Council pays tribute to former councillor Johnny McLaughlin

TRIBUTES have been paid in the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) chamber to the ‘People’s Champion’, former independent councillor Johnny McLaughlin who died at the start of last month.

Mr McLaughlin, a lifelong advocate for working class families, passed away aged 80, just weeks after his retirement.

At a FODC meeting this week, council chair Barry McElduff held a minute of silence in respect of Mr McLaughlin following tributes from the chamber.

“I have with me today his Requiem Mass booklet, lovely poem at the back, which says ‘at the end of his round’ – an obvious reference to his boxing career. He was much loved in the Omagh area and he was a champion of welfare rights for many years – you could see this through the high attendance at his funeral.

“Johnny was elected in the Omagh town district for 30 years of his council service and he was a champion of people’s rights and someone who stood up for working families.

“I offer our sincere condolences to Johnny’s widow Olive, and his children Stephen, Amanda, Michelle, Geraldine, Yvonne and John, and also the wider family circle,” Cllr McElduff said.

Cllr Errol Thompson recalled how he first met Mr McLaughlin in the Nestle factory, before working alongside each other in the council.

“I first knew him at the start of my working life at 16 in the Nestle factory. Johnny was our union representative of the Transport and General Workers Union at that stage and he was a hard taskmaster when people came down to take on the union.

“Johnny fought hard in 1982, when there was 220 employees made redundant in one day. He was a hard negotiator at a time when pay-offs were happening across the United Kingdom and across this island.”

“He was a unique character in the organisations he was involved in – he was a very proud member of the Royal British Legion in Fintona … but he was also a member of the Irish National Foresters and the GAA as well,” Cllr Thompson added.