The founder of the controversial House of Prayer on Achill Island, who has convinced followers to hand over millions to her organisation by claiming the end of days are coming and their donations will offer them holy protection, has been spending large amounts of cash on slot machine casinos for years.
After a four-month investigation, the Sunday World finally caught Gallagher happily gambling away at Dr Quirkery’s casino in Phibsboro on Wednesday night.
Onlookers said they had seen her with wads of notes in her hand earlier that night as she played the machine for around an hour and said she was having a “lucky night” with some big wins.
However, her luck ran out when our reporter approached her to ask her about her gambling.
When our man asked Gallagher if her followers, many of whom donate significant sums to her organisation, were aware of her gambling, she replied: “I only come the odd time.”
She immediately got up from her seat, grabbed her bag and, more importantly, two dockets which had winnings on them which she hurriedly stuffed into her coat pocket.
Gallagher, who claims to speak directly with Jesus and the Virgin Mary, then walked away as our reporter continued to grill her, asking her if she used money her followers donated to gamble.
“No, no, no,” she said.
She made her way through the casino as the Sunday World asked her what Jesus says about gambling.
It then became apparent she was looking for someone she was with who was gambling at another slot machine. That man turned out to be former House of Prayer company secretary and Christina’s close confidant Noel Guinan.
She told Guinan they had to leave immediately and he got up from his machine and followed behind her as she made a beeline for the exit as the Sunday World fired more questions at her.
“I don’t come very often, once or twice,” Gallagher told us.
However, we put it to her that patrons at the casino claim she has been coming there for years and was gambling large amounts each night.
The patrons claimed she sometimes makes thousands of euro worth of bets in a night but Gallagher flatly denied this.
“What?” she said incredulously. “No, no. please don’t go down that road.”
We then put it to Gallagher that Jesus said you cannot serve two masters – money and God – and asked her which master she served.
She just kept repeating “no” over and over as we continued to quiz her.
Noel Guinan had said nothing up to this point but when we addressed him by name, he replied:” What’s the problem?”
We told him we were asking Christina if her followers know that she gambles regularly in casinos.
“Ah yeah,” Guinan replied.
Gallagher again denied she had been gambling thousands a night and denied she had been at the casino many times before, despite claims from other customers.
“No, no, no, no,” she said.
As we continued to ask her questions she stood at the passenger door of a Seven Series BMW, frantically pulling at the door handle which was locked.
“Noel, open the door,” she said, before he eventually managed to get it open. The pair got in and drove away together.
While Gallagher claimed she only gambled once or twice, other customers said she had been regularly visiting for over a year but hadn’t been seen since just before Lent until this week.
“She used to come on a regular basis. You would want to see the amount of €50s she’d have in her hand and put in €50 at a time” another customer said.
“Normally she’s throwing the €50s in hand over fist and she’d have a handful of €50s in her hand. She wins a good bit as well, sometimes very large amounts.”
Cult expert Mike Garde, who has helped former followers of the ‘fake visionary’ and their relatives over the years, said Gallagher’s slot machine habit was “like something out of Fr Ted”.
He said he hopes it will show her remaining devotees the reality of what drives Gallagher.
“She is driven by money, not by some holy pursuit. We have been trying for years without success to get the Catholic Church to do something about the House of Prayer and hopefully this will finally wake them up. She should be excommunicated.”
Gallagher, who founded the House of Prayer on Achill Island, Co Mayo, has persuaded her followers to voluntarily hand over millions of euro since opening the doors to her centre in 1993, as she regularly claims to have received messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
The House of Prayer has no charitable status and is run by a limited company – Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer (Achill) Company Ltd.
The Sunday World previously exposed how Gallagher had been living a life of luxury, buying an extensive property portfolio as her followers handed over donations to the organisation which is not affiliated to the Catholic Church.
She has lived in numerous opulent homes, including a multi-million euro palatial neo-Georgian house in Abbington in Malahide, an exclusive neighbourhood that has been home to various well-known people over the years including Ronan Keating, Nicky Byrne and Robbie Keane.
She also lived in s sprawling property in Coldwater Lakes in Saggart where she had more infamous neighbours including Jim Mansfield Jnr and Daniel Kinahan had homes.
She also owned a mansion in Shropshire in the UK and numerous other large homes in Ireland. The Shropshire property had seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a seven-person hot-tub and its own lake, indoor swimming pool, snooker room, sauna, bar and gym.
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.”
During the Covid crisis, the Sunday World revealed how relatives of elderly followers of Gallagher said their parents wouldn’t take the vaccine because of messages the fake visionary claimed to have received from Jesus.
Some followers of the House of Prayer told family members they would not get the vaccine because they believe if they do, they will “receive the mark of the beast” and go to hell.
Gallagher claims to regularly receive messages from Jesus and is always issuing dire warnings of an imminent apocalypse to followers and suggests they can receive protection from Jesus if they make donations or buy items from the House of Prayer shop including a picture of the Virgin Mary, which the House of Prayer sells for €250 and is so popular it is regularly sold out.
The Sunday World revealed in 2023 how Gallagher told followers that Jesus spoke to her to warn her about the apocalypse and to say he endorsed the products on sale.
She bizarrely claimed Jesus spoke to her about planned price increases on the Virgin Mary picture and said anyone who complains wont get holy protection from him in the apocalypse.
“Those who refused it already will be tested by its increased cost when they try to obtain it in the future but those who criticise its cost will not gain the protection it provides,” Gallagher claimed Jesus told her.
“They ought not to attack its cost. Those who are like the wise virgins in the Gospel parable will have the picture with the roses. Be aware you will be mocked and scoffed at when people hear this about the picture but they are only the foolish who will do such - they will say it is ‘a money racket’.”
Over the years Gallagher also helped grow the House of Prayer into America, where various offshoots were established – the most recent of which was opened in Brewster, New York, in 2021 on the site of a former synagogue bought for $2.2m.
Gallagher continues to preach to her followers on a regular basis at the House of Prayer and in a video posted in recent months she told them how she speaks to Jesus at 3am and asks him why she is suffering so much in life.
“I just say dear Lord why am I suffering so much, why? But the next thing he answered a lot of the questions and it made me feel ashamed that I should dare speak of my suffering.”
She went on to say he showed her his suffering and went into graphic bloody detail of the suffering she claims he showed her.
In the same speech she goes to talk about “pride and arrogance, self-will, jealousy, and greed” and said it was “why families were divided through property, through money, through all sorts.”
She went on to urge followers to empty themselves of all their needs except bare needs. “Please walk away from sin, walk away from the temptations of all the things of the flesh because it comes in multitude when you do that and you empty yourself of all the needs except your bare needs, then you’ll know that god is calling you.”
She also warned: “You can go down the wide road that lead to every temptation of the Flesh and receive damnation. Hell is a reality.”