Donal McEllin:DONAL McEllin, who died in a boating incident at Inishbofin island last Sunday, was involved in business all his life having worked from an early age in his family's hardware cum grocery firm.
One of his first tasks as a “rookie” in his family’s retail business was to travel to Inishbofin fitting carpets.
It was a trip he was to make many times later in life in his motor cruiser Quo Vadiswhich he purchased some years ago after selling the Castlebar airport complex, then home of the Mayo Flying Club, and adjacent runway.
Donal McEllin, a qualified pilot, pioneered the founding of one of the west's first airports in Castlebar in the 1960s. At the time, his family owned the leading grocery/hardware business in Castlebar known as TA Lavelle company. An uncle of his, JE McEllin, was a former member of the Seanad and a director of the now defunct Irish Press.
He ran the Airport Bar at Breaffy Road, Castlebar, in the early 1990s making a reputation for himself as a no-nonsense but highly affable and efficient landlord.
He had gained experience in the hospitality and catering trade many years earlier when working in Martha’s Vineyard, Boston. He often spoke fondly of his years in the United States.
A single man, Donal McEllin shone at everything he put his hand to. Summer Sundays in the 1970s and 1980s would invariably find him floating high over Castlebar and the surrounding countryside in his beloved Piper Aztec.
His nickname was Skinty and his plane was dubbed Skinticus by his friend, the late journalist John Healy.
Long before his untimely death last weekend, his flying exploits were the stuff of legend. He once reputedly landed a plane on a country road outside Castlebar. To the amazement of locals, he also taxied a small plane, which had its wings removed, up the town’s Main Street. As a young man he took up swimming and scuba diving. These were passions in which he indulged all his life.
After the airport complex and adjacent runway was sold to make way for a business cum industrial estate, he bought the Quo Vadis, which has been a familiar sight in Clew Bay waters over the past decade or so.
Kind and loyal to his friends, he often invited them on pleasure trips on the cruiser to such locations as Clare Island, Inishturk and Inishbofin.
Donal McEllin, who was full of boyish good fun and irrepressible good humour, will be sorely missed in his native town, particularly by his nephews and nieces who adored him.
He is survived by his brother, John, Balla, Castlebar; sisters, Margaret McCarthy, Dungloe, Co Donegal, and Fiana McEllin, Castlebar.
Donal McEllin: born June 3rd, 1947; died October 10th, 2010