John McDaid:JOHN MCDAID, who has died aged 63, was a chartered accountant who used his professional and personal skills unstintingly to help his fellow citizens and the city he loved, Derry.
By a fitting coincidence on the day before his death, The Derry Journalnewspaper's regular Times Gone By page reprinted a report of the July 1980 launch of a trust fund for a new "inner city" project. A dapper young John was pictured alongside his fellow sponsors of the interdenominational initiative
Expressing sadness at his death, Nobel Peace Laureate John Hume said: “John McDaid’s devotion to serving the community, often quietly behind the scenes, embodied the self-help ethos that helped to stabilise Derry when it needed it most”.
His family was at his bedside when he died at home.
John McDaid was prominent and popular in the public, business and community life of the northwest over four decades as unremitting violence slowly gave way to a faltering peace that is now entrenched, albeit sometimes uneasily.
He served on many statutory and voluntary groups, including the boards of the International Fund for Ireland, ILEX Urban Regeneration Company, the Inner City Trust (Derry), Northside Development Trust and Ulster Community Investment Trust.
He was a member of the Council of the University of Ulster, chairman of the governors of St Columb’s College, Derry and a past president of the college past pupils’ union. He was also a former president of Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.
Foyle MP Mark Durkan described him as a man of real charm and genuine care. He said: “While his family were everything, John also applied himself to the wellbeing of his city and the wider country in many practical and selfless ways. He encouraged private enterprise, championed social enterprise and practised civic enterprise.”
John McDaid’s visible legacies include his work as a founding director of The Inner City Trust, a cross-community groups that pioneered the restoration of Derry’s bomb-shattered city centre in the late 1980s. It led a huge rebuilding programme that erased the dereliction of violence and urban decay.
The founding directors included the Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, and the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr James Mehaffey, each of whom is now retired. Led by the redoubtable, recently retired, Paddy “Bogside” Doherty – and often acting on his dictum that “it is easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission” – the trust innovatively overcame myriad hurdles as it put a new face on the city centre.
Its achievements galvanised community morale and business confidence.
In 1974, John married Derry girl Pauline McCullough, who became an art teacher. They had six children.
John McDaid’s father, Jack, who was an old republican, owned a grocery shop. Pauline’s father had been a regimental sergeant major in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the first World War.
Jack McDaid’s wife was Margaret Magee, a teacher. Her sister, Rose, married Eddie McAteer, who led the Nationalist Party at Stormont in the 1960s. John McDaid’s cousin, Rory McAteer, was his best friend and wedding bestman.
There was music in the air, too. His uncle, Charlie Magee, was a popular singer and recording artist in the Radio Éireann era. Another uncle, Seán McBride, wrote the words of The Homes of Donegaland The Crolly Doll.
After studying at St Columb’s, in the late 1960s John McDaid became an articled clerk in the Derry accountancy firm, EF McCambridge Co.
In 1972, he launched John McDaid Co and later, with partners, acquired the practice of PK O’Doherty Co.
Subsequently, he became a founding partner of the extensive cross-Border Derry practice, McDaid, McCullough, Moore Co. He retired in 2007.
He abhorred violence and in retirement continued to strive for a reinvigorated Derry free of the legacy of conflict. His family are proud of his service to the community but will remember him mainly for his love and support, his quick wit and hearty laughter and the private acts of kindliness that many callers to the house told them about.
He is survived by Pauline, children John, Áine, Síle, Bríd, Rory and Maev, grandson Joshua, son-in-law Matthew, and sister Mary Ivors.
John McDaid: born January 31st, 1948: died July 13th, 2011