HELLO again and welcome. Sadly last week Warrenpoint lost another great character in Billy McCormack.
He was a factory man and a lorry driving man, but most of all he was a family man, with a family that he cherished dearly.
Over the past 15 years I've been part of that family, he wasn't only my father-inlaw but he was a great friend as well.
In his early days he was a blacksmith and worked with his father in the forge in Rostrevor.
He was a proud Rostrevor man who found love and moved to the ’Point.
It was in his later years that I knew him when he took to travelling, he went to America to visit his son Liam and his daughter Rosemary, who both reside and work in New York.
While there he would go to Canada to visit his brother Hughie who will be ninety at the end of the year.
He was a hard working proud Irish man and deeply religious.
He had great faith in Our Lady and Knock, a place he visited every year.
His devotion to his wife Ann and his entire family circle was evident, as at Easter he would hide little chocolate eggs in the grass at Castlewellan and then he would laugh as we all got lost in the maze.
For the past number of years he enjoyed family holidays in France, Spain and Italy.
We'd hire a villa and 10 or 12 of us would enjoy two weeks in the sun. No matter what country we were in, within days he knew all the locals and they knew him, we called him the Irish Ambassador.
This time last year I broke my ankle and he drove me around everywhere.
He was 82-years-old. I'm going to miss him at New Year’s Eve in our house, Boxing night in Ciara’s and family get-togethers.
During his illness the amount of care he got from his family, Dr Ryan, Dr Murphy and the Marie Curie nurses was superb.
He was a Rostrevor man who lived in the ’Point and buried in Burren. His nephew Fr Brendan Carr of whom he was so proud was and still is a pillar of strength to us all.
God bless Billy, we will miss him.