Jim Quigley, who died on August 29th aged 59, was a dreamer and doer. He was at the height of his powers as president of Muintir na T∅re when struck down by a brain tumour.
In life he accepted the Ignatian injunction to give and not to count the cost . . . to toil and not to seek for rest. He expected everyone to be as committed as himself.
He saw his task as president of Muintir na T∅re to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the essentially rural organisation founded by Canon John Hayes in 1937. Its core philosophy remains the uniting of communities in a spirit of service, neighbourliness and self-reliance in working for the common good. He believed that "advancement based on materialism will brutalise us".
Furthermore, he said, unless people are organised at local level, the vicious circle of deprivation, crime and drugs will never be broken. The root causes of hopelessness - lack of education, poverty and low personal esteem - must be addressed in what he called "a long-term holistic approach".
He was born in Toomevara, Co Tipperary, on February 20th, 1942, the son of Jim Quigley and Alice (nΘe McDermott). He was educated at CBS Nenagh and Mungret College, Limerick. He spent two years in the SMA seminary in Cork. This latter experience explains partly a missionary zeal in approaching his life's work: community development.
He left behind his farming upbringing to work first in the bar trade in Dublin, and took early retirement from Telecom ╔ireann. Prior to his presidency of Muintir na T∅re, he was involved in community work in Dublin city and county for 20 years.
In 1987, he attended Muintir's golden jubilee conference on community development in Dundrum, Co Tipperary. He emerged quickly as an idealist in the tradition of the movement's founder.
On being elected the first full-time president of Muintir na T∅re in 1994, he secured sponsorship from AIB to pay his salary. He wasn't a great public speaker but his sincerity made up for lack of eloquence. He grew in the job, however, which makes his death all the more untimely.
He adapted Canon Hayes's philosophy of neighbourliness to crime prevention. Believing that self-help nurtures community, he updated the Muintir maxim: "N∅ neart go cur le chΘile." In 1985, he negotiated an allowance to establish 600 Community Alert units in partnership with the Garda S∅ochβna; the number has since doubled.
The Garda introduced Neighbourhood Watch for urban areas and Muintir initiated Community Alert in the countryside. Muintir sees Community Alert as much more than a crime-prevention programme. It seeks to improve the quality of life of people, particularly the elderly.
Jim Quigley was a member of the Skerries (Co Dublin) Development and Community Association for 22 years. The Skerries Community Centre, which now caters for 98 local groups, was built largely due to his efforts. Involved in community games at local and national level, he was chairman of Skerries Athletic Club, Swords Community Employment Scheme and other bodies.
He received a number of honours but his most treasured accolade was to be named Tipperary Person of the Year in 1999. On that occasion he said rural depopulation must be fought by imaginative back-to-work schemes and training in new technologies.
The spectre was one of "large tracts of land with nobody living in them", as the number of full-time farmers continued to decline. The number is set to fall from 44,000 to 20,000 within 10 years.
"We talk about having a deficit in our workforce," he said, "yet we have thousands of women who want to get back into the workforce. But because they live in rural areas, they do not have access to training programmes which would give them the confidence and the skills to go back to work.
"We have the opportunities through telemarketing to stop putting the jobs into the honey pot of the east coast and move them to the country."
He is survived by his wife, Bridget (nΘe Carolan), whom he married in 1970; daughters, Edel and Orla; sisters, Maura and Sr Veronica; and brothers, Eddie, Tim and Martin.
Jim Quigley: born 1942; died, August 2001