Burnfoot mum of young Texaco Children's Art Competition winners tells of family's delight

Charles and Neal Gallagher are the sons of Orla and Seamus Gallagher, who live in Castlefin.

Orla (nee McLaughlin) and the boys have strong Inishowen connections, as she is originally from Burnfoot and they have a large number of family members in the village and across the peninsula.

The boys recently made national headlines as they both won prizes in the prestigious art competition.

Charles, who is five-years-old and a pupil at St. Mary’s National School, Castlefin, won second prize in the six years and younger category – the youngest age group in the Competition – for his work entitled ‘Moo Moo Rua’. His work was described by Final Adjudicator, Professor Gary Granville as “art that combines the inanimate with the living, through a warm and successful juxtaposition of a tractor with a cow.”

In further success for the Gallagher family, younger brother Neal (Bernard) (aged 1), a pupil at CPI Creche, Castlefin, won third prize in the same age category. His work is described by Professor Granville as “an abstract piece, that, at the age of 23 months, shows not only remarkable manipulative dexterity but also an energy and compositional form that is highly accomplished.”

In winning his award at aged one, records show that Neal has secured a unique position for himself in becoming the youngest entrant ever to win a top prize in the 69 years history of the competition.

Speaking to the Journal said the days since the announcement have been ‘lovely’ for the family and told how she was both surprised and over the moon to be told both boys had done so well.

She was initially only supposed to enter Charles into the competition, before Neal declared he wanted to do so as well.

"Charles wanted to draw the cow on the farm. When he was finishing his, I told him to clear up but Neal said: ‘My turn’. I put down some newspaper and gave him a sheet and he did his own thing.

"He saw me putting Charles’ entry into the envelope and said: ‘Mammy, mine.’ I thought I’d put his in too, so that I could say I had entered him when he was younger.”

Orla is a teacher at Derry’s St. Columb’s College and said that when she received a phonecall to tell her the ‘boys’ had won, she initially thought it was pupils in her classroom.

"But then I realised she meant Charles and Neal and we were all delighted.”

Charles completed his picture in stages, using cotton wool for clouds and glitter for the sun. Neal ‘did his in about half an hour’.

Both boys, said Orla, are very creative and love drawing and crafting. Charles was highly commended in last year’s competition and also recently placed second in a Credit Union competition.

They will receive the awards themselves on May 31 next and their family is immensely proud of them both.