'The last torchbearer of a fine Cork tradition': Echo Boy David pays visit to the Lord Mayor

THE new Lord Mayor of Cork, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, has welcomed Echo boy Dave Hogan to City Hall, noting ruefully that he is not the first person in that office to do so.

Mr Boyle is the fourth lord mayor to receive a visit from Mr Hogan, a new tradition begun three terms ago by the then lord mayor Colm Kelleher, and kept going by his successors Deirdre Forde and Kieran McCarthy.

“You’re probably more familiar with this office than I am,” quipped Mr Boyle, as he greeted Mr Hogan, referring to him as “the last torchbearer of a fine Cork tradition”.

For over 130 years, the streets of Cork rang out with the call of The Echo, but where once there were dozens of Echo boys plying their trade, their cries known as “the song of the city”, now there is only one left, sitting on Oliver Plunkett Street six days a week, in all weathers.

A Farranree native, Mr Hogan has been a newsvendor since he was nine, and says he is three years away from his 50th anniversary.

“Dave is held in enormous affection for the work he does, and I’m grateful that he’s honoured me by coming to the office, highlighting the fact that he’s such an important part of the city,” Mr Boyle said.

Mr Hogan said he wished Mr Boyle a very pleasant year as lord mayor, and he thanked the people of Cork for their ongoing kindness and support.

Offering his condolences to Marie Allen on the death of her husband, former lord mayor and Cork North Central TD, Bernard, Mr Hogan said Mr Allen had helped him on a number of occasions.

Mr Hogan, who regularly visits his sister Tracey in Texas, also called on both sides in the ongoing Aer Lingus dispute to resolve their differences, and thanked his friend, Kaytlyn Fitzharris-Byrne in Barter’s Travelnet in Douglas, for her help in organising a cancellation.

His trip to the Lone Star State is now scheduled toward the year’s end and, rarely off duty, he mused: “You’d sell some Holly Boughs there”.