What If, Sure Why Not: From Army Lens to School Bus

Billy Galligan - Author

Welcome to the show, everybody! I'm Billy Galligan, and if you’re wondering what this podcast is all about, well... what if I told you I’m still figuring that out myself? Sure, why not! Right now, I'm sitting here in Tucker, Georgia, but if you can't tell by the accent, my journey started a long way from the American South. I grew up in Inchicore, a neighborhood in Dublin where hard luck and black humor tended to arrive on the same bus, and usually without a ticket.

Billy Galligan - Author

These days, my daily routine involves driving a Gwinnett County school bus—my yellow chariot of chaos, as I like to call it—navigating narrow streets, blind turns, and sixty screaming scallywags. But before I was steering seventy thousand pounds of yellow steel through Georgia traffic, I spent twenty-three years in the Irish Defence Forces. I was a military photographer, which took me to places like Kosovo and Chad, looking at the world through a lens and learning that life rarely keeps to a straight line.

Billy Galligan - Author

That transition from soldiering to school buses might seem a bit mad, but it makes perfect sense when you live by a simple phrase: "What If, Sure Why Not." It’s the title of my memoir, and it’s the philosophy that got me across the Atlantic. When life presents you with a massive detour, you can either fight the map or turn the wheel and see where the road goes. To me, taking a wrong turn is often just finding the exact road you were meant to take all along.

Billy Galligan - Author

So, what can you expect on this journey we're taking together? This podcast is going to be a bit of a moving study. We'll have readings from my books, stories that didn't make the final cut, and plenty of Irish storytelling. But we're also going to take some proper detours—looking at history through a slightly sideways lens, and maybe even dipping into a bit of science fiction, which I've always had a soft spot for.

Billy Galligan - Author

I'll be honest with you—there'll be weeks where episodes drop regularly, and there might be the odd week or two where life gets in the way, the bus route runs late, and things go quiet. But I’ll always find my way back to the mic, at least once or twice a month. I'm glad to have you along for the ride. Climb on in, find a seat, and as we head out into the traffic... what if? Sure, why not.