FORMER MLA IN ROAD SMASH
SDLP’S TOMMY GALLAGHER SUFFERS SERIOUS INJURIES
FORMER SDLP Assembly member Tommy Gallagher was rushed to hospital yesterday following a serious road traffic collision in Co Fermanagh.
The 75-year-old had to be flown by air ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after he was badly injured.
He was being assessed last night and it is understood he was due to undergo treatment afterwards.
The crash, involving a car and a lorry, occurred between Kesh and Boa Island Road just after 12.30pm yesterday. The two people in the car, believed to be Mr
Gallagher and his wife Eileen, were taken to hospital.
The Pettigo Road near Kesh
where the crash took place remained closed until yesterday evening. SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan
said his thoughts and prayers are with Mr Gallagher’s friends and family.
He said: “Thankfully I have heard that Tommy is stable but has sustained a number of seri- ous injuries after his car was involved in a collision with a lorry earlier this morning.”
The West Tyrone MLA added: “I, along with my SDLP colleagues and local councillors, wish Tommy and Eileen a speedy and full recovery.”
Born in Ballyshannon, the Fermanagh and South Tyrone representative had been a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 until 2011, when he lost his seat to Sinn Fein’s Phil Flanagan.
Mr Gallagher — who regularly stood for the SDLP in Westminster elections — had also worked as a teacher and was deputy head of St Mary’s High School in Belleek.