Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Ah Jesus… not again! (Contribution)

pic001‘HOLY’ House of Prayer boss Christina Gallagher has bought another fabulous mansion on a super-rich private estate. 

The money-mad guru has snapped up an amazing house, which has its own cinema and snooker room. 

The six-bedroom property – five of the bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms and walk-in wardrobes – is on a private estate built by former billionaire Jim Mansfield, near Citywest, Dublin.

The astonishing house, which is at the end of a cul de sac in the gated development Coldwater Lakes, Saggart, offers complete privacy. 

 There is not even a pedestrian access to the estate. 

The house was up for sale for a cool €2million when Gallagher grabbed it for her astonishing portfolio. 

She is believed to have got it for a ‘bargain’ €1.1million.

Charlatan

Gallagher, founder of the House of Prayer on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, is a self-proclaimed visionary who claims she receives regular messages from Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

But the Sunday World exposed her five years ago as a charlatan who had taken millions of euro from her devoted and mostly elderly followers.

The secrecy-obsessed 59-year-old granny, who has built a cult-like following around herself, has already begun to turn her latest home into a Fort Knox-like structure. 

She has spent €100,000 erecting fencing and cameras to keep out prying eyes, despite the fact the public can’t see the house.

She did the same when she moved into her former home, a fabulous €4million mansion next to pop stars Ronan Keating and Westlife’s Byrne on the private Abington estate in Malahide in 2006.

An astonishing €2million mansion on the Welsh-English border, which was bought without a mortgage and which was uncovered by the Sunday World in 2011, also had top-notch security.

The property had seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a seven-person hot-tub and its own, lake, indoor swimming pool, snooker room, sauna, bar and gym. 

It has since been sold. 

Another luxury property outside Newport, Co. Mayo, had massive security walls and cameras built around it.

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Other properties Gallagher has bought for her family include a huge €lmillion mansion near her native Knockmore, Co. Mayo, for daughter Mary and another house for son Brendan nearby.

Despite her millionaire lifestyle, the prayer leader, who retained half the marital home after separating from husband Paddy, audaciously tells followers she has no interest in material things and would happily live in a tent. 

The Sunday World revealed those claims to be a complete lie in a series of shocking exposés.

The latest mansion is the eighth luxury property owned or bought by the millionaire mystic that we have uncovered. 

And she doesn’t even have a job.

Every house she buys is instantly upgraded with the best marble floors, antique furniture and chandeliers.

When followers raised eyebrows at her decision to put a Jacuzzi in the House of Prayer in Achill, they were told: “Nothing is too good for Our Lady.”

The new house on Coldwater Lakes is described as a 9,000 sq ft “stunning property” with a double attached garage and a separate detached garage. 

Located on the Christy O’Connor jnr-designed Lakes Golf Course, it has two large acre-sized gardens on either side, which Gallagher is busy landscaping. 

According to property records, the house and grounds were bought on April 5 this year.

Gallagher first came to the Sunday World’s attention back in 2008 when we discovered she was driving a €120,000 BMW while encouraging her elderly Catholic followers to hand over their life savings to her “mission”.

We uncovered a memo to American followers – where she has built five Houses of Prayer in remote areas – in which it was explained she wanted “cash only”. 

And the money was to be sent directly to her home so she could “thank people personally”.

Following our revelations about her wealthy lifestyle, three former followers took legal action to get back the €250,000 they had handed over. 

Rather than face a public court case, Gallagher returned their money.

Damnation

Two of them revealed how they were “brainwashed” into handing over the cash. 

They were threatened with eternal damnation if they had money and did not give it to “Our Lady’s cause”.

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But the self-styled “humble housewife” has refused to give one word of explanation about her sumptuous lifestyle, which began after she set up the House of Prayer in July 1993.

The Sunday World recently called at the Coldwater mansion where we saw a huge landscaping operation underway.

The electric gate to the house was closed and when we rang the intercom, a woman answered and said: “No Christina lives here.”

She claimed Jim Mansfield owned the house and that she was renting it. Asked her name, she said: “None of your business.”

She then disconnected our reporter before he could ask why she was doing such a massive landscaping job if she was only renting the house and why she was erecting extensive fencing.