The late Billy Cunningham We had all known for some time that Lismore's Billy Cunningham was battling bravely for his life. Twenty years of illness however was finally taking its toll and it wasn't unexpected when the news came that he had finally passed away. Although a native son of Cappoquin, Billy Cunningham will always be irrevocably linked with his adopted Lismore where he settled and reared his exemplary family following his marriage to Mary Whelan. He immediately threw in his lot with the local GAA club and in no time established himself as a key member of the senior hurling team. In the cauldron and white heat of championship battle there was no one who could "give it and take it" in the way that Billy could. He played it tough but scrupulously fair, and if you came out on top in your exchange with him then you fully deserved to do so. There was never a game in which I saw him give anything less than one hundred per cent, and once he pulled on that black and amber jersey his commitment to the cause was always total. The game's major honours may have eluded him - he won a Sargent Cup medal in 1976 - but the absence of trophies on his sideboard can't take from what was a brilliant career at club level. When his playing days were over he proceeded to serve in a multiplicity of invaluable ways and was a senior hurling selector when Lismore lost to mount Sion in the county final of 1986. He became something of a workaholic in the cause of the club and when its own weekly lotto draw was started in the early 1990s the driving force behind it was the same Billy Cunningham. Helping in the upkeep of the Community Centre and jobbing around the GAA field were also very high on his priority list. He took great pride in the emergence of his son William as one of the stalwart members of the club's current senior hurling team, and despite the burden of his illness which sometimes had him hospitalised for lengthy periods he never missed a match when it was possible for him to be there. For my own part, and in a rather special personal way, Billy and I shared a deep friendship draped in the club colours and the guard of honour of colleagues and friends. His legacy will be a lasting one, and so too will the memories. To his devoted wife Mary, his son William, his daughters Sharon, Gillian and Moira, his brothers Jim, Tommy, and David, his sisters Mary and Teresa, and his extended family sincerest sympathy is extended. Go ndeina Dia trocaire ar a anam dilis. Courtesy of The Waterford News & Star 16 June 2006 Tweet

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