Mick Loftus Obituary, Former GAA President Has Died

Mick Loftus Obituary, Death – This evening, tributes are being given to former GAA President Dr. Michael (Mickey) Loftus, who died today (Saturday) at the age of 93. Dr. Loftus, a native of Crossmolina, Co. Mayo, was a member of the Mayo senior football team that won the All-Ireland final in 1951.

He was a substitute on the team and did not play that day. His championship and league career lasted four years, from 1949 to 1953. Dr. Loftus, who operated a medical practice in north Mayo, became a club and county referee after retiring from football. In 1965 and 1968, he officiated at the All-Ireland finals. Dr. Loftus chaired the Connacht GAA Council as well as the Centenary Committee, which planned the Association’s 100th-anniversary festivities in 1984.

He was the Coroner for North Mayo for many years in addition to being a medical practitioner. Dr. Eleanor Fitzgerald, his daughter-in-law, is the current coroner in the district. Dr. Loftus was an ardent critic of alcoholism throughout his long, diversified, and successful career. He emphasized that alcohol consumption is as damaging to Irish communities today as it was in the past.
Most painful, he said, was the grief created in families by the loss of a loved one in drunk driving accidents.

Dr. Loftus questioned the beverage industry’s level of involvement in big athletic events and festivals. Funeral arrangements will be revealed later.