The late Pat O'Connell It was with great sadness that the people of tullamore hear the news that Pat O'Connell of Convent View had passed away, only weeks after his beloved wife Mary. Although he had been in ill-health for some time he was always such a larger than life character that everyone assumed he would overcome his illness. One of the noted figures in the Tullamore GAA in the 1940s and 1950s, Pat captained the Tullamore team than won the 1946 Offaly Senior Football Championship and was the longest surviving captain of a championship winning team in Offaly hurling or football. Pat won football medals with Tullamore in 1946, '48, '54 and '56 and was also a member of the Tullamore hurling team that won the championship in 1955. He won his first medal for Tullamore as a minor hurler in 1941. Even in his playing days Pat was already an outstanding referee for provincial finals and he refereed the 1953 All-Ireland hurling final between Cork and Galway. Much of his working life was spent as a mechanic in the workshop at Salts Ireland in Kilcruttin where he rose through the ranks to become works foreman. But to most of the younger generations in Tullamore Pat O'Connell will be most fondly remembered as the genial Fire Captain who trained many who served in the fire brigade at a time when all were volunteers. He is survived by his sons Frank(Garbally, Birr), Brendan (Athenry), Damien (Tullamore), Vincent (Dundalk), daughters Dorothy Bermingham (Ballydaly, Tullamore), Amelda Neale (Mullingar), Lorraine Cullen(Dublin), Ruth Whalley (Australia). Courtesy of The Offaly Express 3 May 2006 Tweet

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