Johnny O'Connor:JOHNNY O'CONNOR, who has died aged 82, was one of Waterford's finest hurlers, a highly successful greyhound breeder and a former national schoolteacher with a refreshingly progressive approach to education.
Former pupils of Scoil na Leanbh in Ring recall how he would bring the class out to a glen to watch a fox and her cubs at play.
In fluent Irish, he whispered verses of An Madairín Rua. For excited eight-year-old boys and girls, it was a real-life educational brush with nature long before David Attenborough came on the scene.
A native of Abbeyside on the rim of Dungarvan Bay, he was one of two surviving players from the great Waterford team that won the All-Ireland senior hurling title in 1948. His passing leaves Andy Fleming (92) of Ferrybank as its sole survivor.
At 19, O’Connor was the youngest member of the team that beat Dublin in the final. His stylish play had caught the eye of selectors while still a teenager. He was in the Leaving Cert class at Dungarvan CBS when he made his senior inter-county debut, lining out for Waterford against Kilkenny in the 1946 National League campaign.
On the club front, he won a Waterford junior hurling championship with Abbeyside, plus senior championships with Clonea, UCD and Avondhu in Cork, an intermediate medal with Castletownroche, interprovincial colleges medals with Munster in 1945 and 1946, a Fitzgibbon Cup with UCD, and a Railway Cup medal with Munster in 1955.
A keen student of the game, his top three players were Jimmy Langton of Kilkenny, Mick Maher of Tipperary and Cork’s Christy Ring.
Set on a career in teaching, it was at St Patrick’s training college in Dublin that he met another aspiring young teacher, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, from Dingle. They became lifelong friends, sharing a mutual passion for fast hurling and speedy greyhounds.
O’Connor’s son, John, recalls that an Ó Muircheartaigh visit meant a day at the dogs and a chance to act as a runner, placing bets for the two pals chatting away in Irish.
In his first post at Ring College, he was more like a big brother than a teacher, playing hurling and handball with the boys or introducing them to the rudiments of boxing. Having taught for a while in neighbouring Old Parish, he went to Canada for a spell before returning to become principal of the national school at Killavullen near Mallow in 1959, a post he held until early retirement.
Taking seriously to the greyhounds, he became one of Ireland’s most successful breeders, with up to 300 dogs on his books at one stage in the 1970s. At the pinnacle of his career, Patricia’s Hope won successive English derbies in 1972 and 1973, emulating the mighty Mick The Miller.
He is survived by his wife Nancy, his son John, daughters Regina, Yvonne and Evelyn, and his sister Alice Marie O’Connor.
Johnny O’Connor: born February 27th, 1928; died October 31st, 2010.