Kilcar sheepfarmer who lost his sight: 'You need a purpose to get out of bed'

Donegal sheepfarmer Paddy Gallagher’s inspirational story was broadcast to the nation this evening.

RTÉ’s Ear to the Ground was in Kilcar to feature Paddy, 67, from Cronroad, who suffered multiple injuries and lost his sight in August 2019, spent weeks in hospital - but refused to take things lying down.

“It was a simple accident,” he said of the day that changed his life. “I saw a bus coming towards me and I tripped and fell. I went under the bus. The wheels went right over me. A crowd of locals from the pub saved my life that night. They lifted the bus off me.

“I had 150 injuries. Seven broken ribs squeezed in on my chest and that’s what stopped the blood flow to my brain and I ended up getting a stroke at the back of my eyes. My brain kept going but my eyes didn’t.

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“One leg was in bits and and my left broken in two places, my pelvis was broken in five places. I was ripped from the chest down to my belly button and my back was broken.”

After a week at Letterkenny University Hospital, Paddy spent seven in Tallaght and two more back in Letterkenny.

“I was five weeks in a coma and when the doctors took me out of the coma, they said only for I was strong and fit,” he said. “I wouldn’t have survived it, not even the operation. When I came back to Letterkenny I was blind. I can’t even see daylight now. It’s just pure blank.

“Maybe a couple of weeks after, I was down a bit. Nothing would shake me out of it, it was only my willpower and there was no point in dwelling on it. I didn’t want to let losing my sight get me down.”

Paddy, who was a building contractor who decided to quit the trade in 2011 to look after his late mother Mary Agnes, explained why he kept his sheep - he has 60 ewes, who he feeds daily and gets about other work on the farm with some help from his friends.

“A couple of days before I left for Tallaght hospital, this doctor came to me and says: ‘You’ve sheep and all’ and I told him I’d be selling them,” Paddy added.

“‘Don’t sell them because when you have sheep you will always have someone calling to you and that will keep you mentally well.' That's why I kept the sheep. You need to have some wee thing to do. You need a purpose to get out of bed in the morning.”

Paddy gets home help from the Irish Wheelchair Association - backed by the HSE and one of his personal assistants Noelle Blain spends two hours, twice a day, five days a week in his company. Then, when he’s on the farm, Stephen O’Donnell and Colm Diver lend a hand.

“Everyone needs a hand at some stage, no matter who you are,” Stephen said. “You can't do it all on your own. Nobody wants to be on their own as it’s great to be able to call on a friend.”