Harry Sloan highly respected in the Dunleer community
The Dunleer locality is considerably the poorer following the death on Friday at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, of Mr. Henry (Harry) Sloan of Athclare. Aged 82, and one of the county’s leading farmers, the deceased had been in indifferent health for some time, but nonetheless news of his passing came as a shock to many.
Member of a very old established and much respected family, the late Mr. Sloan, while a committed member of the Church of Ireland community, was noted for the fine relationships which he had with his R.C. parishioners — and indeed with hundreds of others outside the confines of Dunleer.
Long before there was much thought given to ecumenism, truthfully it could be said that Harry care little for barriers of any description.
When Dunleer AC was in search of a suitable course for the running of the first Ras na hEireann (1970), he came to the rescue of Larry McGill and partners. And each ‘Ras’ programme since then has also been staged over the Sloan family lands at Athclare. In its formative years, he was an enthusiastic officer of the F.C.A.
An enterprising and successful farmer, Harry Sloan, a hard worker in his day, was among the first in these parts — if not in fact, the very first — to invest in a tractor, and to see the advantages of other forms of farm mechanisation. He was nonetheless a man of relatively simple tastes, one who enjoyed nothing better than when in the company of friends swopping yarns of the happenings of other days.
He will be considerably missed by many, and none more so than by his wife, Barbara (they celebrated their Golden Jubilee last year); also by sons. Hal (Bawntaaffe Monasterboice) and Eric (Athclare), and daughters, Barbara and Doris.