'I don't regret it' says Mayo man who went public about his rape

It's a quiet afternoon in downtown Castlebar. The effects of Storm Éowyn are still being felt, but one young Mayo man is preparing for an exciting new phase of life.

Dylan Gallagher, a 27 year old from Islandeady, is about to fulfil a long-cherished dream and travel to Australia, where sunnier climes and great adventures await.

“I’m excited. I’ve wanted to go to Australia since I was 16,” he tells The Mayo News, “but back then I wanted to go for the wrong reasons. I was carrying a big load in my head and wanted to get as far away as possible, so I wouldn’t be thinking about it, but that would have been the worst thing I could have done. I now realise it didn’t matter where I went, it would have been eating away at me.”

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The load being carried was indeed a very heavy one. Dylan Gallagher was raped by his cousin, Noel Gallagher, when he was a nine-year-old child and kept it a secret for 13 years.

“I thought I’d never tell. He [Noel Gallagher] had told me to keep it a secret, but if I hadn’t got the courage to eventually tell my parents, I wouldn’t be here today. I was suicidal for years. Whenever anything went wrong I’d be saying to myself ‘I don’t want to be here’, ‘Why am I here?’.”

In the early hours of Christmas Day 2019, Dylan finally found the courage to tell his parents about the rape, and it changed his life. It took almost another five years for him to receive justice, but when Noel Gallagher from Dadreen in Louisburgh was sentenced to four years in jail at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on November 5, 2024, the young man from Islandeady was ready to tell the world.

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He stood on the steps outside the court and said he wanted to speak out in order to help others faced with ‘similar horrors’. That act of bravery exposed his assault to the world, but the response has been nothing but positive.

“I’ve never regretted it for a second,” he told The Mayo News this week. “I’m so happy now that I took that decision. If I can help just one other person talk about what happened them, then my job is done.

“So many people have been in contact with me since, saying they now have the courage to tell their story and that’s what it’s all about.”

Worthwhile journey

Noel Gallagher denied the charges. The trial at the Central Criminal Court was told that the two cousins were in a farm shed on the family homestead in Louisburgh when Noel Gallagher, who was 15 at the time, mentioned sex.

Dylan Gallagher recalled his older cousin laughing at him because he asked ‘What does that mean?’. The court was told Dylan was then raped by his cousin, and that he did not know what was happening to him. Noel Gallagher told his victim to keep it a secret, in an ‘aggressive manner’, the court heard.

Dylan Gallagher told the court he remembered being ‘confused, dazed and disgusted’ in the aftermath, while the accused seemed fine.

He estimated the time of the offence by reference to his first visit to Croke Park, which was in 2006, and he knew the rape had taken place after that. He knew it was winter, ‘because the cows were in the shed’.

“I remember going home that evening in the car looking out the window wondering what had happened to me. I was nine years old. I hadn’t a clue. Life changed straight away after that,” Dylan explains.

That change was stark. He started drinking alcohol at 14, and his school and family life was impacted all through his teens. Lonely, dark, confusing times accompanied him, but on that Christmas night 13 years later, when it all came tumbling out, the relief was felt deeply and a new phase of life began.

It has been a lengthy and challenging journey for Dylan, but counselling support with the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre, and years of understanding and growth have helped him find his way. And every step of the long journey has been worth it, according to Dylan.

He describes last Christmas, his first since the trial, as ‘the best Christmas since I was little’. “The relief, the lack of stress, the ease. I’m moving on with my life now and heading to Australia in a couple of days. I will still carry all that’s happened with me, but I’ll carry it in a positive way and move on with all the good things in life.”

READ: 'I was raped by my cousin': Dylan Gallagher tells his story to help others