Growing up, I spent more time in the company of Willie and his family than I did with my own cousins. and they are all happy memories. I had my first Big Mac with Willie after going shopping with Mrs Leahy and Willie. I had my first pint of Guinness with Willie, well the first[…]

Like Robbie, I only knew Willie as a teenager while I was a child. But growing up in Oldcastle I’m often asked about him by those who knew him and grew up with him, and people often share their memories of him with me. He is remembered around Oldcastle for his humour and wit, his[…]

My last long conversation with Willy was when you all visited us in Connemara as a family Maureen. Both of us were in the kitchen and he was all chat about all the other Connemara houses he had visited during that time and of course his turn of phrase was funny and he made me[…]

Hamlet’s famous soliloquy that begins, “to be, or not to be” was one of Willie’s favourite passages. I remember this as at age four he had me learn it by heart while he was living with us at Portobello rd. I can still recite the passage, even though I never studied the play at school,[…]

When Willie started national school in Skerries he would finish baby infants at lunchtime and go to the bank to be driven home by daddy – of course on lots of occasions daddy would be in the pub and Willie would just sit in the car and wait – this tiny little boy. I looked[…]