Date: Wednesday 17th September 2008

Derek Mooney welcomes Adrian & Niamh Gallagher to the RTE Radio studio to hear about the inclusion of the Gallagher Clan's record in the GWR 2009 edition.

Gallagher Clan record is in the Guinness World Records 2009

The Gallaghers take their place in the Guinness World Records 2009 book being launched today.

One group who were eagerly awaiting the launch of the latest edition of the Guinness World Records™ Book being launched today, Wednesday, were the Gallagher Clan. Having gained a world record since the last edition went to print they had hoped that their record was included. However as all records do not automatically gain entry to the book it was a case of wait and see and counting the days.

The Gallaghers achieved the world record of "the largest same name gathering – last name" in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland last year as part of the first Gallagher Global Gathering (see http://www.gallagherclan.org/past_events.aspx). Participants came from all over the world following a year long preparation and promotion which included radio interviews in such places as Nagoya, Japan and Melbourne, Australia, letter invites to 8000 Gallaghers in the UK and 2000 in Ireland, etc, etc...

This resulted in 1488 Gallaghers coming to Letterkenny on the 9th September 2007 to establish a new record.  Since then it’s been a case of “keeping up with the Gallaghers” as they beat the previous record of 1224 set by the Jones’ in Wales. The Clan’s event featured in media all over the world including nationwide USA in the on ABC News TV 20/20 programme ( see http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3891522&page=1).

Today they are thrilled to discover that indeed the Gallagher Clan has made it into the Guinness World Records 2009 book being published today. Adrian Gallagher, secretary of the organising committee, said: “I’m delighted for all those people who made it all possible: the local organising committee that 

TV3's Alan Hughes with Katie Forde of Guinness World Records and Adrian Gallagher at the launch of the GWR 2009

worked hard for a year preparing for the event, all those who supported their efforts especially local businesses and others, who together with Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and the Donegal Arts Officer, helped financially and in other ways. The media, local, nationally and internationally were also of great help. However those who really deserve the satisfaction of having our event commemorated in print are those who turned up on the day from all over the World. It was truly a global endeavour.

We would also like to thank Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame who greatly helped us get our message out to areas we would not have reached otherwise. I hope they too get satisfaction from this success. You could say that it’s another No.1 for them.

The publicity gained by way of the record attempt has helped greatly to spread the aims of the Gallagher Clan organisation across the Globe. We aim to collect, conserve and celebrate the heritage of the Gallaghers or Ó Ghallchóbhair, as we are called in Gaelic. This legacy is said to extend back to the time of our ancient ancestor, High King Niall of the Nine Hostages in the fifth century.