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By Tina Tout, Special Correspondent 

For The Continental Gazette and Wire Service 

As anticipation builds for the reading of Rowan Mallon’s will on 21 February at Mallon Hall, Donegal finds itself enthralled by a single question. Who among the notorious O’Malley family will emerge victorious in the looming struggle for influence and potential riches. The family’s history, temperament and recent exploits paint a picture not of unity, but of combustible ambition. Each sibling arrives with motive, grievance and baggage, both literal and emotional. 

Below is the definitive report readers have demanded. The past, the personalities and the powerlines that will determine how the O’Malley play for the gold is likely to unfold. 

 

THE BROTHERS AND SISTER WHO NEVER FAIL TO START A FIRE 

Phelem O’Malley 

Known publicly as Peter "The Rock" 

Phelem O’Malley’s reputation rests on two qualities. Immovable loyalty and immovable density. Local folklore says he once spent half an afternoon trying to turn a locked shed handle the wrong way. Yet he is earnest, strong and stubborn in equal measure. 

His current troubles began when he was tasked with minding his sister Bob’s cigar box. The box contained a velvet tray and, beneath it, an embossed insurance rider that may now hold relevance to the February proceedings. Phelem still has the tray. The rider itself is missing. His friends insist he must have put it somewhere safe. His family insists that is the problem. 

One‑liner 
“I fix things. I do not read small print.” 

Notable props 
Pliers and a mallet, both carried as if they answer all problems. 

 

Pontius O’Malley 

Twin one. The lawyer without the licence 

Pontius O’Malley has the mind of a barrister and the temperament of a ticking kettle. He holds procedure sacred. Every rule has its place. Every clause has its purpose. Every face must remain respectful. 

He once interned with the disgraced firm Masters, Crook and Toole, where he helped standardise what became known as the “Three Perils” cigar wording. He keeps a pocket mirror to ensure no one smirks in his presence. Readers may wish to practise their neutral expression in advance of his arrival on the twenty first. 

Pressure point 
Ridicule. Even the hint of laughter makes his hands tremble. 

One‑liner 
“Respect first. Then truth. Then mercy if there is time.” 

 

Pilate O’Malley 

Twin two. Enforcement embodied 

If Pontius writes the rulebook, Pilate enforces it with a ledger, a stare and flawless kid gloves. He is the family’s collector. The man who remembers favours and debts with total accuracy. He carries an IOU ledger marked with a red ribbon. A single page has been torn out. Pilate knows exactly who removed it. 

His presence at Mallon Hall will not be quiet. Nor negotiable. Expect efficient confrontation delivered with immaculate politeness. 

One‑liner 
“You owe. You pay. Tonight.” 

 

Pious O’Malley 

The quiet knife in clerical phrasing 

Pious has removed himself to Australia, allegedly for spiritual rest. Those familiar with him suspect the retreat is more strategic than devotional. He is devout in public, calculating in private, and capable of persuasion that borders on alchemy. 

He penned the persuasive letter that helped win Bob’s cigar insurance claim. It quoted Aquinas and depreciation tables in the same paragraph. He has influence that stretches far beyond Donegal. 

One‑liner 
“Grace and religion are free. Favour is not.” 

 

Roberta “Bob” O’Malley 

The arsonist who outsmarted herself and everyone else 

Bob remains the public favourite. She was acquitted of a serious charge thanks to jury intimidation linked to Masters, Crook and Toole. She celebrated the verdict with expensive Cuban cigars, insured them for theft, water and fire, then smoked them outside the courthouse. She argued successfully that each cigar’s destruction constituted a compensable peril. The insurer paid. The court later charged her with arson for destroying insured property. She is currently serving time. 

Bob writes careful and cutting letters from prison. They mix contrition, scripture and control. 

One‑liner 
“I want.” 

 

THE FIRM, THE FALL AND THE SHADOW OF PATAGONIA 

Masters, Crook and Toole, once a legal powerhouse, collapsed after a notorious television interview in which Judge Reginald Blackheart was supposed to restore public confidence and instead achieved the opposite. The interview is now known in the Irish media as the Prince Andrew interview. Blackheart fled. The firm followed. They now operate from Patagonia where their archives carry a condor stamp that, in certain circles, signifies unpayable debts and unwise alliances. 

It is whispered that a sealed pouch, flown south by air, once passed through O’Malley hands. Pilate insists he never opened it. Yet a photographic negative in his old logbook suggests otherwise. 

The condor symbol surfaces repeatedly in the background of this saga. On invoices. On improvised legal briefs. In the margins of Blackheart’s abandoned paperwork. 

What it means for the will reading is unclear. What it signifies is tension. 

 

THE O’MALLEY FAMILY HISTORY 

The tangled path that leads to the twenty first 

The O’Malleys of Donegal have never shied from conflict. Their ancestors quarrelled over land boundaries, peat rights and church seating arrangements for more than a century. Oral history places the family in the periphery of Rowan Mallon’s lineage long before gold was whispered into the story. Miners, masons, collectors and, on one memorable occasion, amateur treasure hunters. 

When Rowan Mallon reappeared under an assumed name after decades abroad, the family resurfaced around him in ways historians cannot fully map. What is known is this. Across the decades the O’Malleys collided repeatedly with Judge Blackheart, smelted legal disputes into grudges, and left a trail of near comic calamities. 

The final chapter begins now. 

 

THE CROSSOVER WITH OTHER FIGURES OF THE MONTEZUMA WEEKEND 

The approach of the reading draws in more than the O’Malleys. 

• Judge Reginald Blackheart, disgraced and desperate to salvage honour or advantage. 
• The former partners of Masters, Crook and Toole, operating in Patagonia yet casting long shadows. 
• NotFlix, a documentary company with very low standards and very high interest in filming the chaos. 
• The Mallon‑Jennings relatives, descendants, rivals and hopeful inheritors. 
• Various Donegal locals, some of whom claim knowledge of the missing rider, the lost ledger page or the pouch. 

Each character carries a motive. Each with a grievance or a hope. All with something to gain. 

 

THE TWENTY FIRST FEBRUARY. WHERE HISTORY WILL SNAP 

On the night of the twenty first, Mallon Hall will host one of the most volatile gatherings in recent Donegal memory. Phelem with his pliers and mallet. Pontius with his mirror and his rules. Pilate with his ledger and his gloves. Pious with his letters and his distance. Bob with her influence, even from confinement. 

The gold is rumoured. The fortune uncertain. The alliances shifting. 

Readers should expect spectacle. No one expects peace. 

Tina Tout will be at Mallon Hall to capture every moment as the O’Malley ascendency reaches its peak or collapses under the weight of its own history.