The late Girvan McKay/Garbhan MacAoidh, who died recently at the age of 94, was Presbyterian Minister in Tullamore and Mountmellick from 1983-96 and made a huge contribution to the local community. After retirement, he and his wife Máire continued to reside at Clonminch, Tullamore. A service in his memory was held at the Presbyterian Church, Tullamore on Saturday 13 January 2024.
Our thoughts are with her and their sons Ruairidh, Conall and Somhairle and their families.
He was a distinctive figure within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) due to his never having lived in Northern Ireland, in contrast to the great majority of that church’s ministers.
Born in Bolivia of Scottish background, his family left there when he was a young child, and some of his childhood was spent in Spain and Portugal. After World War II he worked as a newsreader in Berlin, translating from German to English.
After marrying Máire they lived in England, Scotland and Argentina before moving to Ireland. Girvan initially ministered in Waterford and Kilkenny before coming to Tullamore in 1983.
His lack of ‘unionist baggage’ and the fact that much of his life was spent in majority Catholic countries helped him to build bridges in Tullamore and he had a very good working relationship with Catholic priests and religious, as well as with his counterparts in the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church.
However, it didn’t stop there, and his circle of friends included atheists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Muslims, Bahá’is and ‘modern day Pagans’. I recall attending an interfaith event in 1996 at which he was present, at which prayers were offered for the family of Fiona Pender, and participants included not only people from the various Christian churches but Iranian Bahá’i refugees from Athlone, as well as people who would describe themselves as Pagans.
His gentle manner endeared him to all who knew him.
I recall, in particular, his friendship with his next-door neighbours, the late Frank and Sissi Lowbridge, who were prominent members of the local Jehovah’s Witness community. Their daughter Deirdre recalls him as ‘a lovely neighbour’ and ‘a gentleman’.
Seán McKenna, who made friends with the McKays through the Midland Astronomy Club, described him as ‘a gentleman and a scholar’ and said that the world could do with many more people like himself and Máire.
Former Tullamore Tribune journalist Séamus Dooley, who met Girvan on his first day as minister, said he was ‘a decent, erudite man who lived his faith’.
While he had a very wide range of interests, he made no secret of the fact that the one thing that bored him was meetings of the General Assembly of the PCI, as he saw it as preoccupied by Northern Ireland and ignoring the Presbyterians of the Republic.
He had a deep interest in languages, and is believed to have spoken about a dozen. His Scots Gaelic background made it easy for him to learn Irish. I frequently met Girvan and Máire at events that I covered for Offaly Express and enjoyed their hospitality in their home many times.
I recall his describing, for example, the efforts made to revive the Cornish language. His memories of the lack of religious freedom for Protestants in Franco’s Spain gave him an interest in freedom for all sections of humanity.
In particular, Girvan and Máire loved the Esperanto language and he frequently contributed to an Esperanto magazine. She read a poem in that language at his funeral service, while the importance of the Irish language was reflected in the singing of ‘Ag Críost an Síol’.
Midland Astronomy Club paid tribute by saying: “
There are many friends here that will remember meeting Girvan at a club meeting, or at the Irish Astrofest and Cosmos Star Parties over the years.
He was a retired Presbyterian minister, a fond lover of languages including Esperanto, Scots Gaelic, Portuguese, Irish and Latin, and was an accomplished author. His club lectures on our yearly calendar were never normal.
Indeed, when his name popped up on the roster you could almost be sure it was something to do with communication, alien languages, and even the potential diversity of life away from Earth.”
Girvan himself contributed to this blog with an account of the gravestones at Clonminch Cemetery, in which he noted in particular those with inscriptions in Irish, Latin and Slovak: ‘The dead open the eyes of the living’: St Joseph’s Cemetery, Tullamore by Girvan McKay, Clonminch
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