From Irish Rails to Georgia Roads

Billy Galligan - Author

Welcome to the show everybody! I'm Billy Galligan. Picture this: it's a freezing, damp morning in late August, and I'm sitting in the driver's seat of bus number 2538 -- my yellow chariot of chaos. I've got a charcoal grey fedora on my head, a red and black Atlanta United jersey across my chest, and I'm looking in the mirror waiting for a swarm of Gwinnett County high schoolers to climb aboard. If you'd told me forty years ago, when I was a seventeen-year-old lad sweeping the cold platforms of the Dublin to Westport railway line, that this is where I'd end up... well, I would've told you to have your head examined.

Billy Galligan - Author

But that's the beauty of life, isn't it? It rarely follows a straight track. My journey to the suburban streets of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, actually started back in January 1985. I'd just landed a job as a Junior Porter with Iarnród Éireann -- Irish Rail. I was just shy of seventeen, wearing a uniform that was about three sizes too big for me. That Dublin to Westport run was a masterclass in human nature. You had farmers, students, families, all squeezed into these rattling carriages, and you quickly learned to scan the crowd, read a face, and figure out who needed a hand or who was about to cause a bit of mischief.

Billy Galligan - Author

Then, in November 1987, I traded the railway porter uniform for the green of the Irish Defence Forces. Talk about a reality check! My basic training got rudely interrupted just before Christmas that year when I went in for a challenge during a soccer match on the parade square and snapped my right femur like a dry breadstick. Seven months of stubbornness and swearing in physio later, I finally got posted to the Air Corps at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel.

Billy Galligan - Author

That's where I stumbled into photography, eventually becoming a Public Relations photographer for the military. It took me to some incredibly sobering places -- documenting UN peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Liberia in 2006. When you're wedged in the back of a hot armored personnel carrier with your camera lens fogging up, watching people try to rebuild their lives from the ashes of war, you gain a massive appreciation for the quiet peace of ordinary life. It's funny how those years of checking mirrors on the rails and scanning horizons through a camera lens prepared me perfectly for navigating a forty-foot school bus through Atlanta traffic.

Billy Galligan - Author

But the real detour -- the one that changed everything -- happened on St. Patrick's Day in 2001. I was in Savannah, Georgia, playing drums with the visiting Irish Air Corps Pipe Band. After marching down those historic streets, I was sitting near one of the squares catching my breath when this brilliant American woman named Leanne came over and sat beside me. There was an immediate spark, but she lived in Georgia and I was headed back to Dublin. So we built this digital bridge. For thirteen years, we sent emails, cards, and had long transatlantic phone calls.

Billy Galligan - Author

Then came 2014. Leanne was turning forty, and during a call, she said, "Billy, I sometimes wonder... what if the ocean wasn't in the way?" And without a single second of hesitation, I said, "Then I will move." A bit reckless for a fella in his late forty's? Aye, probably. But sure, why not!

Billy Galligan - Author

We got our K-1 visa approval in July 2015. I proposed to her in the hallowed, quiet grandeur of Trinity College's Long Room in Dublin, packed up my life and my loyal border collie Lassie, and crossed the Atlantic. We got married on December 20th, 2015. I thought we were settling into a quiet life, but fate had one more massive detour in store.

Billy Galligan - Author

We got a call from the Department of Family and Children Services about fostering a newborn boy, Carter. But then we found out he had two older biological siblings, Kaylee and Calvin, who also needed a home. Three kids under one roof, instantly. Leanne and I looked at each other, took a deep breath, and said our family motto: "Sure, why not?" We finalized their adoption in April 2021.

Billy Galligan - Author

We've faced our share of storms since then, including Leanne's recent battle with breast cancer, but we've faced them as a pack of five. So, that's me. Billy G. A Dublin porter, an army photographer, a Georgia school bus driver, and a very lucky dad. Thanks for joining me on this crazy journey. We're already behind schedule, so hop in -- and we'll see where the road takes us next time!