North West, starting his media career as a volunteer and later staff photographer with Fingerpost in the mid-80s. A gifted humorist, he published his first book, The Spectator and Other Derry Stories (illustrated by Cormac Downey) in 1990 with his good friend Eamon Deane's Yes Publications.

In his spare time, he became the lensman for Cityview, the official Derry City FC programme, travelling up and down the country with The Candystripes after their re-entry into senior football.

And he also worked for many years with the Derry Journal and the Derry News as both a columnist and freelance cameraman.

With an archive of more than 40000 images, Hugh was, for a generation, a first source of pictures for Guildhall Press, Hive Studio Books and Colmcille Press/Cló Cholmcille. And he was always particularly delighted to cover book launches, loving nothing better than to swap stories with old friends and fellow authors.

Hugh published two books with Guildhall Press: A View of Derry (2008), a superlative collection of local photographs; and A Foyle Tale: The Toucan Venturer in Derry, which recounts the remarkable true story of how he worked as a supervisor on the attempted refit of a grounded ship, to bring supplies to famine-struck Ethiopia, and ended up living on board.

A dyed-in-the-wool Creggan man, Hugh was very proud to contribute to any book, periodical or pamphlet that promoted his home turf. He had lived in the same house in Melmore Gardens for 75 years. His photographs adorn virtually every wall in Ráth Mór - and can also be found in almost all books to emanate from the centre.

In retirement, Hugh kept busy writing short stories for the local newspapers, and magazines such as Ireland's Own. He also loved to publish and exhibit collages from his extensive archive. You were nobody in Derry until you had appeared in a Gallagher picture spread.

His generosity and community spirit was also evident to anyone who ever dealt with him.

Ráth Mór General Manager Kevin Hippsley paid tribute to his friend saying: ‘Hugh was a real talent, but so modest with it. Nothing was too much trouble for him - he loved to help and to see a job done well. He was a warm presence about the office, lifting us with his humour. But there was a great wisdom there too - and he contributed so much to so many books and so many projects.

'He is a real loss to all of us in the publishing sector, to Creggan and to Derry. Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam uasal.'

Former Derry Journal Editor Pat McArt paid this tribute: 'His archive of life in Derry over the past 40-50 years has got to be priceless. He was a chronicler of the everyday, of people going about their daily doings.

'These photos were never meant for newspapers or other media, but simply to record lives. That was what interested Hugh. I doubt if anyone else has anything that comes near.

'Condolences to his family and friends. He was a lovely man.'

Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter launches litfest podcast

Our friends at the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival are producing a series of podcasts to mark their tenth anniversary, the first of which is available by clicking on the image. This year's litfest runs from October 16 to 19 and will be launched by the author and journalist Roy Greenslade at Donegal County Museum on Friday 17 at 7.30pm. Colmcille Press authors Jim Simpson and Pat McArt will both be giving talks as part of this year's event. The full programme will be available shortly.

A Giant of Democracy, RIP

Suaimhneas síoraí ar ár gcara mór, an t-údar Pat Bradley, a fuair bás inné.

Our heartfelt condolences to the family of our friend and author Pat Bradley, who died in Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital yesterday aged 90.

Pat was a one-man ambassador for democracy, for the Irish peace process and for Derry.

From East Belfast to East Timor, and from South Armagh to South Africa, he spent his career running elections, surviving wars and delivering democracy.

He was also a most entertaining story-teller and brilliant writer, whose memoir, 'Ballots, Bombs and Bullets', casts an unflinching insider's eye over Northern Irish political scene during some of his darkest days.

However, even after retiring as Chief Electoral Officer, the man who famously announced the result of the Good Friday Agreement Referendum in 1998 (which earned him a cameo in Derry Girls) was determined to continue his mission to bring democracy to the world.

For many years, Pat worked with the United Nations, the Commonwealth Office and the European Union, introducing (or enhancing) democracy from Africa to Eastern Europe to Asia. The learning, and thick skin, he acquired from his work in Northern Ireland would serve him well.

In all, he worked as the lead advisor for elections in five continents, in more than twenty-five countries including Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Russia, South Africa, and Yemen.

In the throes of his distinguished career the Bishop Street man was threatened many times, shot at, kidnapped and bombed. On his first polling day in 1974, just a few months into the job, he was petrol-bombed while taking ballot boxes both in and out of a station in a republican area - and was also forced to remove, at some risk, a giant Union Jack draped over the door of a station in a unionist area.

A man of imposing stature, he went nose-to-nose with the toughest of the tough at home and abroad - including Ian Paisley and Margaret Thatcher - but he always stuck to his task 'without fear, bias or rancour', his abiding goal to serve the public fairly and faithfully.

He also worked ferociously hard - travelling up to Belfast every day on the six a.m. red-eye, getting back to his Talbot Park home sometimes in the small hours of the following morning.

Despite spending a lifetime among the most powerful people in the world, Pat was always gentle, modest and humble – and a joy to work with. A recipient of the St Columb's College Alumnus Illustrissimus award in 2008, he was awarded both an MBE and a CBE, which he said made it easier for him to travel in certain parts and gave his opinion greater weight at the top tables. But he wore all his awards very lightly and never referred to them once in his memoir.

His book is one of the most eminently-readable accounts of how democracy works at the coalface - full of colourful stories about personation and electoral abuse, and vignettes of political mischief and civil service interference. His favourite story was about how an Eglinton returning officer once got up out of his seat to sniff a would-be voter, and then told him he was remarkably fresh for someone who had been dead for three months.

As a how-to manual for students of democracy across the globe, 'Ballots, Bombs & Bullets' may never be bettered. And Pat Bradley, a giant of democracy, will never be forgotten.