Billy Horan, a gentleman and a scholar

WHEN I think of the following lines from Oliver Goldsmith’s wonderful poem, the Village Schoolmaster, Billy Horan, who passed last week, comes to mind.

In fact Goldsmith may well have written his poem with Billy in mind, although Billy was not around when the poem was penned in the 18th century.

The love he bore to learning was in fault.

The village all declared how much he knew —

'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too;

Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,

And e'en the story ran that he could gauge;

In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,

For, e'en though vanquished, he could argue still,

While words of learned length and thundering sound

Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew

That one small head could carry all he knew.

I first encountered Billy and his family when I was dispatched to Ballinrobe as a cub scout scavenging for news and I had the good fortune to meet up with Billy who was our local correspondent in the area. I was basically sent in as back-up to do a few features to back up his excellent local notes coverage and Billy was a great help to me when I was beginning to cut my teeth as a news and sports writer.

Billy had his finger on the pulse of the local news in Ballinrobe. He was a community man who gave a lot as a volunteer to numerous organisations. He was a big GAA man and was very much involved with the local club, the south Mayo GAA Board, and of course the Mayo County Board, having held the positions of chairman of Ballinrobe GAA Club, chairman of the South Mayo GAA Board, PRO and president of the Mayo GAA County Board and secretary of Connacht Scór for many years.

He loved nothing better than travelling to games with his few local buddies, which included Tony Walkin, and when it came to football knowledge, well Billy could hold his corner with any of the GAA experts. It was undoubtedly where his sons Liam and Maurice inherited their great love of GAA, while Liam, of course, went on to carve out his own niche as a top sports journalist working for the Irish Independent before he opted for life at a more leisurely pace closer to home, and indeed his parents.

Billy, who was also a great family man, was involved in a lot of local committees in Ballinrobe, including Ballinrobe Racecourse Committee, and, of course, the Ballinrobe Musical Society, the latter one of the popular events, especially when the late Mons Tom Shannon was around to regale us with some great stories washed down by some even greater wines.

I was a regular visitor to Ballinrobe back in those days, covering the courts which were held locally and, also, of course, turning up at Flanagan Park on a regular basis for many a football match where more often than not, Billy would be next to me also covering games which he did for many years for all the local papers.

While Billy was first and foremost a school teacher he was also a fine writer and his colourful reporting of GAA matches in particular were eagerly looked forward to by south Mayo readers in particular.

Billy was from the old school and similar to another great sports writing legend, the late Con Houlihan (Evening Press), all reports were hand-written and it was part of my job as sports editor to type up his match reports.

Normally such work is a chore but trying Billy’s colour reports was actually a pleasure. He had a unique skill which made his match reporting interesting and very readable.

It was a great learning curve for me to read his reports where Billy would not say this game was played in very bad weather conditions, but would instead use his oft- quoted phrase, ‘the clerk of the weather looked kindly (or more often than not, unkindly) on this game,’ while I loved his way of describing a tempestuous game with that wonderful line ‘indiscipline raised its ugly head once more in this game’.

It was a nice way of saying lads were bating the heads off each other.

He also came from the old school of sports reporting, which, sad to say, is with us no longer and more is the pity. Billy used to finish up his match report by naming the players he felt played well. He was fair and honest in all his reporting, and indeed with his dealings with people in general.

All I can say is I had the pleasure to know him, and above all, to learn from him.

I’d like to think I learned well from the master who was a teacher, a mentor, a gentleman and a scholar. May I extend my deepest sympathy to the Horan family on their great loss.