CREESLOUGH native and international singing star Bride Gallagher was born 100 years ago today.
As this milestone date approaches, her achievements and acclaim was documented by Brian Maye in this week’s An Irishman’s Diary.
It may come as a surprise to many, particularly those of a younger generation, that the woman from Creeslough with the warm Donegal lilt was possibly Ireland’s first international pop stars who will always be associated with Irish ballads.
She was born on September 7, 1924 and while christened Bridget was always know as Bridie.
The second youngest of ten children of Jim Gallagher and Biddy Sweeney.
She grew up on a substantial farm in the area.
Having attended a local national school she was offered a scholarship to Loreto Convent in Letterkenny but her parents did not allow her to take it so she left school at 14 and got a job in the local post office.
Hers was a musical family and she, gifted with a fine voice and good ear singing at local concerts and events.
She soon joined a local dance band as their lead singer and then moved on to a more professional outfit with a broader appeal.
In 1948 she moved to Belfast to work as a housekeeper and met Robert Livingston, a Protestant mechanic who she married in September 1951.
Performing at local variety concerts she was picked up by a local agency and in March 1953 she released ‘A Mother’s Love is a Blessing’ on Decca records.
The record sold well and led to further bookings.
Her repertoire at first was songs from the musicals or Vera Lynn when an astute music critic advised her to stick with Irish numbers.
Her hand was forced to some extent when, at a major Derry concert, the performer ahead of her used much of the same material she was to perform.
She instead relied on songs she had learned in Creeslough, many of which she heard her mother sing.
According to Linde Lunney who wrote the entry on Bride Gallagher in the Dictionary of Irish Biography this “changed the focus of her career”.
She toured as support to Scottish star Kenneth McKeller for six weeks in 1957 and packed the London Palladium in January 1959 with an audience of mainly Irish exiles living in the city.
“Her voice with its characteristic ‘break’ and timbre, her natural and relaxed stage manner, and her homely repertoire had widespread appeal” Lunney wrote.
Emigrants found her songs deeply moving and her repertoire evolved to include a song from each Irish county. Two of her most popular were The Hills of Donegal and The Boys from the County Armagh.
Over time she became best known as the Girl from Donegal.
Displaying a high level of professionalism as a performer, Bridie Gallagher also showed good business acumen in running a show business agency in Belfast.
With her husband for many years.
She put on shows in Bundoran and other resorts where she employed her own musicians and supporting acts.
It has been claimed that the Cresslough woman holds the record for the largest attendance at London’s Albert Hall with an audience of more than 7,500, as the venue became an all seater, the record was never equalled.
She regularly toured Britain annually and the US, Canada and Australia regularly, selling out many venues on her tours.
The singing star recorded on several record labels, with 11 solo albums and song on numerous compilation albums.
The 32 single she released did well in the charts.
The long history of Irish emigration throughout her career provided her with a guaranteed, if ageing audiences abroad and she adapted at home as entertainment trends changed.
As concert and variety shows lost popularity to the showband era, for some twenty years she travelled Ireland with showbands including the Royal and Clipper Carlton before moving on to the cabaret circuit.
Robert Livingston became a catholic in order to marry Bridie although neither family were happy about the marriage.
It worked for a time and they had two sons but eventually separated, but did not divorce.
Tragedy struck when their younger son Peter was killed in a motor cycle accident in 1976 aged 21.
This led to a period of deep depression and heavy drinking however, with the support of family and fans she resumed her career and won a lifetime achievement award in 1991.
Although she made many television appearances, she was disappointed that RTE did not enable her to front her own programme, according to Lunney.
While the famous singer might have thought herself forgotten by the new millennium, in July 200 a plaque was unveiled in her native Creeslough and she was given a civic reception by Donegal County Council.
Bridie Gallagher lived most of her life in Belfast and died in hospital there on January 9, 2012.
She was buried in Doe Cemetery in her home county.
Numerous tributes acknowledged her trailblazing status in Irish popular music.
Her surviving son Jim published a biography of his mother in 2015.
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