Paul Richard Gallagher (b 23 January 1954) is the Papal Nuncio to Australia. He was born in Liverpool and educated at St. Francis Xavier’s College in Woolton. Ordained by Archbishop Derek Worlock on 31 July 1977 for the Archdiocese of Liverpool, he served in Fazakerley, before taking courses at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. He later earned a doctorate in canon law, becoming a member of the Holy See's diplomatic service on 1 May 1984.
He held posts in Tanzania, Uruguay, the Philippines, the Vatican Secretariat of State and at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He was appointed Counselor, First Class on 1 May 1997, when working at the Nunciature in Burundi. The Vatican announced his appointment as Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi in January 2004. His residence in that country was bombed in 2008.
He was appointed nuncio to Guatemala in 2009. Ruth Gledhill, the religious affairs correspondent of the London Times, mentioned him as a possible candidate for the position of Archbishop of Westminster in succession to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor,. However, the successor, announced on 3 April 2009, was Archbishop Vincent Nichols. On 11 December 2012, he was appointed nuncio to Australia.
Archbishop Gallagher speaks Italian, French and Spanish.