Gallagh House was situated in the village of Gallagh which is otherwise known as Newtown D'arcy. It came into the posession of Count O'Kelly de Gallagh when he married Eliza Joyce to whom the lands were given as part of her dowry.Her family were from Mervue in Galway City.
                 Count O'Kelly came from the Castleblakney area. When he came to his new home he renamed his estate "Gallagh" which was the name of his ancestral home.
                 In 1830 he started to build his dream home. O'Kelly evicted whole villages in the course of setting out his new estate with its          mansion. The ruins of some of these tenants houses are still to be seen.
                O'Kelly liked a lavish lifestyle and spent extravagantly on horses and entertainment. When he died his estate was seriously in debt. In an ironic twist of fate the family of Count O'Kelly was eventuallly evicted from Gallagh House by the Banks. The estate was later bought by the Conjested Districts Board. The Joyces from Leenane acquired some of the land and lived in Gallagh House until it was burnt in a fire in 1935. The land is still farmed by the Joyce family who live in Tuam. A son of Count O'Kelly lived in Knockavannie House. His name was   Walter and his son Richard sold the last part of the O'Kelly estate.         Another son Walter became Count O'Kelly. He died in Dublin in 1946 and was buried in Cortoon graveyard.
                Gallagh House now lies in ruins. A flagstone with "O'K 1779" engraved on it which was placed on top of the arch of the front entrance can still be seen. O'Kelly brought this with when he came from the "Old Gallagh" to the "New Gallagh".

A project by Mari Lynott who is a past pupil of Brownesgrove N.S. "The Old Nobility"of Cortoon.