The Heart of Ráth Mór – Joe McLaughlin: An Appreciation

It was a lovely moment and entirely appropriate. Joe had been Ráth Mór’s first and longest-serving tenant, opening his needle-to-an-anchor store, Pennywise, while the builders were still tiling the main mall outside his window.

He had been there ever since – a friendly, gravel-voiced fixture behind the counter, cigarette in hand until it was banned (and maybe even a bit after) – right up until a day or two before his unexpected death on January 4, 2025.

You could get anything in Joe’s. And if it broke, you took it back, and he fixed it or got you a replacement. Even in some cases five years on, much to the chagrin of his children.

“If you spent a pound with my Daddy, he would walk a mile for you,” one of them explained. “He was brilliant with customers, I remember him sitting chatting happily with a man who had ordered a table, while the two of them watched me build it.”

His procurement, as he confessed himself, wasn’t always perfect, and on occasion he found himself saddled with kitchen sink plugs which didn’t quite fit the holes, light bulbs with non-standard fittings, and turkey trays that were two inches too wide for conventional ovens.

But his calmness and generosity was legion. Ráth Mór’s founding director Conal McFeely recalls how just this Christmas past, he went into Joe looking for some prizes for some for a raffle.

“Joe just gestured out onto the shop floor and told me to take whatever and as much as I wanted. He was the heart of Ráth Mór, a true believer from the outset in what we are attempting to do here. And he was a true champion of community enterprise and self-help.

“He contributed so much to the success of the centre, promoting it and attracting all sorts of people.”

Born in the Illies, Donegal on Christmas Day 1951, Joe’s family moved into Derry when he was ten, to take over (and live above) The Gate Bar on Bishop Street.

His father continued to work in the building trade, so after leaving the Christian Brothers, Joe served his time in the bar, eventually running it himself after his mother’s illness and death.

At the behest of his regulars, he would keep live turkeys in the yard of the bar in the run-up to Christmas. And in mid-December, he would organise his own turkey trot - a bird race from the Diamond up to the bar - to raise funds for the Foyle Hospice.

The police would close off Bishop Street to facilitate it - and indeed, one year, Radio Foyle provided live commentary on the event.

One regular, Gutsy, got disgruntled when his bird kept veering off track, so picked it up and ran with it under his arm - only to later discover a complete pocketful of turkey droppings when he reached for his wallet to buy a drink. Joe, of course, never let him forget it.

In the early 1970s, Joe married the love of his life Betty Crumley, and they found a flat in Carrickreagh before moving to Rathkeele Way as their family grew.

They would have five children, Róisín, Seán, Patrick, Sinéad and Ceara, and remained in Creggan until 1999, when they moved to Templegrove.

One evening in the latter part of the Troubles, Joe locked up the bar for the night, only to hear a bomb on his way home. An hour later, the police arrived at his door to tell him The Gate had been destroyed in an IRA attack on the British army base next door.

And before Joe had even a chance to sift through the rubble, the army had sequestered his land and The Gate was no more. Undeterred, he worked all the time, enjoying numerous careers, including insurance salesman, taxi-driver, mobile-shop owner, delivery driver and shoe factory operative.

He had also served as an election agent for the Workers’ Party in the 1970s, and would recall some very colourful stories about their polling-day escapades, about which we can say no more as the statutes still probably apply.

Then in 1992, he and Betty invested their savings into their new Pennywise venture at Ráth Mór. The shop would become their passion, and while it was a struggle at the start, it became a highly successful business and popular community hub thanks to their dedication.

Outside of work, while never an athlete himself, Joe loved football, and travelled the length and breadth of Ireland (and further afield into Europe, on occasion) delighting in his son Paddy’s career as a player and then manager.

He took a minibus full of family supporters to watch Paddy’s Cliftonville defeat Coleraine 4-3 in the epic 2022 League Cup final. And Joe’s very last game, just the week before he died, was a great experience when Paddy’s new club Glenavon triumphed over a much-fancied Portadown squad in their Boxing Day derby.

Betty had died suddenly in 2021, aged just 66, and Joe sorely mourned her passing. He said he had never felt grief like it. His own health failed badly, and he spent weeks seriously ill in hospital, before rallying gamely and returning to his post.

“Joe will be missed very much,” said Conal McFeely. “He was a touchstone - a constant, reassuring presence, who loved Ráth Mór and was very much loved by everyone here. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé.”