Many may be familiar with Orion Gallagher for a number of reasons including his community service spirit or acting as a leprechaun at many city events.
As of Monday, he can add serving as Place 2 council member to his resume.
That resume includes a vast work history with nine years of service in the U.S. Navy with four of them in data processing and journalism part of the time on the USS Midway.
He has also served as a cook in a variety of capacities and did extra work in Austin for theatre.
Moving from Austin to Dublin four years ago with his girl Lanora Davidson, he found that the town was welcoming to him as an outsider.
As a helper at Lanora’s downtown store, Things Celtic, visitors and citizens alike may know him as his leprechaun character, Grumpy McBeard, though he is not Dublin’s official leprechaun.
“I’m his younger, prettier brother,” he said, regarding Dublin’s official leprechaun Lucky McBeard played by Brad Stanford.
When it comes to giving back to Dublin, Gallagher has served on the historical society, the library board and formerly on the Dublin Chamber of Commerce board. He decided to serve on city council simply for one reason
… to see if he could help. “A lot of people talk about what’s wrong with this town but I decided to see if I could do something to help,” he said. “We live here now. This is our town.”
One of his major focuses as he enters into council is to make sure the railroad depot project is on track and eventually turned into a pub to boost both tourism and sales tax dollars into Dublin.
“I love Dublin,” he said. When he isn’t busy volunteering with the store or on boards, Orion enjoys spending time with Lanora in their beautiful home on Patrick Street.
He was sworn into council Place 2 Monday night and attended his first council meeting with the support of Lanora and their friends.