Inishowen's Fr George McLaughlin was ‘the rock’ people turned to in wake of disaster, mourners told

Buncrana native Father McLaughlin passed away peacefully at Carndonagh Community Hospital aged 93 on Friday. He was laid to rest on Monday following Requiem Mass at St. Pius X Church in Moville, where he had served from 1987 to 2007 before retiring to Greencastle.

In his Homily, Monsignor Andrew Dolan spoke of how Fr McLaughlin had spent several decades in Derry during the height of the Troubles, before being posted to Moville.

Msgr. Dolan said Fr. George, despite initially claiming to know little about Moville, had been ‘delighted’ to be returning to Inishowen and placed himself right at the heart of the community here, even taking on refereeing duties at a local match shortly after arriving. “On his first public occasion he informed you, the parishioners, that the only thing he knew about Moville was that his father and mother had travelled there by pony and trap in 1924 on their honeymoon!”

He recalled how Fr George was a character who had taken to the area “like a fish to water”.

He also developed a special rapport with the local fishing community. “Fr George was called upon to be the rock people could turn to at the time of the Carrickatine disaster. That will be imprinted on the memory of this community for a long time and it was something that remained with Fr George for a long time as well,” Msgr. Dolan said.

Msgr. Dolan also recalled how the young George McLaughlin made his first journey into Derry in 1944 to study at St Columb’s College, where he was a contemporary of the boy who would later become Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly. The two would become firm friends in adulthood and it was Fr George who introduced the Bishop to home and away matches at the Brandywell to watch his beloved Derry City F.C.