The media attack of the past fifteen months on the House of Prayer and on Our Lady’s messages have, more often than not, shown that the article writers have never bothered to read the contents of the messages of Our Lady and indeed it is quite clear that no attempt was made by anybody to obtain facts or find a fair balance. Here are a few examples of the sort of unfounded statements that the tabloid media have felt it legitimate to publish, without thought of the consequences for the many people affected by their actions, not just Mrs. Gallagher, Fr. McGinnity, the staff at Our Lady’s House, but the many hundreds of people who support and attend Our Lady Queen of Peace, House of Prayer. Below is a summary of some of the points made.

6th January 08 “she set up the house of prayer as a place for pilgrims to pray for salvation from hell and damnation”

Our Lady Queen of Peace, House of Prayer was set up at the request of Our Blessed Mother. She desired people to learn there “To pray Her most beautiful Rosary, from the heart”
At no time was it ever said by Our Blessed Lady, Christina or anybody else, that the House of Prayer was to be a “place for pilgrims to pray for salvation from hell and damnation”

6th January 08 “Gallagher’s wealth is not the only thing to anger supporters, as some of her messages are now deemed heretical”

Gross exaggeration and distorted facts regarding the supposed wealth of Christina Gallagher has been a constant feature of the tabloids’ vendetta against her. In order to foster a campaign and to stir up animosity, photographs of the homes belonging to all the members of Mrs Gallagher’s family were taken without permission. This was a grave invasion of privacy. But no-one raised a voice in defence of the families afflicted by part of their private lives being slandered and ridiculed in the trash and lies peddled by the Sunday World and other tabloids.
Naturally the allegation was that Mrs Gallagher “owned” everything. But even as the truth and facts were made clear...there was no interest and no response in publishing such. Quite the opposite happened. These publications continued to use ‘statements’ once again by faceless and nameless people, who never seem to come to the fore and prove their real existence any more than so called allegations about wealth, jewellery and their pathetic description even of Mrs Gallagher’s bedroom and the type of bed in which she is alleged to have slept.
These tactics, aimed at causing confusion, jealousy and disharmony were long ago recognised for what they really are; a construction of lies, distortion and bottom of the barrel journalism.

6th January 08 Tabloid style religious paper “said Gallagher’s claims that eternal life would be given automatically to those who made pilgrimages to the house of prayer was heretical and contrary to all church teachings”

This is a mischievous attempt to totally misrepresent the Message of Our Blessed Lady who never bypasses Her Divine Son. Her first message through Christina called Her children to repentance and God’s forgiveness, through the sacrament of confession. Our Lady cannot make people’s salvation automatic, without genuine repentance on their part.
When Our Lady speaks of the gift of eternal life through coming to Her House, She means that She will intercede for people who come there, to obtain the grace of true conversion. There is no message from Our Blessed Lady, wherein the gift of eternal life is offered outside the sacramental process. Most Catholics would indeed be aware of similar promises of Our Blessed Lady’s assistance at the hour of death, the gift of Heaven etc., associated with devotions and Sacramentals, including the Five First Saturdays, The Brown Scapular, Devotion to the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy devotion, and many more.

27th January 08 “people are told if they donate to the house of prayer they will have eternal salvation, but those who abandon or betray Christina Gallagher will suffer eternal damnation”

What takes place at the House of Prayer is prayer. There are no collections for money at the House of Prayer. If anybody chooses to voluntarily help Our Lady’s work, the choice to do so is their own.
As for those “abandoning or betraying Christina Gallagher suffering eternal damnation” this has never been uttered by anyone. To begin with, Christina Gallagher is not of importance as some type of figure to be followed. It is the truth she bears, as a messenger entrusted by God to fulfil an important work for souls.

27th January 08 “some donors who asked where their donations were going were told it was for Our Lady and they could not be more specific ‘because the Bishop would shut us down”

The statement itself is a pathetic indication of the extent to which this tabloid is prepared to go, in its effort to create division and hostility towards the House of Prayer.
There is absolutely no fact or substance to this statement.
It goes without saying that Mrs Gallagher and all who attend the House of Prayer staunchly support the Catholic Church and all its teachings. Prayer is encouraged regularly, and enthusiastically responded to, for all clergy and church leaders, that Almighty God will give them strength, wisdom and guidance in their own lives and in their special vocations.

27th January 08 “Christina is credited with 500 healings”

This erroneous statement, while correct in its acknowledgement of healings having taking place, is grossly incorrect in attempting to attribute them to any personal powers of Mrs. Gallagher herself.
As Catholics, we are all taught to believe that real and verified supernatural healings can only come from God. Yes, one does and should invoke the intercession of Our Lady, Saints, and the Angels for favours and healings. Yes, Mrs Gallagher has numerous times been asked to pray for special intentions, and yes, she has on numerous occasions prayed and offered her own sufferings to Heaven for the petitions of those afflicted. But, as she has said again and again, in public and in private, “I can heal no-one. Only God can heal”
Hence, all healings which have taken place at Our Lady Queen of Peace, House of Prayer or through the use of the Matrix Medal are always attributed to their true source, Almighty God, through the intercession of Our Blessed Lady. Christina has always stated that she is not a healer and that all she can do is pray for or with the person in need. Heaven decides who is to be healed. Christina has often said that if she herself could heal, she would heal everyone. The hundreds of healings and spiritual conversions which have occurred are only given by Heaven to authenticate the truth of Our Lady’s message; just as in the Gospels Jesus heals always as a sign of the Divine authority of His Word.

27th January 08 “Fr. McGinnity spoke of a vengeful virgin Mary who was passing on warnings through Christina”

If this piece were not so farcical, it would come across as the work of someone setting out to do a ‘hatchet’ job, but without even being acquainted with facts. Fr McGinnity has never spoken of a ‘vengeful’ Virgin Mary. This is clear from all the books written on the subject of Christina’s experiences and the House of Prayer. Our Lady, as experienced by Christina and presented by Fr McGinnity is a loving and gentle Mother, who comes in peace and is indeed the Queen of Peace. She weeps for the return of Her lost children, for whom she constantly yearns.
It is a matter of record the impact She made on Christina in Her first apparitions, “... by this time as She (i.e. Our Lady) looked down, radiantly happy, I was away in another world and from that moment on, there was no fear, and I was completely and utterly in love with this woman. Love of Our Blessed Mother is a pure love, a love beyond the peace of this world. It is something you cannot explain in words...” the first book to be written entitled Please come back to me and My Son by R Vincent (pg 41) records Christina’s words as follows, “Jesus’ love for mankind is beyond human understanding. Because Jesus died to save us all He wants to reach out to everyone in the world, through the Virgin Mary...”
Nothing of a vengeful Virgin Mary there, and all Fr. McGinnity has consistently done is to present what Christina has received, having tested it to be in harmony with the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and anything she has been given over the past twenty one years has been in absolute accordance with the Church’s criteria for determining the authenticity of apparitions. (Spiritual fruitfulness, true conversion, upheld by supernatural healings, fulfilment of world events previously given to Christina and supernatural gifts received by her)

27th January 08 “save us from the fires of hell”

This is truly a giveaway, as the reporter clearly does not even realise that this is ‘the Fatima prayer’ which is recited after each decade of the Rosary. The uninformed or uneducated reporter had obviously never prayed, heard or read this conventional invocation before, and tries pathetically to submit it as an alleged ‘message’ or threat of doom and gloom from Fr McGinnity himself.
The reporter was clearly out of her depth, in terms of treating this basic subject. Any line of any of the great and historic prayers of the Catholic Church, taken out of context and only partially quoted, could have similar effect.
While Our Heavenly Mother has been trying to alert humanity about the level of sin on every continent, nowhere has she revealed in such detail the events that are rapidly overtaking the world, than in her message to Christina Gallagher, and that message, critically viewed by some as ‘doom and gloom’ is now the substance of each day’s news headlines.
While revealing to her 17 years ago that a uniting of currencies would lead to a one world bank, followed by one world government ( A call issued on the international political scene on March 17th 2009 by the Russian Kremlin!) and even a one world Church which would not be Christian. It was through Christina that Our Lady made known in January 2006 the imminent collapse of the stock market which has now rocked the entire world with untold consequences yet to be fully experienced. Even regular pilgrims to Our Lady’s House and who had seen all the previous prophecies fulfilled, admit that they had difficulty in seeing how this could ever come about.
As Christina published in 1992, she was shown a scene for which she had no name, but it turned out to be the deadly Tsunami in the Indian ocean of Dec 26th 2004. All the weather extremes were shown to her and clearly specified to her in Our Lady’s messages and published by her, years before they took place, but were later fulfilled to the letter.
As a compassionate Mother, pleading with her children to respond to Her in prayer, Our Lady Queen of Peace had come to protect Her children from these and other calamities which were also shown in advance to Christina and made known at that time (e.g. The wars in Rwanda, Chechnya, collapse of the twin towers etc), but yet her offer of help was for the most part, only to be greeted with mockery.
In relation to our own country of Ireland, Our Lady, who never interferes with her children’s freedom had warned twenty years ago of how she desired to protect all Her children but especially the youth by drawing them back to the sacraments of the Church, to prayer and consecration to Her, otherwise they would fall victim to abuse of alcohol, drugs, the gift of sexuality, and loss of faith, confusion and suicide. Sadly, the evidence is all around us to show that Her Motherly call went unheeded; it is now beyond doubt, that the more Our Lady’s call was ignored, the more our nation went into decline.

27th January 08 “promised pilgrims reduced Purgatory in return for funding her cause”

Mrs Gallagher does not speak about the need for donations and support, although this work needs funds, in common with any work which includes the provision of adequate facilities for the hundreds of pilgrims and visitors who attend Our Lady’s House on a weekly basis. Our Lady’s house does not run of fresh air, of course, it takes funds to run and to do the work it sets out to do in spreading the message of Our Blessed Mother.

2nd March 08 “I’m sure people will find a sympathetic ear, if they call the Tuam diocesan office in Galway with their story.”

This is fine, but one would and should expect that any such “story” would be true and verifiable, unlike the stories reported to date, but why would somebody ring the archdiocese, before making contact with the House of Prayer! It is well known that since 1998, there has been no communication from the Archdiocese to the House of Prayer?
Surely, if somebody has a query or is unhappy for some reason, they would first contact the House of Prayer or the person with whom they had an issue? Is it not strange that for the few verifiable stories printed to date, not one of the individuals involved first made contact with the House of Prayer and when it’s in relation to fundraising, not one contacted Majella Meade, and the first they knew about it was to read it in a paper like the Sunday World!

9th March 08“How cult church preyed on ill pensioner” “they robbed an old man”

This article was a combination of lies and false claims.
The heading implies that Our Lady Queen of Peace, House of Prayer is a church of its own.
All pilgrims attending the House of Prayer staunchly support the Catholic Church and the Magisterium. The majority of pilgrims are hard-working loyal members of their own Parishes, all over Ireland, where they work as teachers, housewives, doctors, students, nurses, healthcare providers, lawyers, farmers etc. In their own parishes they would be known as decent people, many of whom are actively involved in all types of Parochial and Diocesan work. This offensive and untrue article had a picture of a gentleman who came many years ago to Our Lady Queen of Peace, House of Prayer. Upon his request, and in the belief that it would better his situation, the staff members did prepare and make available to him a simple but comfortable and adequate accommodation within the grounds of The House of Prayer, yet located where he had privacy and freedom. He was cared for daily and attended to by staff and volunteers and as his health deteriorated. These unpaid carers daily looked after his dietary and hygiene needs as he was aged and infirm. They did all they humanely could with good humour, kindness and prayerfulness.
Until his final day of residence there, this man was treated with the utmost respect, dignity and compassion. These facts can be independently verified in the locality of Achill and by all the pilgrims who met him on a regular basis. In the unjust picture presented by Jim Gallagher and The Sunday World newspaper, this prolonged act of charity has been callously vulgarised, causing distress to all involved.
All this only underscores the tabloid’s total lack of ethics and interest in facts. The reality of the situation is that the daughter of the dead person, after the death, actually wrote a note of thanks and appreciation, expressing thanks for the kindness and quality of care given to her father during his time spent in Achill Sound. That note is on record and totally contradicts the account attributed to his daughter, which appeared in the Sunday tabloid.

9th March 08 “Christina promised that Our Lady would give a supernatural sign on April 26th 08 at the house of prayer”

As all those who visited The House of Prayer regularly before this claimed announcement know, Christina Gallagher never once mentioned any such sign, nor did she create any expectation for such.
The messages of Our Lady Queen of Peace are never sensational. Christina and Fr. McGinnity have often stated that ‘there is no sensation in God’. Those who have sought to find sensation and signs are those who leave disappointed, angry and unfulfilled.

19th April 08 “it is understood that the movement and senior members have amassed hundreds of millions of assets.”

This is an outrageous untruth and libel which appeared in a local weekly news sheet. The directors and all involved in Our Lady’s work are there is a voluntary capacity and no member has materially gained from their work. Independent professional audits can verify the regulatory and complaint nature of this work over the past two decades. For such an obviously untrue, but wild, damaging and libellous statement, there is not the slightest shred of evidence.

29th June 08 “at least half of the directors of the controversial house of prayer have quit.”

More fiction and a total lack of research. All the present and past directors of Our Lady Queen of Peace, House of Prayer are fully committed to Mrs Gallagher and her mission. Some directors who have stepped down have done so for reasons of health or time commitments as happens within any board of directors in any company. Some have helped nominate and elect new members to the board and all have assisted in bringing a new dynamic board into being in 2008. This is a great development and we wish the new board of directors every success in their managerial and steering role in the time ahead and congratulate them on their appointments.

30th July 08 “reliable sources have revealed that senior members are moving to the United States, including Christina.”

Definitely not reliable sources! This claim is totally false and unfounded. The tabloids have included statements like this with no basis in truth or fact. Such statements were commonplace in the vendetta advanced by The Sunday World newspaper. It is widely and generally known, a chain of Houses of Prayer do exist in USA and Mexico. All these houses have been put in place by the supporters of Our Lady Queen of Peace. None of these houses ever did or ever will belong to Mrs Gallagher or The House of Prayer in Achill. Currently many of these houses are attended every week by residents of USA who would have traditionally come to Achill a number of times annually. They pray the same novena and prayer programme as those at the House of Prayer in Achill as Our Lady requested. Naturally Mrs Gallagher, Fr McGinnity and others may choose at any time to visit any or all of these places. It also goes without saying that Mrs Gallagher will do whatever her mission and work guides her to do. She will go wherever it is required that she goes and in doing so she is a free citizen.
It appears that the slant the tabloid press wished to give was that she was running away! Maybe one day soon they will wish that she had run away...but that will be another story!

23rd November 08 “……..during a Mass at the house of prayer Ms. Gallagher’s spiritual director John McGinnity…………

This reporter in her article could not even get Mrs. Gallagher’s spiritual director’s name correct, which shows her lack of research. It was also false to suggest that Holy Mass was offered, as Mass has not been celebrated in Our Lady’s House for more than a decade.
One is tempted to wonder if that reporter would have recognised a Mass taking place at all?
Fr. Gerard McGinnity never stated during the celebration of any Mass, or in any homily in the 1990s, that Mrs Gallagher was “treated like a criminal”. However, using lies and distortion as facts and using nameless and faceless liars (if they exist) as complainants has been a repeated tactic to defame and besmirch the characters of Christina Gallagher and Fr McGinnity. The tabloid actually in its own lies revealed that indeed Mrs Gallagher was being treated like a criminal, but it is by the tabloid press and in particular by The Sunday World and its reporter Jim Gallagher.
If we were asked, would we say that Mrs Gallagher has been treated like a criminal? The answer is yes, and most unjustly so. A merciless trial and conviction by media, where truth and fact have no place. There has been no regard for innocence until proven guilty in a year of untruths printed in the media against Christina Gallagher and Fr. McGinnity
Both of their homes and their families have been ‘stalked’ and they’ve had their privacy destroyed to a level that outrages normal human decency. The quality of their lives has been destroyed and even placed in danger, Mrs. Gallagher has received death threats, in which it was made clear that they were a result of the media campaign, with those responsible hiding behind the cloak of “journalism”.
The repeated use of the words “fraud”, “fake”, “phoney”, “scam”, “self-proclaimed”, “preys” etc. alongside pictures of Mrs Gallagher and with huge headlines offensively worded could not but have such an effect on an otherwise uninformed general public who unfortunately subject themselves to journalism of the lowest calibre.
All that Mrs. Gallagher sought to do was to bring, as best she could, the messages given to her for Ireland and the whole world by Our Blessed Mother.
All her spiritual director has sought to do, being convinced of the authenticity of the messages, has been to assist her as a spiritual director and to ensure that everything was in conformity with the Gospels within the guidelines and the teachings of the Church. Which of course, they are and always have been.

4th December 08 “If you have been affected by any of the issues raised by this article or any of the alleged happenings at the Achill House of Prayer, please contact the author in the strictest of confidence”

One can only hope that the writer Mr Kelly will explain in detail the purpose and reason for such an offer at the end of this misleading and perhaps even mischievous article. Is this an offer by the Irish Catholic or by Mr Kelly? The reporter was present on a current affairs programme where the same lady made statements contrary to what was stated in this article!! So one can only wonder why a reporter would print what he knows to be questionable?
It is also noteworthy that indeed many people who are favourably disposed towards Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer have spoken on many occasions to this man; they have found him always to be rude and opposed to apparitions in general, which of course, is his right, but surely as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, everyone is entitled to go to any recognised place of prayer that assists their faith? The Catechism of the Catholic Church (page 579, 2721) makes it very clear that the Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer; vocal prayer, mediation and contemplative prayer. All three are regularly embodied in the prayers promoted in Achill since 1993. The Rosary, adoration of the Trinity and meditation on Christ’s Passion and death are central to the ongoing Novena.