District mourns the passing of Br. Tim McLaughlin
The District of Ireland, Great Britain and Malta, along with the global Lasallian Family is mourning the loss of Br. Tim McLaughlin, of the Miguel House Community in Castletown, who passed away on Wednesday January 11th.
At his funeral Mass on Friday January 13th, Br. Kevin McEvoy delivered the following eulogy:
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to St Edmund’s Church here in Castletown, Co Laois, where we have come to celebrate the life of Brother Timothy McLaughlin who was called to his heavenly reward early on Wednesday morning in our nursing home, Miguel House, where he was lovingly cared for since his arrival there in 2016 and especially during his final days there when it became clear that his time among us was coming to a close. A special welcome to those of you who cannot be here in person but are joining us online - and I’m thinking in particular of our Brothers and staff members in Miguel House, Tim’s own family scattered around Ireland and living abroad and his confreres and past pupils around the globe and especially in South Africa where Tim spent more than 40 years of his life in the service of education.
In the Gospel we have just heard Jesus prayer to his Father towards the end of his life: “I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them.” As one who answered the invitation of Jesus to “Come, follow me” through becoming a De La Salle Brother many years ago, I’d like to think that Brother Tim lived his life inspired by love and shared that love during his time here on earth. And, today, we gather to celebrate that life.
On behalf of the De La Salle community I would like to offer our sincere condolences to the staff and community of Miguel House which Tim was more than happy to call home for the past six years or so. Heartfelt sympathies also to Tim’s siblings, his sisters Maura here from Killiney, Co Dublin, Rosarie in Glenarm, Co Antrim, Veronica in Tim’s home town of Carndonagh, Anne in Malin and his brother Brian living in Limerick, and to his sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, relatives, friends scattered far and wide. Tim now has gone to join his parents, Joe & Celia, his brothers, Martin and Joe and the third-born member of the family, Betty, who was only 6 months old when she made her premature exit from this world over eighty years ago.
Br Tim with his sister Maura in Killiney 2018
John or Jackie was the eldest of nine children born to Joe Mclaughlin and Celia Doherty on Church Road, in Carndonagh, Co Donegal on 23rd June 1936; he told me that Church Road was the posh part of the town! In school he was known as “Jackie the Hatter” to differentiate him from all the other McLaughlins in the area who also had nicknames. Jackie almost became an Irish Christian Brother in 1949 when a classmate by the name of McKinney was recruited from the local primary school. He was asked to wait for another year and when Brother Bernard Doyle called to the school and when he heard that school principal, Mr Gallagher, was trained as a teacher in De La Salle College, Waterford, Jackie put up his hand to express his interest in becoming a De La Salle Brother even though, as he admitted afterwards, he hadn’t a clue what a Brother was - but he did say that becoming a priest was never on his radar.
So, in 1950, he went to our juvenate in Mallow and the following year he moved to the juniorate here in Castletown where he did his Intermediate Certificate examination and on the 7th September of the same year he received the habit or robe of the De La Salle Brothers in our novitiate on the same compound in Castletown and was given the name Timothy which he initially didn’t like as he thought it was a name more suited to a Cork man - but he came to like it with the passing of years. On completing his leaving certificate exam in Faithlegg, Co Waterford, he was asked to go to Skibbereen for a few months as a substitute teacher and his main memory of that time was playing football for the local team, scoring a goal in the first minute of the match and getting his name in the local paper, The Skibbereen Eagle! Tim then went on to spend short periods in Castletown, Hospital, Co Limerick, Churchtown and Ballyfermot before he returned to De La Salle Training College in Waterford in 1959 to train as a teacher by which time he already had considerable teaching experience under his belt.
Piper, Cormac Bowell at Br Tim’s graveside
It was while he was in Waterford in 1960 that his parents (who were celebrating the silver jubilee of their wedding) visited him. When he saw his father he was shocked by his appearance: he was thin and gaunt and in February 1961 his mother phoned him to say that he was actually dying. The following day Tim took the train to Dublin where he was met by his sister Maura and her husband George but by the time they reached Carndonagh his father had already passed. It was a very difficult time for all the family and his mother, Celia, became the bread-winner for the family. She was a very strong woman who initially took lodgers in their house before they sold their house and bought a hotel which was run by the family over many years.
Following his teacher training, Brother Tim was sent to our community in Cavan where he remained for five years. In his memoir “Staring at Lakes” the writer Michael Harding has generous praise for Tim and he said the following about Tim in the Irish Independent on 8 Sept 2002:
"There was a Brother Timothy, who really influenced me in terms of the way he prayed," Harding explains. "He'd say, in the classroom, small prayers like 'let us remember we are in the presence of God.' And there'd be stillness for about ten seconds. That was a positive thing to get from this Brother, because I, then, could wander around the landscape near the lake, with the rustle of leaf, and feel myself blessed, feel 'this is not just safe from anxiety, it is beautiful to be here and I hope I never lose this feeling.”
In 1966 Tim was transferred to Bruff where he was to spend two years. Bruff is well known as a hurling area, but Tim was asked to coach football. After just two years they won the U-14 county final; unfortunately, Tim wasn’t around to savour the victory as he was already on the move to South Africa where he was to spend over 40 years of his active life. A past pupil, here today, Christy Walsh, who often visited Tim while he was in Miguel House, says of him: “Brother Timothy was one of the finest educators I’ve ever come across. In fact, he was a brilliant teacher and I looked forward to going to school and because of him I’m proud to say I never missed a day.”
Brother Tim (second from left front) playing with the Caledonian Pipe Band on Oxford Street, East London, South Africa in 1974
Before I move on to Tim’s years in South Africa, I want to say a few words about his life-long passion for music which he loved to share with others, both young and old, wherever he went and which served him well right up to the end. It is fair to say that he lived for music and in many ways it came to define his life to such an extent that when it became clear in early January that he could no longer play the organ in the chapel in Miguel House Tim seemed to lose the will to live and his condition deteriorated rapidly from then on. He was forever grateful to his mother for arranging piano lessons for him in Carndonagh when he was just nine years old.
He was disappointed that there were no opportunities for music in Mallow and delighted that there was music being taught in Castletown but was bewildered when the music teacher, Brother Ben Brunnick didn’t include Tim in his class and when he asked Ben about this later in life Ben answered in all honesty: “Tim, I thought you were going to be too good for me.” Tim always spoke very highly of Brother Aloysius John Valkenburg in the novitiate for encouraging him with his music and asking him to play the harmonium in the gallery above the chapel; it really marked the beginning of his musical career. Wherever Tim went afterwards, he looked for opportunities to involve himself in bands and choirs. When he was briefly in Belfast he was delighted to hear that they had a brass band in Milltown and enjoyed playing in the band and travelling to different places. Likewise, when he was in Cavan he started a recorder band and conducted the cathedral choir and while in Bruff he started the piano accordion band and loved performing in the town hall.
In 1968, Brother Tim received his obedience to proceed to the Brothers’ community in East London; at first, he thought it was East London in England but it actually was a further 10,000 kilometres further south on the southern coast of South Africa on the Indian Ocean. He wasn’t long in the community when Brother James Dineen reached out to him and said “Take this and learn how to play it.” Tim was confused and asked what it was. It was a chanter - the pipe part of a set of bagpipes - and Tim was asked to take over the school pipe band. He said it took him the best part of two years to master the bagpipes and he was indebted to the local East London Caledonian Pipe Band for the support he got from them. Before too long, Tim and his pipe band would travel to Highland gatherings up around Johannesburg and he quickly realised that tuning bagpipes at sea level was one thing but it was infinitely more difficult keeping the pipes in tune at an altitude of 6,000 feet where the reeds dried out very quickly.
Brother Tim with Dolores, Marion and Br Larry
I got to know Tim for the first time in 1973 when I joined his community where Brother Malachy Buckley (currently in Miguel) House was the Director. Tim was always grateful to Malachy for encouraging him to play in the local Caledonian Pipe Band in order to improve his piping skills.
I remember Tim staging school operettas in East London such as The Pied Piper and The Royal Jester and putting them on in the local Guild Theatre which had a seating capacity of 500. When he was transferred to Discovery in Johannesburg in 1974 Tim continued his musical involvement in both school and community until he was appointed auxiliary Visitor or Provincial in 1983. About this period in Tim’s life Brother Tom Lavin, following this Mass from Hong Kong, wrote:
“Tim did shed some blood sweat and tears while he was in South Africa SA but he always worked hard for native vocations when most others despaired.”
The following year in 1984, he moved to St Brendan’s school in Dwars River in the Limpopo Province, an hour’s drive from the border with Zimbabwe, which was quite a new challenge for him as it was a black co-educational school with about 600 boarders. He loved the school and he wrote: “It was a great place for school hikes and outings; the students really loved the idea that we could actually take them on school outings.”
Tim often admitted that he really wasn’t cut out for leadership as he preferred the cut and thrust of the school environment and it was no surprise then when some years later when an opening came for some involvement in a primary school, St Scholastica’s, about an hour’s drive from St Brendan’s, he accepted it with open arms. Brother Michael Loran speaks to this part of his life when he wrote:
“It was here he really found his vocation - music for the young people. Tim always considered himself ‘a music man'. With the help of his family, some good friends around Cavan and his native Donegal he set up a school orchestra of some sixty, seventy young musicians equipped with guitars, recorders, tin whistles, melodicas, drums and any kind of instrument -all in perfect harmony. Despite the many obstacles faced by these schools they are still thriving and catering for hundreds of young black people and providing much needed employment for the men and women from the nearby villages.”
Anybody who ever visited Tim in his room in Miguel House would have noticed the large colour photos on the wall of the school orchestra he had in St Scholastica’s.
Brother Albert O’Driscoll wrote the following about Tim:
“He loved South Africa and enjoyed immensely taking classes on tour to many parts of the country. He loved travelling and regularly organised holiday trips down to Cape Town and other parts of South Africa in the minibus for the Brothers and a few staff members. Tim was very friendly and a very cheerful companion in Community. A true Lasallian and very easy to live with - we will miss you Br. Tim but we’ll never forget all you did for us.”
Because of time constraints, I must bring this tribute to a close. I will wrap up with words of condolence written by two people. I quote first from a beautiful person by the name of Siow Vigman, now living in California, but who knew the Brothers while growing up in Malaysia and has visited Miguel House on a number of occasions - most recently last November. About Tim, she wrote:
“ I will always remember Tim sharing stories about the work he, Brother Larry and many other Brothers did in South Africa during the time of apartheid; his stories brought me to a new level of awareness of the challenges they faced and filled me with great gratitude for not only his work but for all the unsung heroes of the De La Salle Brothers.”
Thank you Siow, and I know some of those “unsung heroes” are following this Mass in South Africa and elsewhere - not forgetting Brothers Finbarr Murphy, Albert O’Driscoll, Michael Loran here present & Malachy Buckley, Tim O’Sullivan, Alphonsus Murphy, Pat Gorman & Larry Broderick in Miguel House. Of course, we must also remember tour Brothers and partners still keeping the flame alight in South Africa - Brothers Gabriel Griffin, Cornelius Carey, Harry Kiely and Sr Georgina and many others besides.
Tim will be really missed by the staff and his fellow Brothers in Miguel House where he spent his final six years. He brought great life to the prayer and social life in the community through his music and he’ll be greatly missed there. I would like to thank Teresa Cleere and her staff and Brother martin for the great care they took of Tim especially during his time of greatest need. Thanks also to Dr Robbie Butler for his kind and professional approach to Tim and, indeed all the Brothers at all times. Our thanks also go to the staff of Midlands Hospital in Portlaoise and Conroys Pharmacy in Mountrath. Thanks to Fr Joe and Fr Watt for the human and spiritual support they offered Tim when he was most in need of it.
Thanks to Fr Brian Griffin for making Castletown parish church available to us at such short notice and to the sacristan, Seamus, for preparing the church for us. And thanks to Tom ferns on the other side of the camera for helping us to stream this Mass live to Tim’s many friends throughout the world.
Tim had one request about his funeral arrangements - to have a piper play at his graveside. We were delighted to be able to deliver on that request and I’d like to say a big Thank You to Cormac Bowell from Abbeyleix who has joined us today at very short notice to honour Tim’s request.
When Miguel House asked for hospice assistance it was quite a coincidence when the person who turned up here was none other than Phyllis Howlin now living in Portarlington. When Phyllis heard that Tim was from Carndonagh she said that she too originally came from Carndonagh. On asking the question “Which of the McLaughlins are you?” they both had a great laugh when he mentioned he was one of the Hatter McLaughlins. His great-grandfather, apparently, was a hat maker.
I mentioned above that I would end with two tributes to Tim - I’ve already quoted a dear friend of the Brothers, Siow.
The second person I quote is Gary Black who was taught by Tim in South Africa and I think his words would be a fitting epitaph to the 60+ years he spent in the service of Christian education:
“Tim, your teachings, example and influence will live on in those students privileged enough to have been taught by you.”
Go dtuga Dia suaimhneas síoraí dá anam fial, uasal.” May God grant eternal rest to his generous and noble soul. Amen.
- Brother Kevin McEvoy