Declan Gallagher was born in Co. Donegal on the 31st of December 1980 to working class parents, Margaret, a factorty worker and former hairdresser and Patrick Gallagher, a former constable in An Garda Síochána, factory worker and shop steward for ITGWU (now known as SIPTU)and later a novelist and short story writer in his native language. He was raised in the Gaeltacht of, Gaoth Dobhair, along with his elder broher Ciaran and sister Orla, until the age of 10.

In 1986, Owing to economic reasons his father was made redundent and eventually immigrated to London, UK in 1988 as a manual worker and later a security guard due to his experience in the Irish police force.

In 1991 the family immigrated to London, United Kingdom. The family lived in the suburban town of Walthamstow, well known for having the longest high street market in europe.

He attended several schools while living in the UK, Henry Maynards School (mixed)and later, St. Patrick R.C Primary School. He attended secondary school at the Holy Family College but was pardoned from attending school in 1997 when he was constantly absent from the 4th year. Now aged 15, he instead took a course in PC Repair in Wembly, Middx; while working as a manual worker, mostly in factories.

Later that year the family decided to return to Ireland as the British economy seemed to be fading and the Irish economy had been revived. The family settled in the small town of Shankill, Co. Dublin, Ireland. There he attempted to get work in the I.T industry but to no avail as he had limitations due to a lack of experience and educational achievements.

In 1998 he joined the Dun Laoghaire branch of the Socialist Workers Party along with his sister, Orla.

He remained unemployed for several years with brief spots of employment in manual and unskilled labour, owing to his tendency to become dissatisfied and uninterested in the only work he cold get that led him to walk out of jobs without warning or any further notice to his employers.

In 1999 he began a degree course in his native Co. Donegal at Letterkenny Insitute of Technology in 'Manufacturing Technology' but found he wasnt suited to it due to the mathimatical element of it which disinterested him.

Later he worked as a unskilled worker for IBM, under contract to an employment agency which he left in the year 2000 to do a futher course in I.T with a government funded inititive called FAS, aiding unemployed and unskilled workers to reeducate themselves and regenerate the Irish workforce and economy.

With this he again attempted to gain work in the I.T industry but again was still limited due to educational and experience reasons. Now aged 19, he began to take similar positions due to necessity and still an active member of the SWP (Socialist Workers' Party) he found some intellectual satisfaction. He was involved in many meetings, protests and occupations that fueled his anger at his lack of gainful employment and wealth.

He like his father had always had an interest in writing and creative mediums and began to write screenplay and short stories all that were written from a directorial point of view or were unpublished, he also attempted to get published as an poet, writing a mixture of political and inward looking poetry.

In 2003, the family moved to Balbriggan, Co. Dublin and owing to economic and financial reasons he was forcd to move with them. In 2005 he took part in a IT and Media course, a cross-border programme run by an organisation called Border Horizions that aimed to unite Cathoics and Protestants. As part of the course he travelled to europe and lived in the small danish island of Bornholm. He lived on this island for 2 months and this exposed him to a social interaction that he hadnt before experienced.

On his retuen he applied and was granted entry to the Arts School of the Dublin Business School. This exposed him to the many genre's of the film world both the Hollywood and European systems of filmmaking. Aswell as the other minimalised cinemas such as the Indo-Asian cinema which he was greatly attracted to.

At the end of the first year he failed to pass and he retraeted to his previous line of work, only this time he worked mostly in call centres as a market resercher and other miscellaneous unskilled positionsuntil 2007 when he was employed by an sub-contractor for the country's former national telephone and internet provider, Eircom.

He was hired as a technical support agent for the companies DSL network until 2009 when he was summarilly dissmissed due to excessive lateness.