'Kind of man we all wish we could be': Remembering Athy's Dermot Lawler

When I started compiling these notes for the Kildare Nationalist back in March of 2025, I spoke with my good friend Kay Lawler. 

Kay had been the correspondent for the Kilmead notes for many years and I asked for her advice: ‘‘Tell stories,’’ she said ‘‘People love stories, the news is a different thing, that is for journalists to write, you need to tell stories.’’ So, I set out to tell stories, sometimes embellishing them a little, as someone once said: ‘The truth never got in the way of a good story.’ 

Some weeks later, I met Dermot Lawler outside Conlon’s shop on a Tuesday morning, we were both in to collect that week’s Kildare Nationalist. 

We stopped to chat and he paid me a huge compliment when he said ‘I buy the Nationalist every week now since you started writing the Athy notes. I had stopped buying it, but now I wouldn’t miss it.’ 

I was taken aback by his kind remarks, I am not good at taking compliments or receiving gifts, but coming from Dermot it meant a lot to me because that is the sort of person he was - kind, decent, witty and always willing to help someone out or pay recognition to something they had done.

While he was in hospital over the past number of months, he had the Nationalist delivered to him each week and looked forward to the weekly trivia quiz, so one week I set the questions with the following answers: 1 Hello. 2 Dermot. 3 Hope. 4 Ewe. 5 Are. 6 Well. 

I hope he got a laugh out of that. Dermot Lawler was the kind of man we all wish we could be - kind, courteous, respectful, engaging, charming and with a deep sense of community. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann. 

My sincere sympathies to his wife Kay, son Stuart, daughters Ciara and Niamh and his extended family and friends.