Fermanagh woman Margaret Gallagher and her life story

But she is also the keeper of a sacred flame of Gaelic life in the hills of West Fermanagh, and she is truly a remarkable 82-year-old lady who has been true to herself, and is inspirational.

It was a crisp late February morning, with the cry of Spring in the hills around Belcoo and Boho, when The Impartial Reporter spoke to one of Fermanagh’s greatest icons.

Mullylusty, a lofty townland, looks down on the storied Border towns of Belcoo and ‘The Black’, and this is the independent republic of one very special lady.

Margaret lives in a unique home that is a tribute to a great Gaelic past.

Driving up to the green door of her mountain home, you get the heady, warm smell of turf smoke as wild birds whistle in the wind.

The walls are sparkling with whitewash, and tight thatch adorns the roof of a place that is so old that nobody is quite sure when this dwelling was first lived in.

A thick group of alder trees give some shelter at the back of the house, a home surrounded by a white stone wall, while in a nearby field stands a spring that gives a supply of fresh water.

There is no electric light or heat, or running water, and there are double oil burners on the wall whose flames are reflected on mirrors to give extra light.

But this is no showy museum – it is a warm and welcoming home, and made so by Margaret’s determination to live her life on her own terms.

Margaret bakes her own bread, boils water for tea, cooks in a box oven, heats water for washing, and irons with a box iron filled with the embers from the fire.

She is not too sure when the original homestead was built, but does know that her grandfather, James Gallagher, bought the cottage and 12 acres of land in 1887.

Margaret is a real country lady, with all the gravitas and grace of the old Gaels. But she is also grounded, earthy, spiritual, eloquent and erudite, and listening to her unique story is both educational and enriching.

This is a woman who is totally in touch with the place that formed her.

She is a natural raconteur, a seanchaí, with a deep sense that God is never far away. Margaret is also an intellectual who loves the dark, searing honesty of Russian writers, James Clarence Mangan, Patrick Kavanagh, and many of the Irish writers.

Her home is crammed from floor to ceiling with all sorts of books and journals, where within and without its walls, she richly embodies the Shakespearean adage of:

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man (or woman)”.

Her life is a remarkable example of what can be achieved when you have really good genes, have a curious mind, a natural zest for life, a natural integrity, and read voraciously.

Margaret is also a very well-known and highly-respected local historian; founded the Belcoo Historical Society; and served on several committees for history and local developments.

For around five years, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, she was also a Justice of the Peace in Enniskillen Magistrates Court.

In 1994, she was awarded an MBE by then Prince Charles, “a very gracious man” in Buckingham Palace, for her long work with community development.

And she is currently on the Board of Directors of Lakeland Community Care that is based in her native Belcoo.

Her story is truly amazing, as she did not have a job until she was 46, when she was employed as an ACE worker in Belcoo, gathering local history and lore from the locality of Belcoo and Botha.

This was after looking after her beloved disabled father, James Gallagher, for 20 years as his sole carer; he died in 1980 at the age of 92.

But apart from a passion for history, she has shown deep emotional intelligence that saw her manage an Action for Community Employment Scheme that included responsibility for 35 workers in various roles throughout South West Fermanagh.

As a follow-on, she was awarded a fellowship from the Cadbury Trust to work in the heritage field through the Belcoo Heritage Society, until her retirement in 2006.

She has also been involved in the Historic Buildings Council, Historic Monuments Council and Heritage Lottery Fund for ten years as a County Fermanagh representative.

Margaret was also on FLAG and LSP boards.

In 1994, she was awarded the MBE, and also a James Harris Rotary Award for service to the community.

And for Margaret, most importantly, she is a member of Cleenish Parish Pastoral Council and Renewal Group.

When you enter Margaret’s home, you notice that the flagstone floor is sloped, to let the water run off onto the street as opposed to the bedroom.

Margaret has been up since 5.30am and has a roaring fire of beech and ash ablaze in an open hearth.,

She baked a scrumptious ginger cake at 7.30am, which she gives to this reporter as well as a welcome cup of tea.

“I am an early morning person, but if you call at night I am as cranky as a bag of cats.

“This house is part of me, and it is very old, and there is no exact dating on a house like this.

“My grandfather, Patrick Gallagher, bought it from his cousins, James and Margaret McGee, in 1887, and I still have the deed here.

“The following year, his first-born arrived, who was James Gallagher – my father – who was born on either 16 or 18 September, 1888.

“We used the 18th as his birthday, and that was a day of a big gathering in Ballyshannon, the Harvest Fair.

“My father married in 1938, at the age of 50. He married a woman from Botha parish, Winifred McGrath from Aghanagleck, who was my mother.

“And unfortunately, she died when she was 48 in 1952, when I was ten, and my sister Freda – who was born in 1939 – was in First Year boarding in Mount Lourdes.

‘That was a terrible tragedy, and for many years afterwards, there was just my father and myself.

“This was a terrible blow for an old man, because the wedding was a match, as he had a small farm.

“It was also a terrible blow to my sister and I, because we were old enough to know, and old enough to know that things would never be the same again.”

But her father, even though he was walking on a stick, coped admirably, even though he had a very severe form of arthritis.

“I have lovely memories of my mother, who was a lovely, gentle, kind woman; an absolute gem, and very good looking.

“I am afraid none of her daughters inherited her good looks. She was a very cultured lady, and my father was a fine man of the old school – very strict.

“There was to be no running from this house, and that was made very clear to us. He kept to his word, and he died on June 26, 1980, when I was 38, and he died in the bed that he was born in.

“He was 92 when he died, and there was no bother in looking after him, as he was a great worker all his life; a scythe man.

“He read well, and bought The Daily Mail every day, and he read it from cover to cover along with The Fermanagh Herald.”

Margaret had a very happy childhood, working on a small farm, dropping seed for potatoes, and working with the turf and the hay.

“You would not be sitting around, and the word ‘bored’ did not come into the vocabulary of my father or my mother, because you would be very quickly un-bored by given something to do! There is always something to do on a farm.”

But school was not really for Margaret, who preferred working on the land.

“I was as thick as two planks, and I loved every minute of it [farming], and I sat in school looking out the window at our home, where my father would be harnessing the ass to put out manure, doing ridges for spuds, and putting creels on the donkey for going to the bog, and I hurried home to join him in those things.”

So where did the supremely self-taught Margaret get her appetite for books?

“My father was a great reader. But the Herald was also read out aloud in the house, which was embarrassing when young men called.”

Her much-loved home is an extension of Margaret’s personality.

“The house is growing old with me. I am very old, and I had a car that was very old, and I used to say which of us will die first?

“On January 9, 2016, I did not have too long to wait, because I was in a car accident and the car died!

“So, it is just myself, and the house, that is left.”

Margaret was seriously injured, with seven broken ribs and a lacerated liver, but she has made a remarkable recovery, and is not on any medication.

“Thankfully, nobody was killed, and that is all that matters.”

And then she segues back to the seasons of her youth, and her love of books and learning.

“We listened to [Radio] Athlone, which was the forerunner of RTÉ, and the play on a Sunday night, and it gave me a great love of drama.

“We had ‘Sive’ from John B. Keane, ‘The Field’, and ‘Many Young Men of Twenty’, and then we also listened to ‘The Kennedys of Castleross’ every day.”

Her love for reading grew steadily when she got a bit older, and caring for her father – and her sister, Freda, bought this most unmaterialistic of women books to feed the soul.

“She was very good to us, and still buys books. I love the Russian writers – Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, etc.

“I thought ‘Crime and Punishment’ was the greatest book I ever read, and the Russians were very realistic – they told the unvarnished truth.

“If the Russians were hungry, they spoke about it. Sometimes, the Irish authors did not want to talk about poverty or hunger.

‘The baggage of The Famine is still very much with the Irish. Psychologically, The Famine was a terrible event in Irish history.

“It was absolutely criminal – not only the potato blight, but by the way we were treated by neighbouring countries.

“It was a terrible thing to happen, and so many people went off and perished on [Coffin] ships.”

But it was famous local historian, Fr. Patrick Gallagher, the parish priest of Derrygonnelly, who helped spark Margaret’s great interest in local history.

“Fr. Gallagher’s love of local history and local lore – you could not but avail of it, as it was there, and he was a truly good man.

“I founded the Belcoo Historical Society in 1988, and the background to that was that there was just so much stuff in the Belcoo and surrounding areas.

“It just abounds in heritage, in local sites, in Mass Rocks, in cairns, and there was so much history in the old people.

“There were the remnants of the Gaelic language in Glangevlin, Cathal Bui in the Black, and there was a Gilgunn family that lived here in Ora More.

“This townland is Mullylusty, which means ‘Summit of the Rich Plot’.

“Townlands are a great source of local identity, and Fr. Gallagher was a great man for going around the Mass Rocks.

“I got a job when a development group started in Belleek, and Jim Sheridan was instrumental in that.

“An Ace Scheme was started, and I got a job which was looking at the history of the area, and I was getting paid for something I loved.

“And I did love it, and it was great, and there was a good Historical Society out of it.

“I left 27 years ago, and we had covered pretty much everything.

“We did a book called, ‘If Only’, and it covered our area. Gabriel Burns was instrumental in bringing it together, and we did all the ologies in that book – the legends, folklore, superstitions and traditions, and it was a potted version of what went on around Belcoo.

‘But Belcoo was ripe for plucking, as you had a train station, a large police station, a Border town, the bridge that either joined or divided you with Blacklion.

“The people around here were stoical, used to poverty, and did not talk, and money would not tempt them. You may have heard of ‘taking the King’s shilling’ or ‘the soup’ – well, that did not happen around these parts.

“Even if they were starving, they were great people, and it was the last vestiges of Gaelic Ireland with all the old courtesy and understated civility of our race.

“The Church was also very important to my father, who went across the mountain to Mass, and often got soaked – as did we – but these days they have the best cars out, and you would nearly have to carry them to the chapel.”

Margaret has very strong faith that she got from her late parents.

“I always say, you could not be a better Catholic than when you are living in a thatched house, because you need God to stop the wind, to stop the birds from tearing the roof, and you are totally dependent on God from when you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night.

“But I have a great faith, and a love of nature, and the birds have me nearly robbed, but sure, they need to be fed.”

Margaret sold the farm in the early 1980s and then progressed in community groups.

“I had a great time on those committees, and I loved working in Belfast in the 1990s and 2000s – they were all great people.”

In her work with community and local history groups, she has travelled all across Northern Ireland for around two decades, giving talks, and she enjoyed every minute of it.

Margaret firmly believes there is a spiritual quality around Boho of Saint Faber.

“It is hallowed ground and a place apart. It is steeped in mystery and legend, and it is still there, and it is still vibrant.”

In more recent times, Margaret has been deeply involved in the Lakeland Community Care – an organisation that caters for the elderly.

“We have more than 200 people involved in delivering community care throughout Fermanagh.

“I am one of the Directors on the Board, with a number of others.

“We have given more than 200 people employment, delivering care to more than 600 people in their own home.”

In one of her many previous existences, Margaret was also a Justice of the Peace in Enniskillen Magistrates Court

“There were quite a few of us at that time, and it was a whole new world for me, and I absolutely loved it.

“I heard a lot of cases – and you would not have dealt with cases from your own part of the county.

“You had two choices, either to remand in custody, or release on bail. Normally, you got a Probation Report first.

“It was only when the R. M. was absent that you were called in, and it was a lovely thing to be offered.

“I tried to be fair, and you had to listen to some fairly harrowing stories that could be quite distressing, but you could not get emotional.

“So, you had to balance matters on what you had heard.”

Margaret worked in the Enterprise Centre in Belcoo from 1988 right into the noughties.

“We organised conferences on historical-based projects, and I had to write up the papers afterwards, and that was very interesting.”

Some years ago, it was gifted to Lakeland Community Care, but it still functions as a location for small businesses.

When she is asked why she never married or had a significant other, she is typically and disarmingly candid and direct.

“Well, it was not a matter whether I wanted to or not, as nobody was in the slightest way interested in me.

“So, there was nothing I could do about it. You have to be brutally honest, and I did not lie awake at night crying about it either.”

Margaret did go to Glenfarne, Co. Leitrim, and she tells a typically self-deprecatory anecdote about the famous Ballroom of Romance.

“I was the only one that could have sued the owner, John McGivern, because I was the only one who did not get a man out of the Ballroom of Romance!

“Everyone else seemed to get a man, and The Fermanagh Herald was full of pictures of couples who married after meeting in the Ballroom of Romance.

“John McGivern had a romantic interlude, called ‘Have You Ever Been Lonely’, but no romance ensued for me.”

Margaret believes passionately that people are formed very much by their landscape, and two of the great themes of the ancient Irish was mortas cine (‘pride in who you are’), and mórtas dúchais (‘pride in your native place’).

“Of course, they are [very true themes], and you are bound to pick up on it, and we have a lovely landscape here in Fermanagh, with good water and clean air.

“Wind farms are an intrusion on the landscape, but you have to balance this with the need for energy, and I don’t get involved in it, as I don’t know enough about wind farms.

“I stick to what I know best – which is very little!”

She added: “Terrain makes you a tougher person.

“We had to go to the bog here, over the mountain, and I am looking out at Ben More and Botha the huts, which is where it gets its name from.

“Parishes were always a focal point for gatherings, long before there were any community groups, development groups, before there was anything.

“People think that community groups and development groups were there since time immemorial, but it was parishes that were there.

“The people met outside the chapel gate, where they talked politics, and that was where they learned who was dead, and who was sick, and who the priest anointed last Friday, and that was not gossip.

“Development groups brought places on, but there were places that did not come on.”

These days, Margaret is absolutely delighted that Stormont is back up and running, after having a hip replacement when she was 70, and getting a new knee when she was 80.

“I can still do the things I have always done, but I could not stay here if I was not able to do those things.”

Anne Cassin of RTÉ Nationwide recently did a special programme on Margaret, that aired two months ago.

On Brexit, Margaret said she voted against it. “You don’t bite the hand that fed you for so long, and that is the EU, and I don’t see why you would fix something unless it was cracked in ten different places.

“But there is nothing we can do about it, but thank God that we have a government now, and they are great.

“[First Minister] Michelle O’Neill is a very lovable, bubbly person, and speaks her mind, and you could send her anywhere and she would never let you down

“I don’t know [Deputy First Minister] Emma Little-Pengelly, but I see she was reaching out to the GAA, and that is a great sign.

“Bless the two women for getting on, and they are trying. I hate people running them down, saying, ‘Ah, it will not last’, and ‘All of that is just for the cameras’.

“They are working together – let them get on with it. There is far too much whingeing in the background. They are the only show in town.”

Margaret is a firm supporter of the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen, but has not got involved in the protests.

“I don’t think demonstrations are the way, and the solution is the government should now free up some money to bring the doctors and nurses that we need in the hospital.

“The SWAH is a wonderful hospital, but let the government get on with it, and let’s have some negotiations.”

Margaret gets The Impartial Reporter every week, and likes the fact that it is very much cross-community and cross-Border focused.

So, what is her philosophy of history and life in general?

“Keep perusing and finding out as much as you can. Don’t store it in your head, share it; sometimes people who call themselves historians know loads of things but will not share them with anyone.

“History is for sharing. I don’t own it – I don’t own the landscape, or an archaeological site. I don’t own anything on the land.

“It is all gifted from God. Share what you know with young people, and value older people, because they are real historians. They have lived it, and they know it.

“Be aware of who you are, of your parents who brought you into the world, of your ancestry, and of your landscape.

“You are picking up on it; you can’t shed it, as it will always be in the background.

“Never deny who you are – whether you are illegitimate, or come from a dysfunctional family, always be proud of who you are.

“Bring it to the fore, talk about it, keep your head up. You would not be on this planet if God did not ordain you to be here, and enjoy every minute of life.

“And remember, there is life after death.”

It was heading towards noon at Mullylusty by this stage, but I left that lovely house with a brighter, lighter step after listening to a truly wise West Fermanagh woman – the queen of her heathery hills of home.