MacEOIN, Gary 1909-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 12, 1909, in Curry, County Sligo, Ireland; died of a heart attack July 9, 2003, in Leesburg, VA. Journalist and author. MacEoin focused his writing primarily on the Roman Catholic Church and the social and political conditions in Latin America. A Catholic himself, he studied for the priesthood, but dropped out of the seminary one week before ordination. Instead, he completed an undergraduate degree at the University of London in 1941, followed by a master's degree from the National University of Ireland in 1942 and a Ph.D. in modern languages in 1951. A man of many talents, MacEoin spoke nine languages and was admitted to the Irish Bar in 1943. His journalism career began in 1933 as a reporter, feature writer, and critic for newspapers in Dublin and London. In 1944 he moved to Trinidad to become editor of the Port-of-Spain Gazette. After a brief stint as information officer for the Caribbean Commission, he moved to New York City to edit Spanish-language publications during the 1950s and became a freelance writer in 1963. Noticing while in New York how the U.S. media largely ignored Latin-American affairs, he traveled throughout that ignored region and published several books on the subject, among them Latin America: The Eleventh Hour (1962), Columbia, Venezuela, the Guianas (1965), and Revolution Next Door: Latin America in the 1970s (1971). Being familiar with the Catholic Church because of his position as a former seminarian, MacEoin also frequently wrote about the Church and its followers in books such as Father Moreau: Founder of Holy Cross (1962), New Challenges to American Catholics (1965), and What Happened in Rome? (1966). In the 1970s MacEoin turned increasingly to academia, teaching at Fordham University as an adjunct professor during the early 1970s, and at Fairleigh Dickinson University for a year; he also lectured at numerous other universities. His more recent writings include Central America's Options: Death or Life? (1988), Unlikely Allies: The Christian-Socialist Convergence (1990), and The People's Church: Bishop Samuel Ruiz of Mexico and Why He Matters (1996); he was also the author of the memoirs Nothing Is Quite Enough (1953) and Memoirs and Memories (1986).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Writers Directory, 18th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2003.

PERIODICALS

New York Times, July 20, 2003, p. A25.

Washington Post, July 13, 2003, p. C11.