Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 202:
Rev Father Michael Maria Gallagher

Michael Gallagher was born at Johnston in co Donegal Ireland on 13 May 1855. His parents were William and Margaret of All Saints Raphoe. He was educated locally prior to entering the seminary at Letterkenny and then All Hallows Missionary College in 1879. He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Brisbane on 24 June 1884.(1) Fathers Michael Barry, Francis Dorrigan, Thomas Enright, Matthew Ryan, and Thomas Hayes who were ordained for Brisbane were fellow students with him at All Hallows.(2)

Fr Michael Gallagher arrived in Brisbane on 28 October 1884 aboard the Garonne. He was stationed in Gympie in 1885, Blackall in 1886, and Mount Perry for a short time. Back in Brisbane by 1887 he was residing at St Kilian's College South Brisbane. From there he often ministered at Bulimba. By 1890 he was a fellow curate with Michael Potter in Ipswich.

It was about this time that he was hospitalised with acute melancholia.(3) All Hallow's records show that he served at Boulder in the Perth diocese for some time.(4) This could have been during a time of recuperation after being discharged from hospital. He is not recorded as being in the archdiocese between 1897 and 1911.(5)

He resided at Red Hill while serving as parish priest of Enoggera 1912-1916. He was at South Brisbane in 1917/1918; at Annerley with Fr James Gallagher in 1919/1920.(6) He retired, because of ill health, in 1930.(7)

While residing at St Patrick's presbytery, Fortitude Valley – semi retired - he served as chaplain to the Christian Brothers' College at Gregory Terrace for ten years.

Following a fall in St Patrick's presbytery he died in the Mater Misericordiae hospital on the evening of 12 November 1942, aged 87. His funeral took place from St Stephen's Cathedral on Saturday 14 November. He was buried in the priests' section of Nudgee Catholic cemetery.

In July 1943, when Fr Gallagher's will was finalized, he had bequeathed £100 to Monsignor Michael Potter for the new St Mary's church in Warwick. Upon receiving the bequest Monsignor Potter remarked that Fr Gallagher was a friend from the late 1880s, when they were fellow curates in Ipswich. He also made reference to Fr Gallagher's service at Bulimba. In acknowledging the bequest Monsignor Potter announced that finally the debt of £18,000 still owing when Saint Mary's church was opened in 1926 was now paid off.(8) Michael Potter died seven months later on 1 February 1944.

Footnotes
1. Kevin Condon cm, The Missionary College of All Hallows 1842-1891, student number 1581, p. 348.
2. Ibid. students 1529, 1540, 1561, 1580, 161939, pp. 346 to 349.
3. Neil J Byrne, Robert Dunne Archbishop of Brisbane, 1991, p.195.
4. Kevin Condon, op. cit.
5. Pugh's Almanacs, 1897-1911.
6. Telegraph, Brisbane, 13 Nov 1942, p. 4.
7. Advocate, Melbourne, 26 Nov 1942, p. 6.
8. Warwick Daily News, 22 July 1943, p. 2.This interview took place just six months before Potter's own death in 1944 at the age of 87.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.