The death has taken place of North Clare legend and long time Clare Champion notes correspondent for Ballyvaughan, Mort O’Loughlin.
Mort, who was honorary Grand Marshall of this year’s Fanore St Patrick’s Day Parade, served as Ballyvaughan correspondent for The Clare Champion for an incredible 55 years.
Speaking to The Clare Champion before he retired in 2022, he remembered some of the highlights of his long career.
Mort was recruited to The Champion after a varied career that saw him work in Dublin and Limerick, and even drive a tube train in London.
“The train would have more than 700 passengers,” he said. “That’s more than the population of Ballyvaughan.”
Back home after his travels, Mort was driving a milk lorry, and took up the role of Notes Correspondent, filing notes faithfully every week. While much of the work supplied by Mort dealt with very specific local details, there were times when the Notes made big news.
“There was a ship that ran aground close to Ballyvaughan and the press people couldn’t get here,” he recalled.
“I was the first on the scene, along with the girl from Clare FM.”
The year was 1991. Now an acclaimed RTÉ Radio journalist, Rachel English was the correspondent alongside Mort, reporting from the scene. He captured some of the first dramatic images after ithe 2,600 tonne, 270 foot factory ship ‘Capitaine Pleven II’ went aground on April 5.
Among his archive are dramatic black and white images, showing the arrival of rescue helicopters who successfully evacuated the captain and crew.
“John Kelly gave me a lot of advice with photos, because Notes Correspondents sometimes took pictures too,” Mort said.
Another memorable event was The Peace Festival in 1971, organised by Noel O’Loughlin, one of Mort’s brothers.
“That got a lot of coverage at the time,” Mort recalled.
With the writing up of the notes taking at least 60 minutes every week, Mort’s contribution to The Champion could be calculated at more than 20,000 hours. That’s before one considers the effort needed to keep up to date with local happenings. Tracing events at home is just one part of the job, the brief also includes documenting the doings of Ballyvaughan natives on the national and international stage. Mort agreed that a Notes Correspondent must keep an ear to the ground. “People mightn’t always let you know what’s happening, but they do expect to see things getting covered in the paper,” he said.
Speaking ahead of this year’s Ballyvaughan St Patrick’s Day Parade, co-organiser Anne Pilkington, paid tribute to Mort.
“We have always had a great relationship with Mort. He has been a great supporter of the parade for many, many years and gave us great coverage in The Champion, both before and after the parade so we are delighted to be able to honour him,” she said.
“That is really what this is about, it is about honouring him and thanking him for all the support that he has given to us over the years.
“He came to every single parade that we ever had in Fanore and was there to take notes of who was doing what. He has given us great support.
“We are absolutely delighted that he will be grand marshal of this year’s parade.”
Mort has been a huge supporter of the parade over the years and has attended every year since the Fanore parade was first established.
“It is people like Mort that bind the community together. He went about his business, gathering all the information in a very unassuming way and the information that he would produce would be as accurate as you could ask for,” continued Anne.
“He would never spell anyone’s name incorrectly, never had any inaccurate facts, he has a real attention to detail.
“He is a real community person who always wants to know what is going on in the locality so he can do his best to give it a bit of a boost and promote it through his work.
“Weeks before the parade he would ring me up every year to ask who had I coming that year, and what did we have in store. It wasn’t ever me ringing Mort, it was always him contacting me, he was always on the ball all of the time.”
Much loved husband of Teresa, father to Gráinne, Niamh and Mark, he will be sadly missed by his daughter in law Liz and Niamh’s partner Niall, and his cherished grandchildren Beibhinn, Iarlaith and Fiachna.
Fondly remembered by his brothers Pádraig, Noel and Kevin, sisters Mary O Callaghan, Brigid D’Arcy, Cathleen Connole and Elish Fernandes, nieces, nephews and a large circle of relatives, friends and neighbours.
He will repose at St John the Baptist Church Ballyvaughan on Sunday, December 22, from 5pm to 7.30pm. Requiem mass will take place on Monday, December 23, at 11am and burial afterwards in Rath cemetery.
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and blogger who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.