Tributes paid at funeral of publisher Hugh McLaughlin

The funeral took place in Dublin yesterday of publisher Hugh McLaughlin who died on New Year's Day.

Fr Pat Carroll, parish priest of Donnybrook, told the congregation that Mr McLaughlin came to Dublin at the age of 16. "First he was a barman. Then he created so many opportunities and new ventures in media. He was an inventor as well. Those who knew him as a colleague remember his enthusiasm for work and new ideas."

He was speaking before the funeral Mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart for Mr McLaughlin who was in his late 80s. From Killygorden, Co Donegal, Mr McLaughlin lived in Foxrock and had been ill for some time.Speaking after the Mass, Mr McLaughlin's daughter Valerie Collins recalled how "as you can imagine, our childhood was a little different from most. Sundays, after Mass, while other children got comics and sweets, we went on a tour of the shops so Dad could count the magazines left and chat to the newsagents about sales".

She said "he was a doer. His self-belief allowed him to move boundaries.

"He was the only one, in a house full of women, who could sew and we exploited this shamelessly.

"Intensely proud of his Donegal roots, he had passed on to all three of us [ his children] a great sense of self and an optimistic outlook on life, for which we thank him," she said.

Chief mourners were Mr McLaughlin's children, Valerie, Susan, Anna, and grandchildren Robert, Patrick, Kevin, and Rachel. His wife Nuala (née Ryan) died over a year ago, as had grandson Hugh prior to that.

Among the attendance of former colleagues and friends were the Editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Kennedy; the Editor of the Sunday World, Colm McGinty; publisher of Phoenix magazine John Mulcahy; political correspondent at the Sunday Independent Joe O'Malley; publisher Kevin Kelly; former RTÉ director general Bobby Gahan; Michael Maughan of Ogilvy group/Wilson Hartnell public relations; Maurice Gaffney SC; public relations consultant Jim Milton; Seán McHale, former director of ABN/Amro bank; Tom McElroy and Michael McCormack, formerly of the Sunday World.