'Billa was to panto what Roy Keane was to soccer: Amazing, energetic, and totally focused'

Cork City Council has opened an online Book of Condolences for the legendary Cork entertainer

(Left to right) Jimmy Quaelly, Paddy Comerford and Billa O'Connell gearing up for a panto at the Cork Opera House. Photo: Maurice O'Mahony

Bono, Bjork and Beyonce - great entertainers known by just one name. And for Corkonians, there was Billa.

As the curtain rose for the first time tonight after 547 dark days at one of the city’s great theatre venues, the Everyman, the curtain fell on one of its greatest entertainers with confirmation that the great Billa O’Connell died peacefully this morning. He was 91.