Our Story - Gallen group
Nestled in the heart of the Twin Towns of Ballybofey and Stranorlar, Gallen Group is a family story before it is a hospitality story. Every room, every bar stool and every spa treatment carries the same simple idea Tommy and Bridget Gallen started with over thirty years ago: look after people properly, and the rest follows. Today that idea has grown into four connected venues at the heart of Donegal life - but it has never stopped being personal.
1992 - Roseville House
The story begins not with a hotel, but with six bedrooms on Glenfin Street. Tommy Gallen had left school at fifteen for a motor mechanic's apprenticeship, and hospitality wasn't in the family trade - but he could see something Ballybofey needed. Roseville House Bed & Breakfast opened its doors in 1992, and within a few short years had grown from six rooms to eighteen. It was never meant to be the whole story. It was the beginning of one.
2000 - The Villa Rose Hotel
With a growing reputation and an eye for what the town was missing, Tommy secured a site on Ballybofey's Main Street. The Villa Rose Hotel opened its doors on Good Friday, 2000 - and almost immediately, it was clear it wouldn't be big enough. Turning guests away was never going to sit right with Tommy. So the plan for something bigger began..
2006 - Building the V Spa
Six years on, the Villa Rose grew into itself. A major extension added two further floors of bedrooms, new function suites, and one of Donegal's very first destination spas - seven treatment rooms and a purpose-built Thermal Suite, a serious bet on Ballybofey as somewhere people would travel to, not just stop through. It paid off, and the Villa Rose Hotel & Spa became a name synonymous with a proper Donegal spa escape - attracting guests from all over the island.
The Years Between - A Team, Not Just a Hotel
Growth on paper is one thing. What really built the Villa Rose was the graft behind it. In the early years, Tommy's days had no natural end - washing breakfast dishes at dawn, behind the bar by evening, night porter by the small hours. As the business grew, so did his belief that it couldn't be carried by one person alone. He built a team, promoted from within, and backed staff who showed initiative and heart. That philosophy - hire well, trust people, reward hard work - is still what runs through every Gallen venue today.
2016 - Jackson's Hotel
By 2016, Tommy had the experience - and the appetite - to take on something bigger again. Jackson's Hotel, one of Ballybofey's grandest and best-loved properties, came into the family. It was a different scale of challenge, and one Tommy relished, bringing a second landmark hotel into the fold while keeping its own distinct character firmly intact. Today it stands as one of Donegal's best-loved hotels, as at home hosting a wedding as it is a conference - grand enough for the occasion, warm enough to feel like family.
2021 - An Chúirt & the Birth of Gallen Group
In 2021, Tommy and Bridget, together with their family, purchased An Chúirt in the heart of the Donegal Gaeltacht - a hotel whose breathtaking Gweedore setting, rich in language, culture and history, was impossible to walk past. It marked more than a third hotel; it marked the birth of Gallen Group, uniting the Villa Rose, Jackson's and An Chúirt under one family banner, each with deep respect for the community and culture around it, and a clear-eyed vision for where it's headed next.
2024 - Gallen's Bar
The most recent chapter opened on the famous Navenny Street, Ballybofey. Gallen's Bar brought a new late-night energy to the town: award-winning cocktails, five bars, a rooftop beer garden, Tuesday trad sessions and Wednesday quiz nights, 25 screens for the county's sporting obsessions, and a stage for local and touring live music. Different street, same instinct that started it all on Glenfin Street back in 1992 - spot what the town needs, and build it properly.
Today
More than 300 people now work across the Gallen Group, many of them from the local community that Tommy set out to serve back in 1992. That's not a statistic the family leads with - it's simply what happens when a business is built slowly, honestly, and around good people. Supporting local charities, sponsorships, sports teams and causes close to home remains as much a part of the story as any hotel or bar.
The Gallen family hope you'll join them as they embark on the next part of the journey.