This article first appeared in The Galway Advertiser in December 2022.
Don Colleran sold his first house at 17 years old.
In the intervening forty years he has helped hundreds of Galwegians secure their dream home.
‘I was helping a retired gentleman fill out a Fair Deal application form only last week and when we were finished, he says to me.’
‘Only for your father I’d never have gotten this house.’ ‘I met your father at a rugby match in Glenina one day and I was explaining to him that I’d never get the money to buy a house of my own. In those days it was almost impossible to get money.
‘Come here with me a minute,’ says your Father and he leads me across the pitch and introduces me to Mickey Heaslip, who was playing hooker for ‘Wegians’ that day, and also the Regional Manager for The Irish Permanent in Galway
‘Come into me on Monday and we’ll discuss it,’ says Mickey.
‘And immediately the carer of the gentleman I was helping pipes up,
‘Your Father got my parents their first home in Renmore too.’
‘That makes my day. I’d love that to be my legacy. That someday people would say to my children. ‘Your auld fella sold me my first home.’
The Tim Colleran legacy
‘Dad was immensely popular and well liked. By day he worked with the New Ireland Assurance Company and by night he was the lead singer with Christy and Cyril Dooley and The Arabians’.
‘For years, back then, Dad was as well known for his singing and entertainment as he was for insurance and auctioneering.
‘He was ultimately a great people person. When he was with New Ireland he used do the industrial collecting, which entailed knocking on the doors every week and collecting a shilling to cover the Life Assurance. A lady from Bohermore once told me the story that there’d be two callers to her Mother’s house every week - Tim Colleran and Amby Roche.
‘Amby was collecting the rent for the Council because they were for the most part Council houses. And Dad was collecting the shilling for the Insurance which was very important.
‘When the doorbell rang her Mother would ask ‘who’s at the door ?
‘It’s Amby Roche, Mam.’
‘Tell him I’m not here’, but then when Dad would call, she’d say ‘oh bring Tim Colleran in and put the kettle on.’
The truth be known, Amby was always very helpful and lenient when collecting the rent and some tenants of council houses would say ‘he paid more rent on our house than we did ourselves’.
‘One day she was distraught because her dog had died so the next week Dad arrived up with a white rabbit. Unfortunately, the rabbit ate all her mother’s vegetables in the garden and the next week Dad arrived up she asked ‘who’s at the door’
‘It’s Tim Colleran, Mam.’
‘Tell that fecker that his rabbit destroyed my garden.’
‘Although that canard backfired it illustrated Dad’s commitment to his customers and serving them. At quite a young age he went out on his own, firstly doing Insurance, and then auctioneering.
‘The business grew rapidly as a result of a few things. Firstly, he developed a very sound working relationship with McInerneys who were really opening up Renmore. Secondly, he was great at identifying great people to work on his team.
‘Eileen Perry was Dad's first employee in the old office in Rosemary Avenue, which was between Geraghty Solicitiors and Ginger Murphys Bookies (now a retail shop ).
Legends to follow were, Michael Elwood, Colm O’Donnellan, Jimmy Higgins, Valerie Conneely, Sue Nolan, Rita Feeney and at least two of the Moran girls from Kilcolgan also joined him as the business grew.
When Con Murphy retired from Norwich Union, he also joined the team as Dad's mentor and ‘money minder’ in the business. Dad was great at bringing the money in but was notorious for his generosity. We were life members of every club and society in Galway. There was an ongoing dual between Con and Dad about the need to mind the money.’
Don's first house sale
Tragically, Tim’s health declined as he suffered from progressive bouts of chronic depression. Being the eldest of a young family, Don found himself increasingly helping out in the business while still at school in the Bish.
At 17 he sold his first house, a bungalow on Lakeshore Drive in Renmore to a retired couple who wished to downsize from a bigger house to something more manageable.
That same week he sold his second house to a Connemara couple domiciled in England. ‘I got on so well with that man that he entrusted me with selling a parcel of land in Connemara that necessitated it going for public auction. I hit it lucky in that I have Connemara blood in my veins. Mam's family are originally from Trá Bán and Beal a Daingean. Every Sunday as a child I’d go to my grandparents house, Matt and Mary O’Flaherty, in Shantalla and grandad would teach me how to grow vegetables and repair bikes.
When it came to auctioning the land in Connemara it was a baptism of fire. Can you imagine it, there I was at 17 reading out all the legal formalities that I could barely pronounce. To Terry Cunningham’s credit, God rest his soul, he supervised that auction and ensured that everything ran smoothly.
