"So which is it?" you may be asking yourself as you view these pages, "Gallaher or Gollaher?"  Both, actually.  Peter and I are only very distantly related to each other, as Gallaher and Gollaher are both variant spellings of the fine old Irish surname Gallagher, originally spelled O'Gallchobhair but pronounced pretty much the way both Peter and I pronounce our surnames today.  It was our interest in the history of our surname that brought us together in cyberspace, and therein lies a tale worth telling.

Some people, I believe, are destined to meet again in this world.  For whatever reason, we must have shared a special relationship with each other in our Heavenly Father's home before coming to earth.  Perhaps God, in all of His goodness and tender mercies, granted our request that somehow, somewhere and sometime we could meet in this world.  Perhaps you can relate to what I mean ... you meet someone for the first time (that you recall, anyway), and within moments feel as if you have known them all your life.  They seem familiar as an old coat.  I am very much blessed to have several friends such as this, and Peter is one of them.

Back in Spring of 1999, I received an e-mail from Peter regarding my Clann O'Gallchobhair site.  Such mail was, and is, not unusual since I put up the site, and people from the North West Territories in Canada to Ireland to the Philippines have written to me who share in our rich clan heritage.  But in Peter's letter right away I sensed a kindred spirit.

"When I was a little fellow," Peter wrote to me then, "there was a man who stopped by our apartment in the Bronx on at least two occasions. I seem to remember that he was from out West, maybe even Alaska, and did a lot of traveling. It was his habit to look up any Gallahers in the phone book in any city he stopped in, give them a call and drop by to talk about the family.  My father, who was always bringing home "strays" as my mother called them, always invited him to stay."

Gee, I thought, I can relate to that fellow.  I've felt like a "stray" more than a few times.  Peter and I exchanged a few more e-mails, and quickly grew familiar with each other.  In a sense, we are all "strays" who yearn to be taken in and invited to linger on in friendship.

To my everlasting delight, Peter put me on his "friends and family" e-mail distribution list, and soon I began to look forward to the occasional personal essays he would pen and send to those he thought might appreciate them.  I learned that Peter was an exceptionally gifted writer and philosopher.  When Peter's wife died after a protracted illness, his essays became especially moving and personal.  As I read them I laughed with him, I cried with him, and I grew to love him.   I also learned that Peter was deeply religious, as was I, and that he was Catholic.

And it is here, I suppose, that a confession is in order.  I am not Catholic.  I was born and raised in Salt Lake City were the Church of Jesus Christ is as dominant as the Catholic Church was in the "Irish Catholic ghetto" Peter grew up in.   I come from a long line of "Mormons" who joined the church back when Joseph Smith was still alive in the 1830s.  There is a Catholic Diocese in Salt Lake City, but since 90% of our neighbors were also LDS, I knew little about Catholicism.  What little I thought I knew wasn't very complimentary, but since what little most people think they know about "Mormons" isn't very complimentary either, I kept an open mind.

Peter's essays moved me to wonder about a religion that could evoke so much love of the Savior Jesus Christ in a man.  From his writings I gathered that he was a member of several Catholic e-mail lists, so I joined them in order to learn more about the Catholic religion.  The CIN list didn't do much for me, but the SCI-scripture and SCI-world lists I found incredibly interesting!  I had originally joined the list intending to be a "lurker" only, and admit I was a little apprehensive about what list members may think of a "Mormon" in their midst.

To my surprise and delight, I was welcomed with open minds and loving hearts.  I immediately felt at home among the members, and have grown to love many of them dearly.  I can't imagine going through life without having had the opportunity of knowing the likes of 'Dera, Nonnie, Fr. Bill, J-9 and all the others.  They have enriched my mind and broadened my understanding of life and the gospel of Jesus Christ as no others could have.  There is much you can learn about your own personal religion from members of another denomination.

And that, I think, is how our Savior intended it to be.  He wants to remind us how much we share, not what marks our differences.  Catholic doctrines differ substantially in some places with the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but we are more alike in our love and worship of the Redeemer of all mankind than we sometimes think.  A lot of good has come from our association together.

When the need to host and manage this website came up, I was most willing and honored to lend a hand.  I think it is a fitting testimony of the love of Jesus Christ that may dwell in each of us that a deeply Catholic contemplative website can be hosted and managed by a committed member of the Church of Jesus Christ.  Now, if we could just get all Christians, Jews, Muslims and others around the world to love and honor each other this way, we wouldn't have to worry about bombing Afghanistan or about bin Laden terrorist groups. Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland would shared picnic lunches instead of bombs and insults.

Well, that's my story.  To know more about me, you can visit my personal website.  It is here.  Just click the "About Me" button, and you can learn more than you could possibly want to know about me and my family!

GO BACK

January 06, 2004