When we were ‘recruiting’ area correspondents for the Roscommon Champion back in the 1990s, the aim was to find people who were embedded in the heart of their parish.
Albert Looby was one such person. A passionate GAA man, he was already submitting match reports and club notes for the Kilbride Club, where he was a perfectly partisan PRO!
When Albert became our Fourmilehouse correspondent, we began to really get to know him. Typically, he would arrive into the Champion office on a Monday, armed with scraps of papers which detailed the weekly rhythm of life in a rural parish…deaths, marriages, meetings…and of course GAA. (In those days, the Champion was produced in the very office in which the People is now based).
Albert’s match reports and community notes were usually only released to our typesetters after a good-humoured chat and proud overview of all that was happening in the parish.
Mostly, we talked GAA…unexpected wins, unlucky defeats, players to watch…with the odd mutual agreement that a given official should perhaps have ‘gone to Specsavers’.
There was the essential analysis of the progress of Kilbride, and of the Roscommon teams. As a Kerry native, the Kingdom always got a mention too.
Professionally, he worked for many years as an engineer with Roscommon County Council, in which role he was very popular. A gentleman and a character, it was always a pleasure to meet Albert. News of his passing last week saddened all who knew him.
Deepest sympathy is extended to his wife Aileen, sons John, Albert, Mark and Colin, daughters Susan and Michelle, sister Noreen and brother Michael, grandchildren, further relatives and friends. May he rest in peace.
-PH
