I got to know James while he was president of Univetsity of Ulster sports union. I was in charge of the Coleraine Hurling team and whatever we needed was “sorted” by James. We grew to become good friends and he persuaded me to run for sports president to take over from him. Without all his help and guidance I would not have ran or won. Go raibh maith agat. I hadn’t seen him in a number of years after University and bumped into him in Ballyboffey at an Antrim-Donegal championship game in about 2004.  As he went to head home after the game I persuaded him to stay and have a few more pints with us and he could stay in our hotel. He quickly handed over his glasses and decided to stay on the beer. After a few more pints we decided to tell him we didn’t have a hotel room but were  infact just going to sleep in the car. Thankfully he found the funny side. I happend to be up in Tír na nÓg at the start of the year for a Scór quiz and as usual James was there taking a GAA course as he did and as usual he was his chatty friendly self. He was a great character and a complete GAA man. Ar dhéis lámh Dé go raibh a anam.