Oliver is proud of his Cullion roots
April 30, 2010London-based Oliver Connell is one of a select band of Westmeath men to hold an All-Ireland hurling medal, but he isn't making a big deal of it.
"I won an All-Ireland minor 'B' hurling medal with Westmeath in 1963. I played full back and we beat Wicklow in the final at Croke Park. But it's not something I would go around crowing about," says Oliver, who hails from Knockdrin, which is situated on the outskirts of Mullingar.
"From what I can remember, the late Christy Whelehan managed the team along with Eoin Dalton. We didn't put much preparation into it and a lot of that was due to the fact that transport was such a problem at the time. Nowadays, people would think nothing of driving from Mullingar to Dublin, but back then getting from Mullingar to somewhere like Delvin was a journey in itself, especially if you had only the bike to get you around.
"The Westmeath minor footballers reached the All-Ireland final that year as well and that probably overshadowed our win in the hurling."
Less than a year later, Oliver emigrated to London where he has remained ever since and runs a successful company called Oliver Connell & Son. Oliver set up the business in 1974 along with his brother Pat, who had joined him in the English capital two years earlier. He now runs the company with the help of his only son, Gregory.
Based in Ealing, Oliver Connell & Son specialises in providing groundworks, drainage and concrete structure work for major commercial constructions. Oliver, who is married to Donegal native Mary, got his first big break in 1980 when he was awarded the contract for a large office block development in Houndslow. His company has gone from strength to strength since then and is involved in works across London, including at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports. Oliver Connell & Son currently employs 120 staff.
Despite being domiciled in London for the past 46 years, Oliver still speaks with a strong midlands accent and has retained his interest in Cullion and Westmeath hurling. His brother Tom is a well-known figure in local GAA circles, having been involved with Crookedwood for many years. Indeed, Tom's son, Ollie, who is employed as a quantity surveyor by Oliver in London, is a former Crookedwood hurler.
Oliver's earliest sporting recollections are of playing hurling in Dick Power's field. The Power name is synonymous with Cullion, with the legendary Jack Power being the club's best-known hurler and Mick Power being a former chairman of the Westmeath hurling board.
"There used to be 15 or 16 of us down in Power's field playing hurling. We'd be at it until 10 or 11 o'clock on the summer evenings. Hurling was the only pastime we had and we loved it," he fondly remembers.
Formed in 1949 following the disbandment of the nearby Rathconnell club, it took Cullion just two years to win their first junior hurling championship when they defeated Castletown-Geoghegan in the final. By the late 1950s, Cullion had established themselves as a solid senior outfit. Despite emigration taking its toll, they won the Feis Cup in 1964, which remains their only success in senior competition. Having left for London in April of that year, Oliver returned home to play in the final win over Glenidan.
"It was great to win the Feis Cup because the club was already in decline at that stage. We had some excellent hurlers like Johnny Power, Tommy 'Tosser' Houlihan, Pat Gaffney, John and Christy Corroon, and Austin Murray, who would have got on any of the top senior teams in Westmeath at the time," explains Oliver, whose brothers Tony, Val (deceased), Joe, Pat and Tom also wore the maroon and white of Cullion.
Cullion contested the senior championship final in 2001, only to lose to parish rivals Clonkill. Since then, the club has dropped back to intermediate level and, rather worryingly, hasn't been figuring at the business end of that championship. However, the recent development of three new all-weather pitches and a hurling wall at a cost of EUR300,000, coupled with the club's continued revival at underage level, provide tremendous hope for the future.
Following on from the opening of their impressive clubhouse in the early 1990s, Cullion completed the development of three all-weather pitches at the beginning of 2009. Two of the pitches are 40 metres long by 20 metres wide, while the third larger pitch is 55 metres long by 40 metres wide. The pitches, which are floodlit, were developed to cater for all of the club's hurling and camogie players at both adult and underage level.
At 40 metres in length, Cullion's new hurling wall is believed to be the largest in the country. The wall will eventually be playable on both sides, making it possible to train up to 80 players at any one time. These new facilities in Cullionmore not only compare very favourably with any similar facility in the country, but also underline Cullion's ambition to become one of the leading hurling powers in the county.
"They have always been one of the most progressive and forward-thinking clubs in the county," Oliver proudly states.
"I think they were one of the first clubs in Westmeath to build a clubhouse and they are ahead of everyone else with this development as well. It's a wonderful facility and anything that gets the youngsters involved in hurling can only be a good thing."
Oliver keeps a close eye on Westmeath's results in both hurling and football and took immense satisfaction from the county's successes over the past decade.
"Westmeath has probably won as much in the last 10 years as it did over the previous 50. In football, the county has won All-Ireland minor, under 21 and Leinster senior championships, which were all firsts. They're rebuilding at the moment, but they seem to have a very good under 21 team this year and that can only bode well for the future."
He continues: "The hurlers won a couple of Christy Ring Cups, but I'd be a bit worried after some of their performances in this year's league. However, there is great work being done at underage level and hopefully this will bear fruit in the next few years." Tweet
