John Gallagher (bishop)

Bishop John Gallagher was an Irish born priest who served as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Goulburn, Australia.
Born in Castlederg, Ireland, in 1846, he was ordained in 1869 for the diocese of Goulburn by the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Moran. He served as a priest in Goulburn, Dr Gallagher a noted classicist, taught at St Patrick's College, Goulburn, where he served as president of the college from 1875 until 1888.
Dr Gallagher was appointed Titular Bishop of Adrassus, co-adjutor Bishop of Goulburn
and in 1900 Bishop of Goulburn.
In 1916 he laid the foundation stone of Sacred Heart Church, Cootamundra.

Depiction in Literature

"John O'Brien"'s 1921 comic poem, 'Tangmalangaloo', in which a bishop visiting a remote bush school asks a boy what Christmas is and receives the reply "It's the day before the races out at Tangmalangaloo" is a true story of a visit by Gallagher to Tangmangaroo.

Bishop Gallagher died in Goulburn on 26 November 1923, after a long illness. A requiem mass was celebrated on 29 November and, similarly to his predecessor Bishop Lanigan, Bishop Gallagher was interred beneath the sanctuary of the Goulburn Cathedral.