'A face for the beating heart of our city': Echo Boy Michael O'Regan laid to rest 

A LEGEND, an icon, a landmark in Cork city for nearly 60 years… 

Those were just some of the tributes paid to famed newspaper seller Michael O’Regan at his funeral mass in Ballyphehane on Friday.

Known simply as ‘The Echo Boy’, which was emblazoned on a wreath beside his coffin, Michael passed away on December 27. He sold the Echo, Examiner and Holly Bough on Patrick Street for more than half a century – and claimed to have sold more than a million copies alone of the Echo.

Fr Gregory Howard, of the Church of the Assumption, said, while London and Paris had the Big Ben and Eiffel Tower landmarks, Cork had Michael O’Regan. He also delivered a rendition of Michael’s cry of ‘Echo… Evening Echo…” which rang around the church.

In a moving eulogy, Michael’s nephew, Anthony O’Regan, said his uncle was the embodiment of the city’s Echo Boy and was an iconic character.

“When I say he was OUR Echo Boy, he was just that. A face for the beating heart of our city, of the people of Cork and all that is good about us,” said Anthony.

“He became synonymous with Cork. He WAS Cork and was immensely proud of being voted Corkonian of the decade in the early 2000s. It was almost as good as when he was asked to switch on the Christmas lights one year. He was like a child in a sweet shop that day.

“He was unashamedly proud of where he came from. His purpose in life was to serve his customers, the people of Cork. 

"And the sky would have to fall in before he would let them down. 

"He loved them. And if the tributes to him are anything to go by, they love him too. Probably because he represented the best in all of us.

“In Cork, we try to look after our own and particularly the vulnerable. As he used to say himself....'Family comes first', and we were all his family.

“Photos and postcards from all around the world would be addressed to ‘The Echo Boy, Patrick Street, Cork’. He touched everybody’s lives.

“Like all his colleagues selling papers, Michael was stoic and resilient. Hail, rain or shine, he was there on our streets, as dependable as Shandon Bells, reminding everyone that you were in HIS city. And he did it all with a smile and good nature that was heart-warming.

He was as innocent as a small child… yet cute as a fox too, and he'd leave you wondering which one you were talking to!

“There are many stories about him. In fact, everyone seems to have their own.” Matt and Liam, grand-nephews of Michael, laid copies of The Echo and Holly Bough on the altar during the funeral service, while reference was also made to Michael’s long stint working for Pipers in Kinsale.

Among those in attendance at the funeral were Tanaiste Micheal Martin and employees, past and present, from the Echo and Examiner.

Michael’s coffin was taken from the church to the strains of The Banks Of My Own Lovely Lee, and his funeral cortege was driven along Patrick Street, past the famous pitches where he stood for so many decades.