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HISTORICAL PEOPLE OF BALLINGARRY (Courtesy of www.ballingarry.net)

DAN O CONNOR N.T.

A TRIBUTE

In June 1982 the people of Slieveardagh gathered to honour their retiring Principal Teacher, Dan O’Connor. They knew that this man, their leader in so many aspects of life, was not well but , like his many friends who gathered to honour him that night, we little realised that within two weeks we would be mourning his passing and noting only too clearly the unbridgeable void left in our midst. Two short weeks of retirement for one who spent his total working life in the service of others seemed to defy our earthly interpretation of the Lord’s ways.

If his classroom days were over, the seeds of education set over the thirty-two years spent in our midst are still maturing and ever spreading their influence and, from the character training and civic example to generations of his pupils and young friends, new community leaders have risen to follow the footsteps of a man of Dan’s rare calibre.

A native of Caherdaniel, Co Kerry his life spanned many spheres of influence. Canon Noonan jokingly referred to the other Dan O’Connor he saw at a football match when the Kerry blood in his veins showed us some of the fighting spirit and the will to win and yet enjoy the game that he toiled to instil into his youthful GAA Players. It was surely this strength which brought him through the last months of his illness and, where many lesser mortals would have ‘hung up their boots’, Dan played the game to the final whistle.

Dan was always a builder of bridges of friendship and an innovator. To the young GAA players under his tutelage he tried to imbue some of the skills of Kerry football and the fire of Tipperary hurling, He it was who concentrated on the hurling skills, he felt it was a game more suited to the youth of Ballingarry.

Only too well he realised the necessity of education for life and so many of his endeavours were connected with the parish organisations. So many rural parishes can be divided into ‘little republics’ but no man realised the importance of parish unity more than Dan and helped to care for the boys and girls from the four quarters of a large parish like Ballingarry. If he had a fault it was that he didn’t know how to say ‘No’ when, as happens in so many organisations, volunteers are slow in coming forward to accept their responsibilities; he always offered his services to ensure the continuity of a club or organisation.

Dan enjoyed rural life and loved to chat with the many characters whose wit enlivens many a dull situation. While always a keen card player, in his later days he took up Bridge and with the local ’experts’ he replayed many a game during the following week. He also took up golf late in life and, while he won quite a few competitions, he would surely have been like the natural sportsman he was, a very successful player had he started earlier in life. Dan’s tastes in sports were embracing and, while he took an active interest in other games like the Wasps Rugby Club, his first love was always ‘hurling and football’.

For a man who devoted himself so unsparingly to so many parish and charitable activities we can often overlook his other priorities and, if we like to remember him as ‘a sportsman’ or ‘a great parish organiser’, we must remember him for what he was above all: a wonderful and devoted family man whose life revolved around his wife Shiela and children Marion, Brendan, Donal, Veronica (now Principal in his old school), Michael and Rita.
Parish organisations can select new officers to replace him, however inadequately, but in his family there will always be an unfillable void left by a man whose memories they above all will cherish and relate to all their days.

The removal of his remains and his funeral were occasions when the whole parish paid their last and proud tribute to him. The juvenile hurlers honoured him with a guard of honour for the cortege and the pupils of Slieveardagh N.S. lined the churchyard to greet the remains. His surviving team mates from the Ballingarry team of ‘51 who won County Football honours shouldered his coffin to the church which was thronged to capacity for both ceremonies. Suitable musical tributes were added to the Masses for a man whose life was spent instilling Christian values in the young.

From the Kingdom of Kerry he came to us in Tipperary and it is now our fervent wish and prayer that he is now enjoying The Kingdom prepared for men like him.

Ar Dheir De go raibh a anam dhilis