Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, p 143:
Mons. James Kelly

[...] Footnote: Fr James Gallagher was the first resident priest at Ipswich Rd from 1916. He had previously been Administrator of St Joseph's Cathedral in Rockhampton. He walked with a limp, as he had been thrown from his horse and lay injured for some days in the bush before he was found. Ant bites had caused him terrible suffering. Early in 1924, he died from a strained heart after working around the churchyard.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 172:
Rev Fr James Gallagher

Fr James Gallagher was the first parish priest of Mary Immaculate, Ipswich Road (Annerley).

James Gallagher was born on 18 January 1868 at Pettigo in County Donegal Ireland, the son of Francis Mary (nee Britton) Gallagher. His godparents were William and Ann Britton. James was educated at the local schools until he entered St Macarten's seminary in Monoghan where he distinguished himself in the public examinations at the time. From there he passed to Maynooth College, where after a brilliant course, he was ordained a priest on 23 June, 1891. For several years he held the position of administrator of St Macarten's Cathedral, in the diocese of Clogher.

In 1904 he accompanied his sister Mary, who was in delicate health, to Queensland, in the hope that she would be restored to health. Miss Gallagher, however, died at Hughenden within a few months of her arrival. Her brother was induced to remain, doing work in the diocese of Rockhampton, under the late Bishop Higgins (in Charters Towers) and subsequently under Dr Duhig. He was for some years the administrator of St Joseph's Cathedral, Rockhampton. During his stay in the district he met with a serious accident being thrown from a horse and lying for two days with an injured leg before being discovered. On the translation of Archbishop Duhig from Rockhampton to Brisbane, Father Gallagher elected to follow him.(1)

He came to Brisbane in 1913; to serve in Wynnum, Red Hill and Kangaroo Point before becoming the first pastor of Mary Immaculate Ipswich Road, Annerley, in 1915.

He found a simple wooden church there and a small congregation. He saw the Catholic population increase fourfold, witnessed the coming of the nuns, the opening of their convent by his Grace Archbishop Mannix, the opening of a school and a presbytery, a church at Moorooka, and extensive additions to the convent at Corinda, which was in his parish till shortly before his death. Father Gallagher had erected a splendid brick wall with wrought-iron gates and railing in front of the extensive Catholic property on Ipswich-road, and was making remote preparations for the erection of a brick church.(2)

People realised that Fr Gallagher health was poor. Under the heavy strain of the Christmas parish duties, the good priest collapsed and was admitted to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital. He was told that nothing could be done for him, and so he prepared for death. Archbishop Duhig visited him daily and had left just an hour before his death on Thursday evening 10 January 1924.

At his request, his funeral took place from May Immaculate Church Ipswich-road. The Archbishop presided and forty priests were in attendance. The press reported that he was greatly loved for his sterling character, his devotion to duty, and his charity to the poor. In his eloquent panegyric, Archbishop Duhig said "Father Gallagher was loved, not because of his nationality, but because he loved his people." He was buried in Nudgee cemetery.

Footnotes
1. Telegraph, Brisbane, 11 Jan 1924, p. 7.
2. Catholic Press, Sydney, 17 Jan 1924, p. 21.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.