Jim Coughlan: Jim Coughlan was the chief executive of Gorta, the first organisation dedicated to Third World development to be set up in Ireland.
Emerging from the Irish Freedom from Hunger Campaign in the 1960s, it initially operated under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture. Later the Department of Foreign Affairs took responsibility for the campaign and in 1998 Gorta became an autonomous NGO.
As Gorta's funding base became more secure, Jim Coughlan led the expansion of the organisation's development projects. He encouraged the upgrading and expansion of Gorta projects into programmes covering larger sets of local communities, all the while looking to enhance local ability to plan and manage these larger ventures. In recent years, he set up a local office in Africa to plan, guide and monitor Gorta's African development programmes.
Paying tribute to his colleague, Prof Denis Lucey, chairman of the board of Gorta, said: "[ These] carefully thought out projects, stimulated by Jim's abiding passion to 'Teach a man to fish, rather than giving him a fish to feed himself for a day', have, in turn, touched thousands of people in hundreds of communities, which would otherwise have faced water shortages, famine, disease and, in many cases, starvation."
Gorta's partners in Africa also commended his achievements. Glenda Howieson of Phakamisa, South Africa, remembered him as a caring and compassionate person, who "facilitated enormous growth and development of our vegetable gardening programme, through which over 800 families have benefited".
Peter Muchangi of the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture highlighted Gorta's efforts to ensure food production at local level. Many lives were lost in a drought-induced famine in northern Kenya in 2000, but "where Gorta had initiated projects along with the government, there was food because of the Gorta-funded irrigation schemes".
Born in The Glen, Cullen, in north Cork, he was the son of Jim and Katie Coughlan. Educated locally, he quickly developed an enduring love of Irish music and culture. A member of the local fife and drum band, he spoke Irish fluently. In later years he became an accomplished traditional musician, playing a range of instruments, and regularly adjudicated at feiseanna.
He showed an interest in engineering at an early age and in his teens managed to install a supply of electricity in the family home, using a combination of ingenuity, dynamos and power diverted from a nearby stream.
He worked locally for six years before in 1952 enlisting in the Air Corps, where he trained as an electrical and instrumentation engineer.
On leaving the Air Corps, his career took him to the United States, Britain, Germany and Austria. Returning to Ireland, he joined the ESB and later worked for Finsa Forest Products in the chipboard factory at Scarriff, Co Clare. He next joined Nitrigin Éireann Teo, which later became Irish Fertiliser Industries, in Arklow, Co Wicklow. He was a founding member of a Junior Chamber chapter in the town and was a founding member of the Wicklow Parents and Friends of the Mentally Handicapped Association. He later moved to the NÉT plant at Marino Point in Cobh, Co Cork.
He joined Gorta as a volunteer in 1980, becoming chairman of the organisation's Cork county committee. He joined the board of directors in 1985 and worked tirelessly on many sub-committees. He was made chief executive of the organisation in 1994 and during his tenure income from fundraising increased over sixfold during the past five years, while the number of Gorta shops in Ireland rose to 11. His guiding vision will be greatly missed by his colleagues.
Predeceased by his son, Conor, he is survived by his wife Monica, their daughter Sinéad and son Barry.
Jim Coughlan: died September 12th, 2005