Christmas card causes festive storm!

A Christmas card with an unusually-addressed envelope plunged a County Galway woman into the centre of a social media storm this week.

Instead of including a name and address on the envelope for Nicole Lally, from Annagh, Ballymacward, Ballinasloe, the card contained detailed information about the recipient’s pets, family and garden ornaments.

The envelope was addressed: “Ya know yer wan, her mother’s Hogan from Castleblakeney, but the daughter’s an ex-townie. Grew up in Athlone and moved to Ballymacward (between Ballinasloe and Galway) when she got married. Lives next door to her in-laws now, she has a rake of children and 7 dogs and 4 cats and about 30 hens + ducks and some rabbits and fish & I think she has a hamster as well.  She has a shrine to the virgin mary in the left corner of her garden.”

It was sent by her friend, Amanda McCallan in Athlone, as a bit of a joke to see if it would be delivered. And despite the bizarreness of the address, local postman Celsus Sheridan knew exactly who it was intended for.

Nicole was ‘mortified and amused’ by the envelope, and decided to put a photograph of it on her Facebook page, which quickly went ‘viral’, attracting massive attention from traditional media – national and international – as well as creating a social media storm.

“The letter is from a life-long friend of mine, Amanda in Athlone, who just sent it to me for the laugh. About three years ago, she sent me a Christmas card and just put the address as Ballymacward, Ballinasloe and it got to me. Whereas I’d sent her a card, and I had her exact address except I didn’t put her house number on it, and she didn’t get it.

“So, this year, for the craic, she decided to send me this, and it got to me. I didn’t know anything about unit until my mother handed it to me in the kitchen. I was mortified and amused,” said Nicole.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.