DIOCESAN CLERGY OBITUARIES Father Neil McLaughlin Born 12 August 1933 Ordained Priest 22 June 1958 Died 2 June 2019 Neil was born in 1933 and grew up on a hill farm near the-small town of Matin at the top of the lnishowen peninsula in Donegal. He died on 2nd June 2019, in a care home, just a few miles away in Clonmany, which looks out on the Four Fingers Bay and the famous Ballyliffin Golf Course. As a young man he loved farming, but he wanted to be a priest, so he left the farm to study at Saint Columb’s College in Derry, then another six years at All Hallows Seminary in Dublin. He was ordained at All Hallows on 22nd June 1958 and the following day made the long trip back to his home parish in Malin. There he celebrated his First Mass with family, friends and neighbours, it was a wonderful occasion and the celebrations lasted for many days. (Some say weeks). His first appointment as priest was at the Cathedral at Nottingham, where he worked for six years with Canon Thornhill who gave him great support in his ministry especially in the pastoral care of the many young Irish people who flocked to Nottingham during those years. Someone who knew him then, when asked about memories of him said “I remember when we organizised social events and dancers, we never had to worry about a bouncer while Father Neil was around”. After a short time as a curate at Saint Hugh’s Lincoln he was appointed Parish Priest of Saint Mary’s Boston in Lincolnshire, the town is famous for The Stump (an Anglican Church) and for the rich agricultural farm land that surrounds it, not a bit like “The Hilts of Donegal” but he was happy there for seven years and involved himself in building up a community where Catholic education and Catholic schools thrived under his leadership.
hill on Burton Road. This hill was higher and more difficult to negotiate than anything he had experienced in Nottingham, Boston or lnishowen and it was on this hill, one winter’s evening that he slipped on the ice and fell heavily, he was hospitatised and recovered from the fall, but afterwards his mobility was severely restricted and eventually in 2000 he had to leave Saint Joseph’s and retire to Donegal to the family home. He never really settled into retirement and with the years, his health deteriorated, he was fortunate to have Pat, his house keeper and his cousin Danny McDaid who looked after him with great care. He missed the people he served in the various parishes and he missed his friends among the clergy. We visited him as much as possible, he was a great host and enjoyed catching up on the diocesan affairs and the clergy golf. June 2018 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his ordination his cousin Danny organized a celebration to mark the occasion, Danny arranged for him to be brought from the Nursing Home back to the family home, which was now empty, in the evening we concelebrated Mass with him in the living room, for a large number of people who came. Fortunatefy, Danny had fixed a marque in the-garden because over 150 people gathered many of them were contemporaries of Father Neil, old neighbours, school friends, and people from the village. It was a very intimate occasion and he enjoyed every moment of it. It was nearly midnight when we brought him back to the care home and his comment was “it was a great wake” showing that he never lost his sense of humour. He lived on for another year, but his health continued to deteriorate. He died on 2nd June 2019 and is buried in the family grave at Lagg Cemetery.
In 1972 he was called back to Nottingham to serve at Saint Augustine’s, Woodborough Road and in 1981 he was sent to Saint Joseph’s, Derby with instructions to “relocate”, which meant setting up a new church, presbytery and community centre on top of the notoriously steep
Nottingham Diocesan Yearbook
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