Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise today to speak of one matter alone. I express my deepest sympathy to the family of Big Tom McBride. As a neighbour from Cavan and as someone who had the privilege of meeting him on a couple of occasions, I can testify to the fact that he was one of nature's gentlemen. All of the things that have been said about his benign nature, his goodness of personality, the way in which he reached out to people, his ordinariness and lack of nonsense are true. I can testify to that having met him on a number of occasions.

He was the voice of, and a voice for, a generation and a very important one in those times. He brought a great deal of joy to people. We all have a tendency to romanticise the past and to look back at it as a wonderful time, but the period during which Big Tom was huge throughout the 1960s and 1970s was difficult for people in terms of income, social infrastructure and entertainment. Big Tom's performances and dances around the country were a source of great joy and brought people together in big numbers. They relieved what could be the tedium and difficulties of life. His appearances were accessible to ordinary people because of the price and the huge numbers attending.

Big Tom was not merely a huge source of joy to many, he was also an extraordinary link with our emigrants. He was the one great link in particular for the cohort who went out in the 1950s and 1960s to the well-known Irish places in England and around the globe. He meant a great deal to those people and represented a very important link. We cannot overestimate his impact and importance in Ireland and what he meant to so many.We should not underestimate or overestimate his impact and importance, as well as what he meant to many people. While, during his lifetime, a slight elitist attitude among a small pocket of people who are truly ignorant might have existed - it is not worthy of recounting it today - the great mass of the Irish people and the diaspora loved this gentle giant from Monaghan.