Immigrants' death spurs call for census of Irish seniors

BY BRENDAN BROSH
Tuesday, December 23rd 2008, 7:34 PM

Irish community activists are organizing a senior census spurred by the death of a 72-year-old Sunnyside immigrant whose body was found several days after he died.

Anthony (Tony) Gallagher, a retired carpenter and member of Local Union 608, lived alone after his wife was moved to a nursing home, suffering with Alzheimer's disease, friends said.

Gallagher might have been dead for a week before he was discovered by police, neighbors said.

Prompted by the sad circumstances of Gallagher's death, local Irish groups are now reaching out to the aging Irish community in Queens.

"We need social workers to go into each church and find out who the elderly Irish are," said Ciaran Staunton, 45, vice president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. "We have to reach out to them as soon as possible."

Staunton is petitioning the Irish and Northern Irish governments to help fund the program and has already spoken to Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin.

Community leaders gathered at a memorial Mass for Gallagher at the New York Irish Center in Long Island City on Thursday.

"No one should feel isolated," said the Rev. Colm Campbell, 73, who came to the U.S. in 1992 from Belfast to serve as the chaplain for Irish immigrants. "We Irish are all over Queens. We're scattered.

"We really need a system to deal with this," he said.

Gallagher grew up in County Mayo and moved to England to find work as a young man, friends said. He then moved to the U.S., with stints in Massachusetts and Alaska, where he worked on the oil pipelines, before settling in New York.

Gallagher cared for his wife, Josephine, who battled Alzheimer's for six years, until she had to be placed in a nursing home four years ago. She is still alive and the couple was childless, friends said.

Gallagher was buried last week in Holyoke, Mass., where he has an elderly brother.

"He loved to take a drink or two and have a laugh," said Joe Flannery, 70, of Elmhurst, a distant cousin. "We got to be a little more aware of our family and friends. We can't let this happen again."

Successful programs for Irish seniors have already been adopted in the Bronx and in Leeds, England, which has a large number of Irish émigrés.

"This is an opportunity for the Irish community to respond," said Mae O'Driscoll, who helped found the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. "It's not insurmountable. It's already done in England."

The community is hoping to establish a visiting service to reach out to isolated seniors.

"It took Tony Gallagher's death for people to stand up," Staunton said. "Now we need to reinvest in our community."

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