Wicklow hurling lost a great friend and one time mentor with the passing of Billy Lee during the week. Billy was a native of Tipperary and come from the hurling stronghold of Templetuohy. He set up in business in Baltinglass in the early 1960s. Straight away Billy started to look at ways of promoting his beloved game of hurling in west Wicklow but just like another great Tipperary man, Martin Gleeson many years before him found the soil and the climate most unfriendly to the game.
Baltinglass did play a bit of hurling at the time but were probably the only club in west Wicklow doing so. While he was close to the end of his own playing career he joined up with the team and played at corner forward on the team that won the Junior championship in 1967.
Already he had been roped in by Billy Lawless and became a selector on the Wicklow Senior team and in his first year they went on to win the Junior All-Ireland final. That year of '67 is still regarded as one of the best in the history of hurling in Wicklow and Billy was in the engine room. Wicklow reached four All-Ireland finals and won two.
Their victory over London in the Junior final opened the door for another historic event. Wicklow were invited to play London again in Wembley Stadium on the day of the big Whit weekend tournament - the first, and only time that Junior All-Ireland champions were so honoured.
Apart from his work with the team Billy also played a major role in the fundraising effort needed to finance the project. In the early 1970s when Brian Graham, Sean O'Sullivan, and a few more set out to get hurling off the ground at juvenile level it was Billy that came up with a fine cup for the Schools League.
It was that Lee Cup competition that sent Kiltegan on their way to win eight SHC titles and had inspired the present generation to keep the hurling flag flying in the west. He remained a staunch and loyal Tipperary supporter and the last great day of his life was when Tipp beat Kilkenny in the All Ireland final in 2010 and just to prove what the people of his native county thought of him the first place they brought the McCarthy Cup outside of Tipp was to Billy's house in Baltinglass where every Tipp person living within miles assembled for a never to be forgotten night of revelry.
His funeral took place to Baltinglass cemetery after requiem Mass in St Joseph's Church on Friday. We extend our sincere sympathy to his bereaved family, sons Pat and Liam, daughters Joan, Mary, Deirdre, Ann, Elizabeth and Julie; brothers, sister and extended family.

Wicklow People, 30th October 2013 Tweet

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