Buying the Punto and driving home from Ballybunion- me in the Punto and Billy in the Ibiza fr during a thunderstorm

He turned up at my house one day after work to drive me to what felt like the middle of nowhere. We arrived at an abandoned house / pub that Billy reckoned would be a “perfect fixer upper”. He proceeded to walk me up to the house and we looked through the windows. There was a shed at the back which “could be a fine airbnb for the city people wanting a taste of the country” and that would pay for any renovations needed in the main house (there was many). I think this was a joke because he was laughing to himself for most of the drive there and back. Also I came across this house at a different time and it didn’t feel as far or as remote compared to the time Billy showed me thinking back maybe he drove me in circles for a while! Either way it was fun.

Monkey butt

When the lads were small I used tell bedtime stories until I had told or read every story ever Then I got an idea- let’s make the youngsters make up their own stories- so I would playfully suggest to Angie - once upon a time there was- and she would say - a princess- and I would say - a pretty princess who loved? - and then hand an imaginary microphone to Billy who would say - monkey butt and then go into convulsions of laughter / and then I’d have to bring the story back by saying- but the monkey butt loving princess had other passions- she also liked- and 3 year old Leo would save the day by saying something like flowers to get me back on track

When Billy played the ugly stepsister in the 6th class school play. The teacher asked him to bring in a pair of his mother’s high heels he said that I can’t I’m legs 11. The teacher thought he was being cheeky until he explained. He wore a beautiful red velvet dress and a blonde wig what a classy lady he made.

Always managed to scratch the hire car when visiting but Billy always had a solution. Usually the cars where pretty average but one year they gave me a nice Superb. The day before leaving, discussing what to do about the scratches, Billy said let's drive it up John's lane and get some dirt on it to hide any marks. No problem, we jumped in the car and up the lane we went, was only about 10 meters in when I realised maybe not the best idea, the dirt was cow sh.t and Billy was laughing like mad at the thought of the car hire lads wondering where the car had been. Was never as glad to hand the car back, the smell in the car up to Dublin was something else.

Mcdonalds spins, huge smile on Billy's face when he saw loads of silver toyota corollas in the parking lot ❤️

When he recommended to put custard in the stewed apple for my apple turnovers!

We were at Billy's communion in Carrignavar and someone I hadn't seen since my own school days asked me if I had children and I said that's my eldest crossing the street with Billy and she said he looks like he could be Billy's son which wasn't wrong🤣🤣. Eoghan didn't get his growth spurt as early as Billy !

My first conversation with Billy was a face time call in 2022, when he had convinced daire to purchase a 2001 silver Toyota corolla. i had never taken much of a liking to the car, so you can imagine my dismay when i heard daire was selling his lovely and fully functioning Fiesta. After several minutes of bickering, Daire hands the phone to Billy. Billy proceeded to lecture me for 20 minutes on how wrong i was, how this car is the best thing since sliced bread and that Daire should break up with me if had anything else negative to say about this car. Later that day, Billy followed me on instagram and spammed my inbox with pictures of various corolla’s in ‘all their glory’. This continued for months on end, I considered blocking him on several occasions.

When Billy got sick of the dodgy electronics in the ride on lawnmower. He ripped them all out as well as the wiring and rewired it from scratch. Working properly now🙏

It was 10pm the night before my driving test and Angie noticed that I only had one working reversing light. We rang Billy to ask if he had a spare bulb and he told us to come to Carrignavar straightaway and he’ll borrow a bulb from one of the cars. We arrived, chatted for a bit and when I asked which car is he borrowing from, he nonchalantly responded with “None. Sure you only need one reversing light” and then swiftly moved on to a different topic. I laughed because I thought he was joking until he said “if they don’t let you sit your test, you tell them the European regulation only legally requires ONE reversing light”. Angie said “You couldn’t have told us this over the phone??” and he said, with a big grin on his face, “You wouldn’t have believed me”. Then he proceeded to essentially do a mock test with me, sellotaped my L’s securely and off I go. He’s the first person I texted to say I passed and everytime I see a car reversing with one light, I think of this night.

We were all out on a Sunday afternoon, Billy was home alone in the shed, Billy decided to come in and cook one of his wonderfully spicy dishes in the wok. He turned on the wok with a little bit of oil, got distracted by a call from one of his buddies, left the kitchen, came back a bit later to a kitchen full of smoke, grabbed the wok and threw it out the back door on to the tarmac. When I came home I asked him about the big burnt patch outside the back door and he said "it was gonna be the tarmac or the house"

Some of my best memories with Billy were made sharing our passion of cars with each other. Twas always great to catch up with Billy as we understood each other and loved talking about what the next project was. Billy has always been my biggest inspiration with cars and he always had great advice.

Only got to meet you once, came all the way from ireland to little old wales to come see me and we had a good laugh, you will be missed very much🤍

I’ve refrained from writing a memory for awhile maybe because I didn’t want to accept you were gone. Billy was and always will be the kindest, friendliest, funniest, most caring man. I'm so grateful Billy was apart of my life. I remember way way way back in primary school playing on the grass near the portacabins with random toys that Billy used to bring in, which more often than not were confiscated until the end of the day, but we were both somehow too quiet to end up at the white wall. The last time I saw Billy we went to coq bull - it was only when we got there he informed me that he hated the place that I had picked because it was shit overpriced small portions but Billy still went there to keep me content. I keep thinking back to that day, keep wishing we both weren’t so awkward. Honestly life has been been an intermission since you left. You meant so much to so many people, I love and miss you so so so much ❤️

During our TY trip to amsterdam, billy bought an authentic pair of bright yellow dutch clogs and wore them down to the beach by our accommodation

Billy RIP, so pleasant. Always so happy when he came to our house, he fixed any problem, broken TV's, broken Jeeps, a loose ram. It's as his Grandad said "Ring the lads behind" they came with no hesitation to whatever the case may be. The school rang one day his mother was at work. I went to collect Bill, he was very sick when we met. Left the school for home, Billy looked up at me, laughed, and said "That worked well Nana" and off we went to town for the evening. Heart broken.

I phoned Billy after his first day in school. I was very taken aback when he said that the teacher sent him to the naughty corner. I said "but you're a good boy". " I am " he said " I just didn't understand the rules" Such insight and logic for one so young. He never lost that.

Kieran and I were trying … with little success… to set up a Nintendo wii that Grace had gotten for Christmas. There was one man for the job- Billy! When he arrived he set it up within about 5 minutes- not a bother! I also asked if he could replace a wing mirror on my Qashqai. I bought the wing mirror and called by to Carrignavar. Thinking it might take a while to fix, I went inside to have a cup of tea with Liam and Mary but Billy arrived in within minutes and said “ that’s fixed now Marcy”.

Our abiding memory of Billy is the time he visited us in Kildare on his way home from Mondello Park. He was so relaxed and chatted away about his cars, his work and of course home. He seemed to have a maturity beyond his years. His large presence and the great memories will stay with all of us.