Meet Dr. Owen Gallagher, Rosary Rally Organizer in Ireland

Welcome to the Catholic Frequency Podcast. This is episode 1, and today we're going to be talking with Owen Gallagher, who lives in Ireland and is responsible for helping to organize a number of rosary rallies in different towns. We wanted to find out how did he find himself in this place, in this time of his life, doing this, and did he ever think he would be. Let's find out.

Owen, thank you for your time today. Tell us about how you first got involved in organizing rosary rallies and how long have they have you been involved in doing so in Ireland?

In July, 2021, a lady I know sent me a picture of a thousand men kneeling in the street in Warsaw saying the rosary, and it had the wow factor. So, I sent it to a friend of mine, Patrick McChrystal, who's involved in Human Life International in Knock, Ireland, and had the wow factor with him. So we, from that time in July, set up the row 1st man's rosary, in Ireland, in Derry City in Northern Ireland, in October, the 1st Saturday in October. And as I mentioned before, the reason we picked the 1st Saturday is because we want to follow the 5 First Saturday devotions of Our Lady that she gave at Fatima.

Would you like me to recap on that or the 5 First Saturdays Sure. Conditions?

Of course.

The the 5 First Saturdays are really promised that if an individual received holy communion, said the rosary, meditated on the rosary, and went to confessions within the the the 8 days either side of the 1st Saturday. If you fulfilled those four conditions on 5 1st Saturdays, you were guaranteed to go to heaven. So this is why we picked the 1st Saturday. So it started in, Derry on the, October, 2021. And then we moved to another small city, Newry, and then we moved to Belfast. And we had a very big turnout in Belfast in December. We opened it once a month. And we had nearly 200 people praying in the center of Belfast. It was a very powerful occasion. So other, parts of Ireland then began to pick it up. Because it went from the Polish language into the English language, obviously, it started to spread around the world more freely. And then it was picked up by Spanish speaking people, and it has spread to most, if not all, countries in South America, but also spread to at least 40 other countries and has spread to England or around Ireland.

We have 25 different towns and cities in Ireland now, Seb. And what we we call ourselves, the group that I'm involved with, the Roving Rosary. We go to a town, or a small city, and we say the rosary. And we hope that the people in that area will then start their own rosary group in that town or city, and that's happened in, several places, in Northern Ireland. So, for example, Derry City and Ooma, they have their own, rally, and, we want we'd like every town to have their own rally and, for us in the end to become superfluous, but it's a bit slow after 3 years. We're still going strong.

You said an interesting phrase when you were describing when you first saw these rosary rallies. You said there's a wow factor, especially in seeing men pray the rosary in public, especially kneeling in reverence. Why is that a wow factor?

Several reasons. First of all, there's a statue of Our Lady, at the very front of all these men, and the men all kneel in rows, so it looks very military. And for men to kneel in public and pray, it takes a lot of humility. And seeing humble people in action always has a very powerful effect. So if you see, as happened in Belfast last Christmas, we had a 170 men kneeling in rows, and that included priests from the Latin Mass Association in their cassocks, about 6 of them kneeling at the back. And it people passing along at, over it has a huge effect on them, and we've had numerous people say afterwards that they'd never witnessed anything like the power of men kneeling.

As you know, the Curie of ours, and this may not be too popular with some women, but it's it's what the Curie of ours says, one of the most holy men who ever lived. Religion gains much more an influence when practiced by men. So if men lead the family, 80% of the children are likely to follow in religion. If it's all left to the woman and the husband takes no part, only about 20% of children will follow the faith. So those are statistical facts and also headlined by what the Curie of ours said.

So seeing all these men kneeling, with respect and devotion and with their beads, especially when we come to the 5th rosary decade, we always hold our beads above our head. As Padre Pio said, the rosary is the weapon. So the man who, leads the rosary for us, he always says at the 5th decade, now can everybody please hold their weapons above their head.

We also show respect to all the men who are asked to remove caps, and to, encourage people to dress appropriately and show which shows even more respect. So there, that's that's my perception.

Well, it's so inspirational to see the pictures and the videos that we see. You know, the the great Catholic influencer Sechin posts a lot of this. In fact, he's the one who gave me your name and and how we ended up ended up talking. I don't have to tell you that the rise of secularism in my country, in your country continues. To somebody who may not understand the power of the rosary, how what would you say about why it's important? Do you believe it can change the world and why?

I absolutely a 100% believe that the rosary can change the world. The world is in such a bad situation at the moment in virtually every country, including Ireland. Ireland, isn't it? I'm nearly 72, and Ireland is has changed so much, particularly in the last 10 years. It's not the Ireland that I grew up on. I think the Rosary is, as many people say, Padua Pio called it the weapon. As father Peyton said that the Rosary has the power of an atomic bomb. And there's a great book, 26 heroes of the Rosie, written by an American priest, young priest Father Callaway. All those 26 heroes, including Max Middleby and Colby, they all show the power of the rosary. And we we have seen it on a local level. When we've been saying the rosary, miracles have happened, in even in our small groups.

For example, the second time we were saying the rosary, a man in our group in Newry came up to me afterwards and said, during the excuse me. We were saying a sorrowful message during the 4th deck of the carrying of the cross. He said, I felt as if the weight of the cross was on my shoulder, and it was really terrible. I and he continued that he had come to the man's rosary that day with a terrible worry, which had been afflicting him for 6 months. But during the rosary, not only did the worry leave him, but he couldn't remember what he had been worrying about. So that's a minor miracle. We get lots of miracles like little a young girl walked past and saw 170 men kneeling last Christmas, and she came afterwards and said that she had been badly treated by men. And when she find a 170 men kneeling, asking for forgiveness for the way men had treated women, it made her go away and think, and she came back to her faith having been away for 10 years. Numerous other incidents that haven't happened, but that that's on a local scale.

On a global scale, if we could get enough people kneeling and praying, I think we could change the world. And that's why it's so important to promote the man's rosary.

I think a lot of people see these pictures and say, oh, that's wonderful. And wouldn't that be nice if it was in my hometown? But but somebody's gotta start it, right, in every town, and it's really not that difficult.

What advice would you give to somebody who would love to see a rosary in their small town or their big city where wherever they live, but they don't think they can be the one to to do it, because maybe they are the ones that are supposed to do it?

Well, they are. They probably are the ones supposed to do it. Mary, for example, myself, if you told me 50 years ago that I'd be starting rosary around the world, I'd say you're off your rocker because I said the rosary in the Catholic family. But when I went off to be a student, I stopped completely, and I didn't say the rosary for 15 years. And when I was young, my father would used to call us out to say the rosary would be climbing a tree or playing football or watching TV, and he said, right, rosary. So I developed a sort of a resentment against the rosary because this suddenly impromptu rosary every night at at any time. And, I gradually came back towards the rosary. And the reason I came back towards the rosary, you might be interested, is I came back from working abroad. And all my I was 34, and all my friends were married, and all my family were married. I really wanted to get a good Catholic girl despite not having said the Rosier. So I came across something my father probably set out for me, which was a 54 day rosary novena. It's called the irresistible novena. And I said it, and on the 54th day, I met my wife, and we were engaged within a few weeks and married within the year and 9 children later. So we tried to promote the rosary in our own family, and it worked to a certain extent.

One of the problems with promoting rosaries, if you're very involved in sport or music, it's difficult to get a time when you can say it every day, but you can surmount those.

I appreciate your time. I I appreciate the photos that you sent me. You sent me some photos and videos and there was one I can't remember which city you said it was, but it was the one I think it just started. It was a a video of just a few people in the rain on a street corner. I shared that on my x account. 28,000 people saw it. 2,000 people liked it. 96 people because I asked a question with it. Does this give you hope for the future to see people praying the rosary in public?

Almost a 100 people, overwhelmingly said absolutely. So the work that's going on there is inspiring people around the world, and we can all do a little part. You know, nobody can make them happen everywhere, but we can all do something to to promote this idea and try to make it happen in our hometown. I just one last point. You you did ask, what how do you know it's you? If if you get the idea in your head, it then it is you. God has planted that seed. And if he planted in in my planted it in my head, the one thing that did help me was the fact that Patrick McChrystal of Human Life International, helped me. So if you can get somebody to back you one man or another man, it does make it a lot easier. But if you can't, sometimes you just have to go it alone.

Yeah. I think sometimes when people think about this, they think they gotta find 20 people to start. It really can start with 2 people. Right?

2 people. Just 2 people, and we find the best way is just to contact, your phone your friends and said, myself and Patrick, we're having a First Men's Rosary in Derry Can you come and support us? And can you get your friends get one friend to come? And so our our first rosary in Derry, using that technique, we had 80 men, and it's just continued to grow after that.

That's our conversation with Owen Gallagher from Ireland who's spreading the most holy rosary, helping other people to grow and their love and devotion of the rosary.