Legendary Rebels supporter, Timmy ‘Jonty’ O’Leary, was laid to rest yesterday in St. James’ Cemetery in Cork city.

If you’re a Cork GAA supporter or your county has played the Rebels in any code at any level over the last few decades, then chances are you’d have met Jonty along the way.

Usually you’d hear him coming before you’d see him. The drummer in the ‘Rebel Army’ band, he and friends like Pa ‘The Piper’ O’Leary, Thomas ‘The Bomber’ Roche, Cyril ‘The Bird’ Kavanagh, Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Burns, Ray Lucey, and Shane Murphy have become one of the defining sights and sounds of a championship summer, dressed to the nines in their red and white band uniforms.

You couldn't miss Jonty. He was the man wearing a big sombrero and even bigger smile.

If you weren’t already pumped up for a championship match involving Cork in a venue like Semple Stadium, then hearing Jonty’s snare drum suddenly rattle out a call to arms certainly got you in the mood for what was to come.

“You'd see him at any game,” says Life FM sports reporter, Joe Seward, a St. Finbarr’s club-mate and a long-time friend of Jonty.

“It wasn't just the glory-days, he'd be there when there for the McGrath Cup and Munster Senior League games. He was just a permanent fixture.

“Jonty was a very upbeat fella, a real character. He loved the games, just loved the whole thing, really. The pageantry of the whole thing.

“He was very loyal, you'd seem him at every sort of a match. He followed all of the codes, hurling, football, ladies football, and camogie. He'd be at minor games and U-21s, the whole lot.

“He was a real Barrs man as well. He was steeped in the club's history born and raised in the parish so when the Barrs won the county for the first time in 33 years, that would have been the fruition of a real labour of love for him.”

Jonty attended his first All-Ireland Final in 1956 when he watched his beloved Christy Ring try and fail to win a ninth All-Ireland title for the Rebels.

He quickly earned a reputation as a Rebels die-hard, and over the years he and others of the same ilk began gravitating towards one another on match-days until the ‘Rebel Army’ band was formed to express their shared passion.

“He's like us all, he couldn't wait for the weekend to come so we could all get away and have the banter again,” says Cyril ‘The Bird’ Kavanagh.

“The weekends we had were brilliant. Craic and banter and sing-songs and meeting people from every county that we would have gotten to know down through the years.

“We've met some amount of people. Our own crowd the Cork supporters would always be thrilled when they'd meet us going up the street with the drums and the pipes in Killarney or somewhere like that, it was great.

“We always got a great welcome wherever we went. No hassle or anything, all just good times.

“It's sad times now, though. Jonty died last Sunday when Cork were supposed to be playing Limerick in the Munster Championship down in the Pairc.”

In a way, though, it seems fitting that Jonty would bow out on a day when the Cork hurlers should have been playing a full-throated Munster championship match.

His wife Julia is a Limerick-woman, and that would have been grist to Jonty’s mill too, because he liked nothing more than the banter that goes hand in hand with days like that.

“He was the life and soul of the party,” says Thomas ‘The bomber’ Roche. “A very humorous man. Great fun. One of these people that had great one-liners. Whenever you'd meet him something would always come into his head. He always cheered the place up.

“He had great time for everybody and I never saw him down. You could be beaten by 10 points but he was still never down. There was always a smile on his face.

“No matter where we were or what bar we frequented for a few pints before a game, we used to always tease him by singing baby-face. He always had that smiling baby-face.”

His natural disposition might meant that defeat was an imposter he could cope with good-naturedly, and on the days that Cork came out on top there were few who could celebrate with Jonty’s gusto.

“I remember one particular evening we came out of Croke Park and Cork were after winning the ladies football,” says Roche.

“I knew one of the ladies and she said we might be going up to Quinns afterwards so we headed up and had a terrific evening.

“He was over there with the Cup on his head in Quinns. Stuck it up on his head and walked around with it.

“He was up singing as usual and telling jokes. He's always give a rendition of the Galtee Mountain Boy, he loved that.”

For Jonty, the journey was as important as the destination on big match-days.

He’d arrive to the train-station with a bag of sandwiches that could feed a small army, and a mischievous smile already on his face at the thought of the craic and camaraderie to come.

“I'll miss him on the trains especially,” says Roche. “We'd travel by bus and car, but going on the train in particular was great fun.

“In the old days the train would stop at all the stations and you could pull down the window and Jonty would have his head out of it. A terrific character.

“The next time I'm on a train I'll definitely miss him. I'll be looking over my shoulder, you know. Because you'd be always saying, 'Where's Jonty? Is Jonty coming?'

“And when he'd arrive he'd always have the bag of sandwiches. He'd put the big bag up on the table and the sandwiches were for everyone.

“If someone passed down the carriage, he'd say, 'Do you want a 'baad'? And if he was going for a bag of chips he'd never say chips, he'd say he was going for a 'bag of skins'.

“He was gas and it’s just really sad that he’s gone. I just can't get over it.

“If and when and hopefully soon the next Cork match is played, the plan is that we'd all buy t-shirts with 'Jonty the Legend' on the t-shirts with his photo.”

Jonty’s friends gave him a fitting final farewell yesterday.

They carried him on his last journey, sang the ‘The Banks’ by the grave-side, and then Pa ‘The Piper’ O’Leary played a lament as he was laid to rest while flowers and sliotars were thrown in to the grave.

“He’s a pal for life taken away, unfortunately,” says his good friend Ray Lucey. “But, look, he's out of his pain now at least.

“He's after making his way up the steps of the stairway to heaven and he'll be up there cheering on Christy Ring and John Horgan and all of the greats.”