Joe O'Reilly honours Billy — Chicago entrepreneur and advocate

At the outset, can I join in the welcome to Anne, to Amy here from Chicago, to Billy's two sisters, Mary and Helen, his brother-in-law, Ciarán, family friends, Maura, Ogan, Carr, and Billy's former PA, Tracey Young, indeed to Professor Neil Brennan, to Senator Ian Marshall, whom I had the privilege of serving with and come to admire greatly, and to the leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Ivana Bacic, and to Deputy John Connolly, so to welcome all of you to the gallery, and the array of people who have come in to the gallery, it speaks up for itself. I propose, in a few words, to divide, to look first at Billy's extraordinary achievements that are beyond anything average or regular, and then maybe to talk a little about Billy, the person, the individual. Billy moved to Chicago in the 60s and became a champion of the undocumented, a champion of the weaker. He was a very successful person himself, but he was a champion of those who would have less opportunity than him. And for that work, he received the honour of Freedom of Galway, a free man of Galway, which is the greatest honour the city could have conferred on him. In 2016, he was appointed to the Shannet, which again was a huge honour and recognition of his work by the then Taoiseach, who himself had a particular interest in America and Irish-American relationships, etc. So that was a very particular recognition. As was stated earlier, he was a distinguished horseman sportsperson. He built a chain of pubs and restaurants with Anne in Chicago very successfully, and that on its own would be a huge achievement. He won the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, again, another achievement, and an honorary doctorate from UCG, I assume that was. So he was recognised officially in academia and, if you like, in the political world and his business successes were enormous and across, he was a high achiever, but a high achiever who wanted to lift others up with him, who cared about others and who wanted to do good for others. And I think, and again, President of the Vintners at one stage is a father. He gained recognition in this country. He gained recognition in America. He was recognised throughout. I might turn lastly and briefly to Billy the individual, which is really what we want to try to capture and celebrate today. And as Senator Michael McDougall in his beautiful words said, we want to convey to Anne and family, we want them to be very aware of what we thought of Billy, what he meant to us and what he achieved. And the first thing I would, I had written just a few words here. He was a true gentleman in all that that means in every sphere of his life. He was warm as a person, very warm, friendly individual. He drew people towards him. He was empathetic. He was clear from his work with the undocumented with everybody. He cared. He was charismatic. He had a charisma about him, very clear charisma, and was a source of people were drawn towards him. And that was a feature that would have helped his business success, would have helped all of his successes, and would have made him effective as a lobbyist in America. He just had that unique human qualities, but he used them for good. And so many people succeed in business, succeed, if you like, in a material sense, and are very happy to leave it at that, and may engage in a little bit of tokenistic charity now and again. But Billy went that whole stage further to bring people up, to bring people, to lift everyone with them. And I suppose, in conclusion, all I can say, a very well-hackneyed phrase. I was walking up the stairs with Senator McDougall coming in here, and I said, we've often had to make speeches, and you'd be a little bit thinking what you might say. In this case, it's a question of editing what you want to say. But there's a well-hackneyed phrase that I'm going to finish with. But in this case, it fits so well. His likes will never be seen again. Ní Ektar Élehi Jiríš. Góra máy góta káyhúri. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. Thank you.