Mr. Eugene Mc.Camphill

A Tribute to Mr. Eugene Mc.Camphill by Pearl Hutchinson

I first met Eugene over 30 years ago when Marion Lennox started Kilrea Local History Group in January 1981. What a collection of people she brought together!.Andy Alexander, Kathleen Gillen, Brigid Henry,Martha Mc.Grath, G.A. McIlrath and RJ Mc.Neill and later James Mc.Ilfatrick. Coming to Kilrea as an outsider who knew nothing about the town, I quickly learned from the old hands. 
The fun and the laughter in that group was amazing. One telling a better story than the other. Eugene was always in the middle of it regaling us with stories from his youth. His great passion in life was  collecting memorabilia relating to the Kilrea area. He had an amazing collection of pictures that were used in our first publication
The Fairy Thorn.
Eugene enthusiastically helped with all the activities that the group were involved in. I remember the summer of 1993 when we embarked on the project of recording headstones in the various graveyards. Eugene devised a method of cleaning old headstones when the writing was unclear. He got a handful of grass and rubbed it over the writing. It did the trick every time and didn't damage the headstone.
In the summer of 1994 we organised an afternoon of Childhood Games in the Horse Fairhill. Eugene was there helping with the skipping and ball games which the local children really enjoyed.
I suppose the highlight was the history walk during the Fairy Thorn
Festival in 1992 when we were overwhelmed by the numbers who turned up to go on the walk. Eugene was there to lend a hand dressed in period clothes with his album of photographs to illustrate the tour.
Eugene made an enormous contribution to the life of Kilrea through  the history group but also through many other organisations including the Fire service. He will be sadly missed by all who came in contact with him. We salute his memory.