McLaughlin promoted the concept of using the River Shannon as a basis for a hydro-electric and electrification scheme.
[3] He gained physics degrees (BSc and MSc) at University College Dublin and was appointed as an assistant lecturer in the physics department at University College Galway where he also studied electrical engineering and gained a BE and PhD[1] In 1922, McLaughlin obtained a post with Siemens-Schuckert in Berlin, which was particularly active in hydroelectric projects.
Rishworth, the professor of Civil Engineering at Galway, aroused McLaughlin's interest in the possibility of the Shannon electrification by giving him a copy of John Chaloner Smith's (son of John Chaloner Smith) prize-winning analysis of the average flows from large catchment areas in Ireland.
In Germany, he developed an ambitious proposal for using the 30m drop from Killaloe to Limerick, and persuaded the company to back it.
Chaloner Smith's paper enabled him to overcome the objections to Theodore Steven's 1915 proposals for a Shannon scheme, which was based on inadequate data.
He went to London and Ireland at the end of 1923 and met his college friend Patrick McGilligan who was now Minister for Industry and Commerce in the new Irish Free State government.
In 1927 Dr. McLaughlin transferred to become executive director of the Electricity Supply Board which had been set up to manage the network he had created.
Electricity consumption expanded dramatically after the Shannon Scheme was opened, just as the experts had predicted.