Mary J Leen (right) with the ‘Spirit of Cork’ award she created for the late Bill O’Herlihy. On right is Lord Mayor of Cork, Mary Shields.
STAINED-GLASS artist, Mary J Leen, had the honour of creating an award for Bill O’Herlihy which was presented to him a few weeks before his untimely death on Monday.
Mary J Leen, created the one-off piece for the great broadcaster, which was presented to him at the Spirit of Cork awards three weeks ago.
“I was privileged to meet Bill at the Spirit of Cork Awards Ceremony in the Imperial Hotel in Cork City. Bill was the proud winner of the award,” said Mary J Leen.
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The ‘Spirit of Cork’ seeks to honour and recognise people who have made a real difference to Cork City and county. This was the second year in a row Mary created the award.
“The night was a wonderful tribute to an amazing man and it was fascinating to hear Bill give his own story on his life. He was very proud of this achievement as he truly loved being a Cork man. But typical of his humble nature he was felt that he did not deserve this award, that some of the charities would be more deserving of it,” said Mary.
“When I met Bill he thanked me profusely for the piece and expressed how much he liked it. He said that he had been at hundreds of ceremonies over the years and that he had never seen anything like my piece and that it was lovely to get an original hand- made presentation,” she said.
“He was joined by his family and they all remarked that it was very special to have such a symbolic piece. Little did I know that this would be the last official presentation made to Bill in his life. I think it was wonderful that Bill received this award before he died. Bill was delighted to be officially recognized in his home town and I am pleased to have been part of it,” she said.
