Derry priest Msgr. Billy ‘Fr. Bill’ McLaughlin celebrates 90th birthday surrounded by friends and family
A joyous occasion was celebrated at Fahan on Wednesday when Monsignor Billy McLaughlin celebrated his 90th birthday in the company of his family and friends in the Nazareth House.
Originally from Lewis Street in Rosemount Msgr. McLaughlin has been residing in the Inishowen village for a number of years.
The Derry priest spent much of his vocation in Los Angeles before retiring and returning to his native land about 20 years ago.
Fr. Billy pastored at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Newport Beach in Orange County, California, from 1984, and over twenty years helped it grow to a community of over four thousand households.
Under his guidance its school, the parish says, ‘became so popular a lottery had to be held to see who would be admitted and the waiting lists grew longer’.
The Derry cleric oversaw significant development including the construction of a new parish centre including a parish hall, meeting rooms, parish offices, school administrative offices and faculty room.
"The rectory was beautifully remodelled and became a residence for the priests only,” according to the parish official history. “One of Fr. McLaughlin’s legacies was the recognition that OLQA has been richly blessed with financial and human resources other parishes do not have and we must share what we have been so generously given.”
Twenty years ago Fr. Bill decided to return to his beloved Derry and Inishowen, where he currently resides.
Such was the esteem in which he was held in California that Luis Pena, writing in the Daily Pilot, a Los Angeles Times publication that covers Newport Beach, wrote: “A beloved Catholic priest bid farewell to his parish on Sunday with laughs and tears from his congregation.
“Msgr. William McLaughlin, better known as Father Bill by his parishioners, began his service at Our Lady Queen of Angels in 1984.
“He plans to return to Ireland, where he spent his youth, after 46 years in the priesthood.”
His sending off in 1984 was quite an occasion.
“The gathering to say goodbye was so large that it overflowed out of the church’s doors with many parents carrying their children in their arms.
“When his informal goodbye was complete he was given a standing ovation,” the article advised.
One parishioner, a Shannon Gibson, remarked: “He’s an extremely humble person filled with Irish humour.”