Hotelier offers to fund return for Lahinch native after letter

A Co Clare hotelier has offered to fund the return from London of an 80-year-old Lahinch man who has wondered if there was anyone left in the seaside resort who remembered him.

Lahinch hotelier Michael Vaughan confirmed on Monday that he had written to the sheltered accommodation in London where Jim Logan lives to offer to pay for a return visit by Mr Logan to see his home place.

Mr Logan emigrated to England as a 16 year old in 1954 and Mr Vaughan made the offer after reading a plea penned by Mr Logan and published in the letters' page of the current edition of The Clare Champion newspaper.

Mr Logan wrote: “I am an 80-year-old man from Lahinch, lying on my bed here in London on a very hot day. I was wondering how everyone is doing back in Lahinch and is there anyone left who remembers me?”

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He went on: “I was born in June 1938 in Lahinch and lived in Crag from age nine to 16, when I emigrated to England. I attended national school in Lahinch and CBS in Ennistymon. It would be great to hear from anyone from that era. I wonder how many of us are left?”

Viral letter

The letter has gone “viral” after being posted on the “Clare Clare Clare” Facebook page. The letter, according to the page, is “easily the most popular post ever on the page – over 300,000 hits and nearly 4,000 shares”.

Operations director with Lonely Planet Ireland Nóirín Hegarty replied to Ennistymon CBS tweeting the letter to say: "My dad, Sean Hegarty, was in school with Jimmy Logan and remembers him well. He is going to write to him, reminding him of their antics. He has some great stories."

Mr Vaughan said on Monday that Mr Logan’s letter “conjured up a sad image for me – that one of our own would be so long without any contact with his home place”.

Mr Vaughan said he had written to the sheltered accommodation address provided in Mr Logan’s letter to offer to fund a return visit to Lahinch for Mr Logan to meet some of those from that time.

He said: “I don’t even know at this stage if Jim would like to travel back so if not, we can organise a small delegation to go over from here to London to cheer him up.”

Catching up

Mr Vaughan said that he knew of three people who had already written to Mr Logan to fill him in on who’s alive in Lahinch and news about new developments in the seaside resort.

One of those who knew Jim growing up in Lahinch in the 1940s is Lahinch native Tomsie O’Sullivan.

Mr O’Sullivan confirmed on Monday that he would be writing to Jim Logan to fill him in on the goings on in the village.

Mr O’Sullivan said that Mr Logan’s family “were very hard workers and very well respected”.

Mr O’Sullivan added that the family lived down in a house on the prom that today houses a surf shop before they moved to a council house on School Road.

Mr O’Sullivan said Jim’s father was a baker and also very active in drama and fundraising for the local church in Lahinch.