Brian Carchrie Campbell
22 July 1944 — 25 May 2026
Born on the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, Brian lived a life marked not by noise or grandeur, but by quiet faithfulness, kindness, duty, and love.
He was also, proudly, a Campbell. The Campbell tartan was woven through our family life in ways both ordinary and meaningful—in the kilts he wore with pride, in the sense of heritage he carried, and in the traditions quietly handed from one generation to the next. The Campbell tartan he wore became the Campbell tartan I came to wear too: not simply cloth or pattern, but a sign of memory, belonging, and inheritance.
The motto of the Chief of Clan Campbell is Ne Obliviscaris—“Forget Not.”
My own motto is Qui timet Dominum—“He who fears the Lord.”
Though not formally his, it described my father well. He carried within him a deep reverence for God and for the things that mattered most: family, honesty, compassion, hard work, and the dignity of ordinary life. His faith was never performative or self-important. It was steady, humble, and enduring.
In the old understanding of the phrase, he feared the Lord not through terror, but through reverence: by trying to live rightly, by caring well for others, and by remaining grounded in grace even through difficult years.
Perhaps that is also why I have increasingly found myself drawn to the Gaelic form of my own name: Mícheál Partholánach Mac Caillein.
Partholánach reflects my married surname through the McFarland line now joined into my own life and story. Mac Caillein—literally “Son of Colin”—is the traditional Gaelic designation associated with the Campbell chiefs themselves, a name carrying memory, kinship, and belonging across generations.
It feels fitting now, standing at this threshold between grief and gratitude, to recognise how much of who I am was first handed to me by him: faith, heritage, humour, resilience, and the quiet understanding that names and traditions matter because people matter.
As we commend him into the mercy and light of Christ, the old words seem to stand together:
Ne Obliviscaris.
Forget not.
Qui timet Dominum.
He who fears the Lord.
He never forgot the Lord.
And we will never forget him.
Funeral arrangements
Funeral service to give thanks for the life of Brian will be held in St Patrick’s Church, Castle Street, Ballymena on Thursday 28th May 2026 at 3.30 p.m., cremation afterwards private. Family flowers only please, donations in lieu, if desired, may be made online at jameshenryfunerals.co.uk or sent to James Henry Funeral Services 100 Broughshane Street Ballymena BT43 6EE for Macmillan Unit Antrim Area Hospital (please make cheques payable to N.H.S.C.T.). Family and friends welcome to call at his home on Tuesday 26thMay from 3pm to 8pm and on Wednesday 27th from 2pm to 8pm.
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