Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  Nederland’s Irish officer is gone, back to his home country where he and his wife will run an on the beach resort hotel.

Darragh O’Nuallain thought he would return to Ireland, then he thought he wouldn’t, but in the last couple of months he and his wife Donna have taken a close look at their finances and have decided they needed to grab this opportunity. They have been struggling too long.

Nederland residents are happy for the family but know they will miss the Nederland Police Officer who has been through good, bad and shocking times with the community.

He has been compassionate with good people who have made mistakes, has been firm with people intent on harming themselves or others and has become a friend and mentor to the young people in the community.

Last Thursday night, Darragh and Donna and Scarlett and Scotia joined a crowd of people at the New Moon Bakery for a goodbye party, although most of the people there promised to show up on his doorstep in Ireland.

Hugs and toasts and sad farewells. Derek Stevens and his daughter, Rua, presented Darragh with a handmade knife. Rua told him she loved him, a moment which Darragh said melted his heart. Derik said, “We love Darragh, who has backed me up when I worked security for Frozen Dead Guy Days and NedFest. He has always been there when I needed him and has a strong local ethic, taking care of locals, making sure they got home instead of being sent to jail. He will be sorely missed and I and my family wish him and his the very best.”

A group of teenaged girls wiped away tears as they all gave Darragh a hug. “We will miss you. This town will not be the same without you. We are very thankful for your imperative role in this community. You are an awesome role model to the youth of the Nederland family.”

Ive, Chloe and Lily brought tears to Darragh’s eyes. He said that he now has a huge family in Nederland. “I know these kids and know how to get the best results from them.

These are my kids, my responsibility. It is hard to detach oneself from the job, to relate to people in a genuine way. But Nederland is so real. You gotta be human, love the people of the town. Everyone knows my name and that makes me so grateful. The majority of people want their town to stay nice. For example, Socks and Sandwiches shows me the quality of the people we have here, reaching out in spite of the risk.”

Darragh left Ireland with his dog and not much else, heading to California where he met his wife who owned a home in Gilpin County. The couple came here and Darragh attended Arapahoe Community College Police Academy. He married Donna in 2008 and was hired as a jail officer in Gilpin County. In 2009, he came to work for the Nederland Police Department, covering chief Ken Robinson on the weekends.

During this time, they took out an equity loan on their home. They were both working and it was a manageable debt. He worked for the NPD for the next five years, under Jake Adler. When Jake left, Larry Johns became the interim chief and Darragh returned to Ireland to help care for his grandmother, who was dying.

“I was the black sheep in the family,” says Darragh. “I traveled all my life and it was right for me to go back and spend time with my Nana before she passed. I always wanted to come back to Ned.”

After a year in Ireland, Darragh put out feelers to the NPD, contacting Chief Paul Carrill. They had several meetings, Darragh paying his own way to fly back for interviews, spending his life savings on traveling. It paid off. He was hired. He said he knew he wasn’t done being a cop.

He thinks of the people he has befriended, like Will Nicholson, who said, “Thanks for believing in me, Darragh. For believing that I could be a father. You had a chance to make that not a possibility, but you told me to get my act together and be my kids’ dad. Thank you. what I have today is thanks to you.”

When Darragh returned to Nederland from Ireland, Chief Carrill welcomed him to the department as if he had walked out the day before. It was 2014 and by this time, Darragh had two stepchildren, a daughter and another on the way.

Darragh says, “The girls are my world; they softened me and made me a better cop.

They are everything.”

Over the next two years, the couple’s finances became an issue. One month, all the bills were being paid, and then they weren’t. Although he could have worked overtime to add to the coffers, he says it would have been at the cost of the family.

Struggling with finances became the norm and soon it was difficult to keep up with the bills. Donna was no longer working and the O’Nuallains decided that in order to make ends meet, they would rent out their remodeled, five-bedroom home through Vacation Rental by Owner and live in a school bus when the home was occupied. They moved their bus next to the creek and the family actually enjoyed living smaller; the kids loved the beach along the water.

Even with earning $225 a night with the rental, there was always debt that left them short at the end of the month. The VRBO money wasn’t reliable. Darragh did not want to leave, but four months ago, he handed in his resignation. He felt he was doing a good job, but wasn’t being paid comparably to other departments. Chief Carrill went to the Nederland Board of Trustees, going to bat for the officers. During his leadership, Carrill has obtained more training and runs the department in a more professional way.

The times are changing so fast, says Darragh. “There is the other side of Nederland that people don’t see and we need to get ahead of that. Being on call was getting to me. I was both a detective and on patrol. In the past year with the deaths and explosions and the bomb threat, I put in hundreds of hours of investigation.”

In October of last year, Darragh arrived at work as usual and noticed the backpack in front of the police department. He picked it up, brought it into the office and looked inside. It was a bomb. He says that he has never been a religious man but something saved his life that day and saved the lives of the Wild Bear kids next door, and saved the lives of all the employees in the shopping center and all the people sipping coffee or shopping at the grocery store.

“I’ll never forget looking into the bag that day. I knew what I was seeing and became calm; that’s how the brain works. My biggest concern was Wild Bear and evacuating the building. When it was over, we got things taken care of and it all ended well. I am still emotional about it; it could have been so catastrophic. I am proud of that day. One doesn’t face many challenges like that and come back out the other side. That day brought me closer to the community. I was just a man doing the right thing at the right time, and I was proud to be the guy at the front.”

Four months ago, Darragh realized that the board was content to sit back and let dedicated officers work for half as much as other officers, even officers that commute an hour and a half a day. He began to realize that once the NPD got officers trained up, they are worth $30,000 more than they get, but Darragh decided to stay on.

In May, the O’Nuallain family went to Ireland for a two week vacation. While visiting with his large extended family, Darragh and his cousin Don got together, and out of the blue, Darragh was offered a job managing the Strand Hotel, restaurant and bar on the Inch Beach.

Darragh says he helped refurbish it, and even as a kid always dreamed of owning it.

“He asked me to lease it and run it. He has other resorts and wanted to focus on them and wanted to turn the Strand into a health hotel that produces its own veggies, salads, focuses on well-being. I don’t have any experience, but I have energy. I think I kind of said yes right away.”

Ireland is about to boom says Darragh. There is a natural migration to the Green Isle right now and he wants to get in on the property market early. Knowing that their financial difficulties may be over doesn’t stop the pain of leaving the town he’s grown to love.

“This is tearing a chunk out of myself. I have been with people in the best and worst situations and if anyone feels that I didn’t do a good job or have let them down, I am sorry.”

Darragh asks the Ned residents to talk to their neighbors and don’t defer to the police when it is possible, to preserve the community. He says he is one of the luckiest men, that he has had opportunities knock on his door, that he has a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters and that all of them will be 100 percent fine with the move. Besides that, the Strand will offer fantastic Atlantic fish and chips with an organic menu to support it.

There will be a huge learning curve and Darragh is determined to stay on top of it. He knows Donna will keep him focused.

Darragh left last Saturday and Donna is going to stay in town for a couple of months to sell the house. They will have to leave their two year old wolf hybrid behind, and they hope to find someone who will take her in.

Leaving the department with only three officers to protect the town has Darragh concerned and he hopes something positive will happen in the near future, saying maybe starting over again could be a good thing.

“Take care of your police department and they will take care of you. Working in Nederland has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I love you all and hope to see you in Ireland someday.”

Darragh would love to hear from his huge family in Nederland.

Darragh O’Nuallain

c/o Roy Nolan

2 Cordially,

Kilarglin

County Kerry

Eire

(Originally published in the July 13, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)