Obituaries

Peter Dargan – made immense contribution to community life in Ranelagh

An Appreciation

Peter Dargan: played crucial part in setting up the Ranelagh Players and Beechwood FC

Brian Maye
Sun May 8 2022 - 21:34

Peter Dargan, who died on Easter Monday last, was a quiet, gentle, self-effacing person who left an indelible mark on the community in Ranelagh, Dublin, where he lived for most of his life. Sadly, he suffered from dementia in latter years, but he never lost the affability and equanimity that characterised him.

He was born on March 7th, 1946, the second of six children (one of whom died in infancy) of Michael Dargan and Blanche O'Rourke and lived in Clontarf until the age of 12, when the family moved to Balgriffin. He attended O'Connell CBS Primary School, Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare and University College Dublin, after which he joined Arks Advertising Agency, moving on around three years later to Beechams, as brand manager. In 1973, he joined CIÉ. He completed a BA in management at the Irish Management Institute in 1999 and was advertising and promotions manager for Irish Rail until his retirement.

Through mutual friends, he met Deirdre Philbin, then a medical student, in 1971 and they married on December 30th, 1972. They had three children: Kate, John and George.

He was a member of Royal Dublin Golf Club from the age of 12 (his father was a member there) and continued to play golf until no longer able to do so. He played rugby for Palmerston (then based in Milltown) and De La Salle Palmerston, when the two clubs amalgamated. On retiring from playing, he refereed rugby for some years. He ran several marathons and visited many places in Europe with the CIÉ walking group.

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Peter had a great love of the humanities, especially classical music, art, poetry and history and was an avid reader. He and Deirdre shared a love of ancient history and joined many tours of ancient Greece, also visiting Egypt and Turkey, where Peter's knowledge added greatly to their mutual enjoyment.

One of his sons played soccer with the local Belmont Boys football club and he helped with the running of the club. As the number of young children in his neighbourhood increased, he came up with the idea of starting a soccer club for them (by this time his own children were grown up). He visited the local primary schools and launched Beechwood FC, starting with an under-eight team. This club now has a large number of teams at all age levels and is an outstanding monument to his foresight and hard work. When others came on board to help with the running of the club, he was happy to step back and never sought the limelight.

His other lasting monument is the Ranelagh Players, who perform plays annually and always participate in the very successful Ranelagh Arts Festival. He began this group, too, on a small basis in his local Beechwood Community Centre and it has also grown and flourished over the years.

Peter was a very fine writer and the players performed a number of shows that he wrote, such as on the lives of the poet Padraic Colum and the great lyricist and dramatist Thomas Moore, both with local Ranelagh connections. He also initiated a series of lectures and talks, some of which he wrote and delivered himself, such as on the notorious Town Major Charles Sirr (also with Ranelagh connections), for what he planned as the Ranelagh Literary and Historical Society.

He was devoted to his family, was always a very calming presence on committees, had a lovely, warm, gentle sense of humour and enjoyed a good laugh. His many friends, and especially Deirdre, Kate, John and George, greatly miss him.

Take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again.

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