Frank Stockwell: One of the "Terrible Twins" of Galway football.

GAA football star Frank Stockwell and his fellow Galway team-mate, Sean Purcell, became known as “The Terrible Twins” for their prowess in the forward line. They were both born in Tuam, in December, 1928, within ten days of each other, and they remained lifelong close friends. Such was their understanding on the pitch that GAA writer John D Hickey colourfully described Frank Stockwell as “a diviner of his neighbour’s intentions”.
Together, they inspired Galway’s 2-13 to 3-7 victory over Cork in the 1956 All-Ireland final, and they combined for many other major triumphs. At club level they were the leaders of the Tuam Stars team which went unbeaten in the Galway Senior Football Championship from 1954 to 1960.
Stockwell is also fondly remembered for the match-winning goal, from a well-timed cross from Purcell, in the 1957 National League final against Kerry at Croke Park.
For all their successes on the football fields, and their enduring fame, it remained a fascinating aspect of the lives of Sean Purcell and Frank Stockwell that in their childhood in the mid-Thirties they were first taught how to play football by a nun, Sister Fursey Morris, at Presentation Convent NS, Tuam, and then by the Christian Brothers.
“The Terrible Twins” first played together on the Galway senior football team in the 1948 Connacht Championship. Stockwell retired in 1960 and turned to working as a mentor and played a key advisory role in Galway’s three All-Ireland victories in a row in 1964-65-66 and in the 1981 National League successs. Purcell continued playing until 1962.
Frank Stockwell has a unique place in the GAA’s Hall of Fame, his two goals and five points (all from play) in Galway’s 1956 All- Ireland win was the highest score by an individual in a 60-minute All-Ireland football final.
His working life was spent running the family painting and decorating business.
Frank Stockwell was born on December 7, 1928, and died aged 80, on March 9, 2009. He was predeceased by his wife Pauline in November 2000 and was survived by daughters Fidelis and Marilyn and his son, Francis. Sean Purcell died in August 2005.

Ruby Murray was born in Belfast on March 29, 1935, to a Scottish father and an Irish mother. She had an operation for swollen glands when she was only six weeks, which left her with an unusually husky voice. A childhood visit to see the minstrel performer G.H. Elliott inspired her to join a children’s choir, and soon she was performing solo. When she was 12 she made her professional debut on Irish television and two years later, with her mother as chaperone, she was touring in variety.

Ruby Murray. An unusually husky voice.

Over the next five years she appeared in revues throughout Ireland and Scotland. When the touring show Yankee Doodle Blarney played at the Metropolitan Music Hall in London in 1954, the television producer Richard Afton, who had been responsible for her Irish television appearance as a child, spotted her again and signed her to succeed Joan Regan as resident singer in his television series Quite Contrary.

Ruby Murray’s first appearance on the show prompted the record producer Ray Martin to give her a contract with Columbia Records. Her second release, “Heartbeat“, went to No 2 in the charts, and was followed by the song which was to become a Number One hit ans  her signature tune, “Softly, Softly“. Three more Top Twenty hits followed,  “Happy Days and Lonely Nights”, “If Anyone Finds This, I Love You”, and “Evermore”. Also in 1955, New Musical Express readers voted her Britain’s favourite female vocalist and she appeared in the Royal Variety Show.

The following year she had an acting role as a chambermaid in the Frankie Howerd comedy A Touch of the Sun, and made the first of two successful tours of the United States. During a hectic period in the mid-50s, she had her own television show, starred at the London Palladium in Painting The Town with Norman Wisdom , appeared in a Royal Command Performance, and toured the USA, Malta and North Africa.

Though she was to have two more modest record hits, “Goodbye, Jimmy, Goodbye” (1959) and “Change Your Mind” (1970), and continued to headline variety bills in the provinces for another two decades, her career was never to reach such a peak again, while problems in her personal life plus the stresses of her career were complicated by a growing addiction to both alcohol and valium.

In 1957, while appearing in a summer season at Blackpool, she met Bernie Burgess, a member of the vocal group the Jones Boys. They married in secret 10 days later. Burgess became her personal manager and, during the early 60s, they toured as a double act.

In 1955, she had five different songs in the UK Top 20 simultaneously, a record only equalled later by Michael Jackson. But by the end of 1955 British audiences were being captivated by the rock n’ roll of  Bill Hailey and Elvis Presley. Ruby’s career began to falter. Her last chart hit was in 1959. But she continued to perform right up until her health failed.

When Murray fell in love with the comedian Frank Carson, who was already married, the stresses it put on her marriage increased her reliance on alcohol. She joined Alcoholics Anonymous and twice spent time in a psychiatric hospital after nervous breakdowns. When she and Burgess divorced in 1977,  he was awarded custody of their two children Julie and Tim, now the singer Tim Murray.

The same year she began living with Ray Lamar, a theatrical manager for Bernard Delfont, and in 1993 they were married. Though it was a loving relationship, the chronic alcoholism persisted, despite repeated attempts by Murray to stop. (When she did stop, she would smoke 80 cigarettes a day.) In 1982 she was arrested and fined for being drunk and disorderly – she spent a night in a cell and is said to have entertained the police with her hit songs. Her name lives on in Cockney rhyming slang as the rhyme for curry.

For the last two years she had totally given up drinking, but her liver had become irreparably damaged and for the eight months until her death she was a patient in a nursing home. The LBC broadcaster Lee Stevens, her manager for 12 years, said, “She gave happiness to millions of people, but sadly she never found real happiness herself.”

Ruby Murray died in Torquay, Devon, on December 17, 1996. At her beside were Ray Lamar, ex-husband Bernie Burgess and their son and daughter Tim and Julie.

Ruby Murray was the subject of an hour-long documentary Ruby and the Duke presented by Northern songwriter and performer Duke Special and broadcast on RTE on January 18, 2011.

The UK Top Twenty for March 16, 1955

1. Give Me Your Word, Tennessee Ernie Ford. 2. Softly Softly, Ruby Murray. 3. A Blossom Fell, Nat King Cole, 4. Mobile, Ray Burns. 5. Let Me Go Lover, Ruby Murray. 6. Mambo Italiano, Rosemary Clooney. 7. Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, Dean Martin.8. Let Me Go Lover, Dean Martin. 9. Finger of Suspicion, Dickie Valentine.
10. Let Me Go Lover, Teresa Brewer.11. A Blossom Fell, Dickie Valentine. 12. Tomorrow, Johnny Brandon. 13. Beyond the Stars, David Whitfield. 14. Happy Days and Lonely Nights, Ruby Murray. 15. Heartbeat, Ruby Murray. 16. Wedding Bells, Eddie Fisher. 17. If Anyone Finds This I Love You, Ruby Murray. 18. Lonely Ballerina, Mantovani. 19. Shake, Rattle & Roll, Bill Haley’s Comets. 20. A Blossom Fell, Ronnie Hilton.

Dana was born Rosemary Brown in Derry on August 30, 1951. In 1970 as a teenager she represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest, singing All Kinds of Everything, and brought home the country’s first victory in the contest. Dana recruited her father as her manager and followed with hits including Who Put The Lights Out?, Please Tell Him That I Said Hello and It’s Gonna Be A Cold, Cold Christmas. She ideintified publically with her Catholic upbringing, notably with songs such as Totus Tuus, commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979.

Dana: Eurovision winner and politician.

In the 1980s, she moved with her husband, Damien Scallon whom she married in 1978, and family to the United States, where they were involved with a Christian broadcasting network. She returned to Ireland in 1997 to contest the Irish Presidential election as an independent. She came in a credible third, ahead of the Labour Party candidate. In 1999, again as an independent, she contested and won a seat in the European Parliament representing Connacht-Ulster.

She has declined to associate with any political party. She campaigns on family values, most notably in her opposition to abortion. Her decision in 1999 to oppose a government proposed amendment to the Irish constitution to place some restrictions on abortion, which put her at variance with mainstream Pro-Life movement in Ireland, the mainstream political parties and the Roman Catholic Church, on the basis that in her eyes the anti-abortion amendment wasn’t anti-abortion enough, lost her much of her original support. The defeat of that amendment was blamed on ultra-conservative elements, who were accused by other anti-abortion campaigners of destroying the likely last chance to impose stricter abortion restrictions in Ireland.
In 2002, Dana Scallon contested a seat in the Irish general election, again as an independent. In what was seen as a backlash against her stance in the previous abortion referendum, she lost disastrously, getting just 3.5% of the vote  and losing her deposit.
Scallon lost her seat in the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004. Interviewed later she said: ”I have no regrets about my political career. It was a wonderful five years and I loved it. While I hope I will be best remembered for my work as a politician as well as an entertainer, my main priority has always been to be a good wife and mother.”

Vincent O'Brien. Meticullous attention to detail.

Vincent O’Brien was regarded as the greatest Irish racehorse trainer of all time and arguably the greatest trainer in the world. When his former stable jockey, Lester Piggott, was invited to locate O’Brien in racing history, he replied simply: “Of course Vincent was the greatest — look at the figures.”
He was born on Good Friday, 1917, in Churchtown, Co. Cork. His father Dan, a farmer, bred horses part-time and was a permit holder. Vincent started training horses in 1943 following his father’s death. His career spanned an era in which racing changed from being merely a sporting pastime to a multi-million-pound industry, and it was a change in which this Irish trainer played no small part in association with Robert Sangster and John Magnier.
In his early days as a jump trainer, O’Brien habitually joined battle with the bookmakers. He needed to gamble simply to make the money to keep going. Later, successful coups helped to finance expansion.
His first big winners came in 1944 when Good Days won the Irish Cesarewitch and Drybob dead-heated for the Irish Cambridgeshire. Turning to the jumps, in 1948 Cottage Rake won the first of three victories in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Both horse and jockey, Aubrey Brabazon, had songs written about them. Triple titles soon became a speciality of O’Brien: Hatton’s Grace (which hew bought for 18 guineas) won three Champion Hurdles in a row and then he won the Aintree Grand National with three different horses – Early Mist, Royal Tan and Quare Times,between 1953 and 1955.
When he turned his attention to the flat at the age of 41, he went on to take 27 Irish Classics, three Prix de l’ Arc de Triomphes and 16 English Classics, including six Epsom Derbies. In 1951, he set up at Ballydoyle, near Cashel, a Georgian house with 320 acres of parkland which he gradually turned into a top-class training establishment.

Ballymoss

In 1957 he trained Ballymoss to be placed in the Epsom Derby and win the English St Leger. The horse went on to land the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1958. Also in 1958 O’Brien saddled the mare Gladness to win the Ascot Gold Cup.
In 1960, the Irish Turf Club suspended O’Brien’s training licence for 18 months over a failed dope test on that year’s Irish Derby winner Chamour. It threatened to break up the entire Ballydoyle operation. Popular support never wavered for the trainer, though, amid a general belief that an injustice had been done.
O’Brien eventually got his licence back after almost a year and in 1961 he started a libel case which ended when the Turf Club settled outside the High Court, apologising and paying all costs.

Coolmore

O’Brien’s role was crucial in the syndicate - comprising himself, Magnier and English pools millionaire Robert Sangster – still known as the Coolemore Stud. “There was no better judge of a yearling, and he had an unrivalled knowledge of pedigrees,” wrote The Telegraph. “He also had great business acumen, and invested in Northern Dancer’s progeny at a time when the stallion was unproved.”
As a trainer, O’Brien was meticulous in his attention to detail: when his horses were travelling to the races, he would always have a spare trailer ready in case the original one broke down; similarly, he would often book a reserve jockey for a big race in case anything untoward happened to his first choice. When he thought that The Minstrel (winner of the 1977 Derby) would be upset by the noise of the Epsom crowd, he had cotton wool stuffed in the horse’s ears. He was the first trainer to install all-weather gallops.
In 1968, O’Brien went to Canada and purchesed a Ribot colt on behalf of  platinum magnate, Charles Engelhard. This was the great Nijinsky, who went on to make history in 1970, winning under Lester Piggott the Triple Crown (2,000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger); the horse also won the Irish Derby and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
O’Brien trained his sixth and final Epsom Derby winner, Golden Fleece, in 1982. He nearly attained a seventh two years later, when El Gran Senor was narrowly beaten in a sensational finish by Secreto — trained by his son, David O’Brien. In 1994 he retired. Ballydoyle was taken over by the Coolmore Stud, run by his son-in-law John Magnier.

O’Brien won 1,529 races and been champion Irish trainer 13 times. He had twice been British champion trainer on the flat, and twice over obstacles.

He married Jacqueline Wittenoom from Perth in Australia in 1951 and they had five children, David, Charles, Elizabeth, Sue and Jane. In his later years he spent most of the year in Australia. He was awarded honarary doctorates from the National University of Ireland and Ulster University. He died at his Irish home in Straffan, County Kildare on 1 June 2009.

Sean Francis Lemass was born on July15, 1899, in Dublin. He was the second of seven children born to John and Frances Lemass. His father had a hatter’s shop in Capel Street. Sean was educated by the Christian Brothers in Dublin. One of his classmates was the popular Irish comedian Jimmy O’Dea. Jimmy was to be best man at Lemass’s wedding and their friendship lasted a lifetime.

In January 1915 he joined the Volunteers, even though he was only 15 at the time. On Easter Monday 1916, Sean and his brother Noel Lemass joined the garrison at the GPO. When  the Rising ended on the Friday, Lemass, due to his age, was set free.

Sean Lemass: Pragamtic approach.

He took part in the War of Independence and in 1920 was interned in Ballykinlar, Co Down. He was released after the 1921 Treaty. He took the Anti-Treaty side in the Civil War and was second in command to Rory O Connor in the Four Courts. Outnumbered and under heavy bombardment from the Free State troops, he managed to escape. He was later captured and imprisoned again. He was elected to the Dail in 1922. The following year his brother Noel’s body was found in the Dublin Mountains. Sean Lemass was released from prison on compassionate grounds. He married Kathleen Hughes in August 1924. They had four children – Maureen (later Mrs Charles Haughey), Peggy, Noel and Sheila.
He supported Eamon de Valera’s abstentionist policy and became a founder-member of Fianna Fail. Along with Gerry Boland he was responsible for building up the party throughout the country into the election machine it still is today. It was he who, in 1928, described Fianna Fail as “a slightly constutional party”.
He had an interest in economics and industry and when Fianna Fail came to power in 1932, he became Minister for Industry and Commerce and the youngest member of the cabinet. He believed in self-sufficiency, advocating protectionism. He had a pragmatic approach and was responsible for setting up among others the ESB, the Sugar Company and Aer Lingus.

Stagnation
Following the outbreak of WWII in 1939, he became Minister for Supplies, with responsibility for rationing, and succeeded Sean T O’Kelly as Tanaiste in 1945. He remained a minister until Fianna Fail were defeated in the 1948 election. He was managing director of the Irish Press newspaper while in Opposition and wrote regularly for the paper under a pen name. During his time there The Sunday Press was launched.  Back in power in 1951, Lemass returned to Industry and Commerce but he was unable to tackle the country’s stagnation as de Valera remained uninformed and conservative on economic issues.
Lemass became Taoiseach in June, 1959, when de Valera was elected President. He had already noted the economic talents of the Secretary of the Department of Finance, TK Whitaker, who’s document ‘Economic Development’ became the basis of the First Programme for Economic Expansion  in 1958. This became a priority of Lemass’s goverment and paved the way for Ireland’s first steps towards economic progress.
Lemass had clearly left his protectionist days behind him and, in 1961, set about joining the EEC, the same year that Teilifis Eireann was established. By 1963 the unemployment rate and emigration had fallen dramatically in all but the western seaboard.
After the 1965 election, Lemass was relected Taoiseach. There followed his next major departure from traditional lines. With Whitaker, who was born in Restrevor, Co Down, acting as go-between, a historic meeting was arranged in 1965  in Stormont between Lemass and the Northern Prime Minister Terence O’Neill . This co-operation between the two governments, which would concentrate on such issues as tourism, trade and agriculture, also started a thaw in North/South relations.
On 10 November. 1966. Lemass announced his retirement and was succeeded by Jack Lynch. He died in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, on May 11, 1971, and was given a State funeral.

Gay Byrne. Longest runningTV chat show.

Born in Rialto, Dublin, on August 5, 1934, when Gay Byrne was young the family moved to the South Circular Road. His parents came from the Bray area of Co Wicklow, and his father worked for Guinness. Educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, he started his working life in insurance. In 1958 he moved to broadcasting, becoming a presenter on Radio Éireann. He also worked in England with Granada TV and the BBC. While at Granada, he became the first person to introduce The Beatles on TV.
He joined the newly set-up Telifís Éireann (later RTE) in 1961 and introduced many popular programmes such as Jack Pot, Film Night and the Rose of Tralee. However, his most popular and successful programme was the Late Late Show, which became the world’s longest running chat show, running from 1962 until 1999. In 1964 he married the harpist Kathleen Watkins and they have two daughters, Suzy and Crona.
The Late Late, as it was popularly referred to, started originally  as an eight week summer filler. The show was moved to the Saturday night slot and it became a forum where controversial topics such as the Church, contraception, homosexuality and compulsory Irish were discussed openly for the first time in Ireland.
It was famously said by Dail deputy and Catholic conservative Oliver J Flanagan, in a reference to the show, that “there was no sex in Ireland until Teilifís Éireann went on the air.” Bishop Michael Browne of Galway called him “a purveyor of filth” after the host asked a woman if she had worn anything on her wedding night. He conducted his shows with charm and neutrality and had a knack of putting people at their ease, sometimes coaxing them to say more than they had intended.
His popularity grew such that he has been referred to as “the most famous man in Ireland”. It is widely accepted that the show greatly influenced the shaping the new Ireland that emerged in the second half of the 20th century, a point made by President McAleese. In 1985 the Late Late moved to a Friday night slot.

Late late highlights:

• Encouraging then EU Commissioner Padraig Flynn to talk about the difficult upkeep of his three houses.
• Interview with Annie Murphy, Bishop Eamon Casey’s onetime lover and mother of his son.
• The Dubliners show.
• The interview with Gerry Adams.
• When he called the winner of a prize car live on air only to discover the woman’s daughter had died since she had entered the competition.
• Interview with Terry Keane who revealed she had had a long-term affair with Charles Haughey.

He was famously gifted a Harley Davidson motorcycle by Bono and U2 on his last night hosting the Late Late Show. The bike was later auctioned for charity.
Gay Byrne was also a successful radio broadcaster. Radio Éireann gave him a 15-minute slot on Monday nights which he used to play jazz, his first broadcast for the station being in 1958. But he is best known on radio for The Gay Byrne Show (1972-1999), a two hour morning discussion and music programme in which his personal style, soothing voice and common sense approach to life endeared him to listeners.
Broadcasting aside, he presented The Rose of Tralee Festival for 17 years, until 1994, and compered the finals of the Castlebar Song Contest in 1966 and 1967. He has won numerous television awards and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. In 1989 he wrote his autobiography entitled The Time of My Life. In 1999 he was awarded the freedom of Dublin City.
He has been unfortunate in his nest egg investments. He relied on accountant and  friend Russell Murphy to manage his finances, only to discover on the accountant’s death in 1986 that most of his savings had been secretly squandered.
Since retirement he has remained close to the limelight. In 2009, he recorded a TV series for RTE series called The Meaning of Life in which he interviewed public figures about issues of faith. He has hosted a Sunday afternoon jazz series on Lyric FM Radio. Also, in March 2006, he became chairman of the Irish Road Safety Authority. He and his wife have downsized from their house in Howth to an apartment in Sandymount.

In August, 2011, he was approached by the Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin about running for the presidency of Ireland. He was to turn down the offer. At one point, according to an opinion poll, he was seven points ahead of Micheal D Higgins who was subsequently elected President.

Related Post: Late, Late director Adrian Cronin

Popularly known as ”The Gorgeous Gael”, Jack (Joe) Doyle was born into a working class family on August 31, 1913, in Cobh, Cork. Queenstown, as it was then known, was a tough town but Doyle learned early on how to look after himself. He was to become at one time or another a contender for the British Boxing Championship, a Hollywood actor and a popular tenor.

Jack Doyle: boxer, singer and actor.

His father, Joe Doyle, wanted to be a professional boxer, but injury put an early end to his career. Instead he transferred his ambitions to his young son.
Jack was said to be inspired by a book, How to Box, by World Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey. He joined the Irish Guards in Wales and at 6 foot 4, quickly excelled at boxing and was famed for his strong hooks that won him the British Army Championship. A remarkable record of 28 straight victories, 27 by knockout, brought him to the attention of promoter Dan Sullivan, who bought him out of the army. He turned pro and notched up ten victories on the trot, all inside two rounds.
In July 1933, at the age of 19, he missed out on the British Heavyweight title to the holder, Welshman Jack Petersen, before 85,000 people in the White City in London. He had done most of his warming up in a pub not far from the venue and within the opening seconds, knowing he was in trouble, decided to take the easy way out. He was disqualified for repeatedly punching low. In his comeback fight, he knocked out Frank Borrington within 83 seconds.
Shortly after, his singing voice was discovered by Dr. Vincent O’Brien, teacher to Count John McCormack. He was signed up by Decca Records and soon his tenor voice and handsome looks were selling out the London Palladium and the Royal in Dublin. He became a wealthy man by the standards of the day, reputedly earning the equivalent of £20,000 in some of his fights. But his love for the drink and generous nature soon started to take its toll on his pocket and his health.
He travelled to America in 1934 and carried on his high living of gambling, ladies and drink. His good looks, bad-boy image and ability to attract Hollywood divas and American heiresses brought him close to people’s hearts. He acted in two movies, McGlusky The Sea Rover (1934) and Navy Spy (1937).
While in the States he continued to box, taking on one Buddy Baer in August 1935. Like his fight against Jack Peterson, it is said that Doyle had consumed the best part of a bottle of brandy before the bell rang and was in no fit state to stand. He was knocked down in the first round. He returned to Ireland with this new girlfriend, the actress Movita Castaneda, having recently split from his wife, Judith Allan. Following a celebrity wedding in Dublin’ they toured both sides of the Irish Sea, selling out music halls and opera houses.
Around this time Jack fought his last professional fight, against a journeyman called Chris Cole in front of 23,000 in Dublin’s Dalymount Park. Arriving late for the bout after a stop at The Clarence Hotel for refreshments, the inebriated Doyle went down in the first. Movita had enough and returned to Hollywood where she married Marlon Brando.
Shortly after Doyle was jailed in Dublin for knocking out a Garda detective in a pub. He moved to England and his downward spiral into alcoholism and bankruptcy continued. In 1950 he tried a comeback as a wrestler but the magic was gone. He found his friends had vanished as fast as his money, spent in his own words on “slow horses and fast women”. He odd-jobbed for while but when he couldn’t afford the rent on his flat he took to sleeping at the homes of friends or in doorways. His only source of income during this time was a £25 allowance he received from Movita.
He was living on the streets of London when he was found dead on a footpath in December,1978, from cirrhosis of the liver. His body lay unclaimed in a London hospital until a delegation from Cobh brought his remains home to be buried. In spite of his wasted talent he got a hero’s funeral in Cork. He is remembered by thousands of Irish people at home and abroad as the first modern celebrity.

A TV documentary Jack Doyle: A Legend Lost, was made by RTE in 2007.  A book accompanying the programme,  Jack Doyle: The Gorgeous Gael, ISBN 1843511231, was published in late 2007
A song about Jack Doyle The Contender, written by Jimmy McCarthy, has been performed by Finbar Wright, Christy Moore and Tommy Fleming among others.

The Contender
by Jimmy McCarthy

When I was young and I was in my day
I could steal what woman’s heart there was away
Sing and dance into the dawning
Blaze a trail until the morning
Long before I was the man you see today

And I was born beneath the star that promised all
I could have lived my life between Cork, Cobh and Youghal
But the wheel of fortune took me
From the highest point she shook me
By the bottle live by the bottle I shall fall

[chorus]
But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the fall
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

And when I die I’ll die a drunk down on the street
He will count me out to ten in clear defeat
Wrap the Starry Plough around me
Let the piper’s air resound me
There I’ll rest until the lord of love I meet

[chorus]
But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the brawl
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

Mick O'Connell: Football team of the Millennium.

Mick O’Connell was one of the great catch-and-kick GAA football players. He played in nine All-Ireland football finals winning four of them. Born on Valentia Island, County Kerry in 1937, he once said: “I was fortunate in that I had plenty of opportunity to train in a big field near our house. My father bought a football for us and we kicked the life out of it. Times were harsh in the ’40s and ‘50s. My family were fishing folk and my father supplemented his income by working the family’s small farm. In a way we were self-sufficient and had a decent life. The island was idyllic and a lovely place to grow up in.”

O’Connell played his club football with the local Young Islanders club. He won three Kerry County Championship medals with the South Kerry divisional side. He also played club football with Waterville.

O’Connell’s career began with the Kerry minors in 1955 and he quickly joined the senior team, making his debut in 1956. Two years later in 1958 he won the first of eight in-a-row Munster titles. However, Kerry suffered a shock defeat by Derry in the All-Ireland semi-final. In 1959 O’Connell was captain when Kerry won the National Football League.

He later guided his county to another Munster title, but  had to retire with a twisted knee in Kerry’s All-Ireland victory over Galway.  He collected the Sam Maguire Cup before a crowd of 80,000 people, headed for Kerry by train and then rowed his boat from the mainland to Valentia Island. He was back next morning working with a cable company on the island.

Following a second National League victory in 1961, he won his second All-Ireland medal in 1962 when Kerry defeated Roscommon in the final. A third National League victory quickly followed at the start of 1963. After two All-Ireland defeats by Galway in 1964 and 1965, Kerry surrendered their provincial crown to Cork in 1966 and 1967. O’Connell won a ninth Munster title in 1968, however, Kerry lost out to Down in the All-Ireland final. This defeat was followed by a great year of success in 1969 as O’Connell added a fourth National League medal to his collection and a third All-Ireland medal following a victory over Offaly.

In 1970 O’Connell entered the third decade of his inter-county football career, winning an 11th Munster title. A fourth All-Ireland medal quickly followed after a victory over Meath. O’Connell claimed two more National league medals, in 1971 and 1972, before winning his twelfth and final provincial medal in 1972. That year Offaly later defeated Kerry in O’Connell’s last All-Ireland final appearance. In spite of this loss he was still presented with an All-Star award. He retired from inter-county football in 1973.

Soon after his retirement, he O’Connell published his autobiography, ‘A Kerry Footballer’, in 1974. Ten years later in 1984 his reputation as one of the all-time greats was recognised when he was named in the midfield position on the ‘GAA’s “Football Team of the Century.” In 2000 he was also named on the GAA’s ‘Football Team of the Millennium.’

The great midfielder believes that area of the pitch he once dominated has now become into a morass of pushing and spoiling tactics and not surprisingly he is not an admirer of the modern game. He has said: “The game has changed completely as the influence of Australian football took over. It’s more like basketball than the old traditional catch-and-kick and its a throw-ball game. The skill is gone out of it for me. It’s win at any cost and I don’t like it. There were no coaches or the like in my day. I trained on my own and made sure I was physically fit for the game.”

Mick O’Connell is married to Rosaleen and they have three children.

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