Tributes paid to former council chairman

Tributes paid to former council chairman

15 July 2020

GLOWING tributes have been paid to former SDLP councillor Patsy Toman who sadly passed away last week. He was 81.

Mr Toman, who is survived by his wife, Anne, daughter Bronagh, sons Patrick and Niall, and the wider family circle, represented the Ballynahinch area on the former Down Council.

He fought six successful local government election campaigns and was a distinguished former chairman of the council after his appointment in 1997.

Tributes to Mr Toman — who was interred last Friday following a service at St Macartan’s Church in Loughinisland — have been led by Baroness Margaret Ritchie, the former South Down MP, South Down MLA Colin McGrath and local councillors Dermot Curran, Terry Andrews and Billy Walker.

Committed to his family and the wider community, Mr Toman was held in high regard by many, including his former council colleagues. He was a principled man who helped everyone, regardless of their politics and always stood up for what he believed to be right.

A passionate defender of the Ballynahinch electoral area, he lobbied hard to secure investment and was a key player in the drive to secure a new bypass around the market town.

Mr Toman made a significant contribution to the district and a number of organisations, including Loughinisland GAC. He was the club’s former cultural officer and treasurer.

Leading the tributes to her friend and former council colleague, Lady Ritchie said the community of Loughinisland and further afield had lost a man of “immeasurable integrity and the epitome of hard work and resilience”. She also said that she had lost a “true friend”.

Lady Ritchie revealed that she had known Mr Toman since she was six years old, explaining that in his early life, he worked as a shop assistant in McKeating’s general provisions store in Downpatrick’s Scotch Street.

“My mother ordered her groceries in the shop every week and they were delivered on a Saturday. I can recall Patsy working in that shop and sometimes he delivered our groceries,” she recalled.

“In our many conversations, he recalled those visits and how I was only ever interested in the lemonade bottles that were in the grocery box.  At that early stage of his life, Patsy was in a hurry and, above all, he was super efficient to get the job done.  His attention to detail was legendary.”

Lady Ritchie said that she next met Mr Toman at a meeting of the SDLP’s Down District Executive in Dundrum in June 1983.

“Patsy obviously knew who I was because he asked me if I was still in Belfast. I indicated that I had returned home and he told me that he looked forward to working with me in the party.

“Once again I noted a man who wanted to get the work done on behalf of the people. Patsy’s career in the grocery business continued when he had his own vegetable van, travelling the length and breadth of parts of East Down.”

Describing Mr Toman as an “industrious individual”, Lady Ritchie said he was a “champion of the underdog” and a man of integrity, who fought relentlessly for the rights of farmers, social housing tenants and rural residents on a wide range of issues including planning applications.

She continued: “Patsy was a man of the community. He was a member of Ballynahinch Credit Union, Magherlegan Pipe Band, the Monday Club in Drumaness and Loughinisland GAC, as well as numerous organisations associated with the former Down Council. Patsy was a true Gael and was involved in the cultural and Scor activities of his home club.

“When I worked with the late Eddie McGrady MP, Patsy used to call into the Downpatrick constituency office every Monday and would have met up with the late Cllr Peter Craig.

“There was fierce rivalry between the Saul and Loughinisland GAA teams and those matches were fought out again in the Scotch Street office and latterly in Saul Street, with Patsy and Peter also glorying in the fortunes of the Down GAA team in the early 1990s.”

Lady Ritchie said Mr Toman always put the needs of people first, with this clearly reflected in the background work he did on behalf of the Loughinisland families following the 1994 massacre at The Heights Bar in the village.

“Patsy was shaken with emotion and grief about the killing of six innocent men and the images of that night on June 18 lasted with him until he was overtaken by his illness and his untimely death. He always stood solidly with the families in their fight for justice and truth,” she continued.

Lady Ritchie said Mr Toman was involved in the politics of the SDLP for a long time and was a founder member and chairman of the party’s Drumaness branch.

He was elected to Down Council in 1989 and subsequently re-elected in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2011 and while he retired from elected politics in 2015, he remained active in the community.

“Patsy was a stalwart on the East Border Region Committee and the Ards/Down Rural Partnership,” continued Lady Ritchie. 

“I fought many elections with him and he kept driving everyone to go the extra mile to achieve better representation. And if Patsy had an issue that required a resolution, he pursued you until he got an answer, applying that same approach for all of his constituents.”

Lady Ritchie said Mr Toman had been a “true, loyal friend for many years” and was delighted and honoured to attend his 80th birthday celebrations in April of last year.  

“Patsy always confronted you with his political problems which were not major at all. Such was the loyalty and bond between Patsy and myself that whenever I was ill with breast cancer, both he and his wife Anne arranged a special Mass for me the day before my surgery. I will never forget that and I am eternally grateful to Patsy and Anne for their personal support to me during my political and personal life,” she added.

She added: “Patsy was an extremely loyal individual; a family man who cherished his wife, children and grandchildren. He was  a man of deep Christian faith, a person of immense integrity and an extremely hard worker and defender of the rights of the underdog.”