He was born the son of Tom Fagan, a Post and Telegraphs linesman and his wife Nellie (nee McIntyre, from Omagh) on July 11, 1939, one of nine children in a family living at McDermott Villas in Navan, Co Meath. As a teenager attending Navan Vocational School on Railway Street, he acquired the skill of shorthand note-taking which later served him very well in the newspaper industry.
He played at right half-back on the Meath team that won the county’s first minor Gaelic football All-Ireland title, beating Armagh at Croke Park exactly 67 years ago on September 22, 1957 by 3-9 to 0-4.
Trained by All-Ireland senior medallist Frankie Byrne, Meath had won their first Leinster title at minor level in the same year. A year earlier, Fagan was a member of the Meath team that won the 1956 All-Ireland Vocational Schools championship final against Sligo. He also won five consecutive Senior Football Championship medals with the Navan O’Mahonys GAA club.
Fagan’s career as a journalist began in the late 1950s with the Meath Chronicle. He moved on from there to the Drogheda Independent where he served as correspondent for southern Meath, based in Trim. He was chief organiser of the annual Meath-Louth Press Ball, run for charity under the auspices of the local branch of the National Union of Journalists.
He was a great newsman, reliable, straight, conscientious and accurate
Joining The Irish Times in the 1960s as a reporter, he was sent to Cork at an early stage to cover an important court case and his coverage earned him a telegram of praise from Douglas Gageby, editor of the paper at the time, who was well-known for his exacting standards.
Positions Fagan held at the paper included aviation correspondent, deputy news editor, property editor and commercial property editor. He also wrote news pieces from time to time for the Daily Telegraph.
On the aviation front, he covered the arrival of Ryanair on the scene as well as other major developments. Following several years as second-in-command on the newsdesk — where he was noted for his energy, enthusiasm and no-nonsense approach — Fagan was put in charge of property coverage in 1988 and oversaw the first full-colour version of the paper’s property supplement.
In his memoir Up with the Times, then editor Conor Brady wrote that Fagan had been seeking a new challenge and “took to the property brief like a duck to water”.
More recently, on his former colleague’s passing, Brady said in a tribute: “He was a great newsman, reliable, straight, conscientious and accurate. He was always delightful company — courteous, helpful and good-humoured.”
Fagan turned 65 in 2004 and could have retired at that stage but he stayed on as editor of the commercial property coverage, where his highly regarded work helped to attract significant advertising for the paper.
He was a firm friend, an excellent journalist and a staunch colleague
He chronicled some dramatic ups and downs in the sector before finally retiring in January 2019. Fagan was a shrewd investor himself and, having acquired a property in downtown Dublin, turned its top floors into an apartment where his three children lived while they were at college.
His leisure activities included horse-riding with the Meath Foxhounds and that was how he became familiar with Dunmoe House, a Victorian dwelling outside Navan, which he acquired and made his home, commuting to work in Dublin.
He married Eleanor (nee Cox) a former nurse and Aer Lingus stewardess, who was co-ordinator of Meath’s role in the RTÉ People in Need Telethon fundraising charity campaign in 1998. The couple had three children, Zoe, Douglas and Barry. Sadly Eleanor passed away in 2014.
Having contracted Alzheimer’s disease, he spent his final years at the Four Ferns nursing home in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, where he passed away peacefully in the presence of his family last Sunday.
Paying tribute, former news editor Eugene McEldowney and his wife Maura said: “He was a firm friend, an excellent journalist and a staunch colleague.”
In another tribute, Renagh Holohan said: “He was a great colleague on the newsdesk — helpful, knowledgeable, fun and above all professional.” Another colleague, Willy Clingan, described him as “one of the pillars of The Irish Times for decades”.
He was predeceased by Eleanor, siblings Billy, Evelyn, Harold and Jean and sister-in-law Paula. He is greatly missed by his children, granddaughter Molly, sister Eleanor, brothers Herbert, Ken and Joe, as well as other relatives, in-laws and friends.
His funeral mass was held last Wednesday morning at St Mary’s Church in Navan, followed by burial in St Mary’s Cemetery.