The 16-year-old McLaughlin made his Irish League debut for home-town club Derry City in the 1957–58 season.

[1] Early in the 1963–64 season McLaughlin moved to Swansea Town, for whom he scored the winner in a FA Cup quarter-final tie at the Kop end at Anfield, and then in 1966–67 to Peterborough United.

[1] McLaughlin's sixteen and a half-year reign in England came to an end when in November 1974 he accepted an offer to player/manage Dundalk[3] and that was to be the beginning of his managerial career.

As a manager, he had great success and during his nine-year stay at Oriel Park he led them to three Leagues and the FAI Cup three times including the double in the 1978–79 season.

In the 1981–82 Cup-Winners' Cup campaign, Dundalk once more reached the last 16 and lost 3–2 on aggregate to Tottenham Hotspur.

On 13 May 1986, he left Rovers to go home and manage Derry City where he led the team to a domestic treble in 1989.