BrotherLoftushada keeninterestinsports
BROTHER John Loftus of the Christian Brothers in Wexford, who died recently, was born in Portadown, Co Armagh. He was a member of a family of 12 and is survived by four sisters and five brothers.
He joined the Christian Brothers at a young age, attending first their houses of formation and novitiate in Dublin. His teaching career spanned both primary and secondary schools and he worked in Dublin, Portarlington, Dungarvan and Enniscorthy, where he was a local superior of the monastery and principal of the secondary school.
He continued throughout his life to upskill his training and attended Mount Oliver Institute in Dundalk and St Anselm’s Institute in Margate, Kent.
Brother John was an avid reader and his tastes were diverse, from modern and classic novels to works dealing with human psychology and development, spirituality and religion.
He had a keen interest in most sports and kept up to date with all the major sporting stories as they developed. During his teaching career, his main area of extra-curricular involvement was in athletics, where he specialised in training field events. He was involved at a national and international level in bringing young athletes to participate in the Catholic Student Games.
He left the teaching profession prior to the usual retirement age and qualified as an addiction counsellor. He worked until recently in the Aiséirí Treatment Centre at Rocklands. Here, he found great fulfilment both in reaching out to the residents and clients of the Centre and in the friendships and support that he experienced there with the staff.
In recent months, John’s health began to fail and he died at Wexford General Hospital on August 22. The obsequies were attended by all his surviving siblings and by relatives, family, friends, confreres and teaching colleagues from many parts of Ireland as well as many people who knew him through his work in Aiséirí.
His remained were removed from the monastery in Joseph Street to Bride Street Church, where his brother Father Martin Loftus, concelebrated Requiem Mass. He was laid to rest in the Christian Brothers’ Burial Plot in Crosstown Cemetery.