Eamon O'Connor Eamon O'Connor, who has died at Deerfield Beach, Florida, aged 74, was an athlete, entertainer and award-winning freelance cameraman for RTÉ.
He contracted a serious illness in a Florida hospital while recovering from a successful knee replacement operation.
Limerick-born O'Connor started his working life as a freelance stills cameraman. He had already led a distinguished sporting life as the All-Ireland Schools' pole-vault champion and as a medal-winning League of Ireland goalkeeper with the Limerick team. He was also a comedian, ventriloquist, magician, singer, trumpet player and sword-swallower in the local Limerick and Clare cabarets.
O'Connor was not just diverse in terms of talent; he was also fun-loving and always ready for a laugh. He was enthusiastic about life and particularly television, even though he was a frustrated newsman at times, covering the openings of new churches and other run-of-the-mill stories in north and west Munster.
From 1968 onwards he hunted challenges on the streets of strife-torn Derry and Belfast. He was known by his peers as a courageous and imaginative newsman, and he was always good humoured.
When the late Michael O'Hehir, former head of sport at RTÉ, engaged him to cover a series of international car rallies and cycle races, not only did O'Connor produce classic pictures, but he also demanded that they be edited imaginatively and be combined with a well-crafted script.
O'Connor's brilliance shone through all his work, whether he was hanging from the side of a car during a cycle race, or strapped loosely in a helicopter overlooking speeding rally cars.
In 1970 his work on the Raleigh-Dunlop Tour of Ireland cycle race was judged as the Rank Organisation British television news film of the year.
The following year he received another international award for his coverage of the Galway International Rally.
O'Connor's stage shows combined his many talents and cinematic skills. He also introduced fresh local talent and exploded the mystery and myths of Biddy Earley.
The non-drinker and non-smoker was always ready for new challenges, and it was during the filming of an RTÉ documentary at Vincent O'Brien's horse-training establishment at Ballydoyle, Cashel, Co Tipperary, on May 14th, 1974, that his work as a television cameraman ended.
In a sequence for the documentary, The Master of Ballydoyle, involving two of the most expensive horses in Ireland - Appalachi and Celini - the helicopter being flown by Capt Thompson Boyes struck high-tension cables and crashed.
The helicopter and pilot had been hijacked the previous November by the IRA and flown into Mountjoy Prison, successfully releasing three of the top provisional IRA members. Boyes, on May 14th, was under severe pressure not to appear in court as a State witness and the stress of threats from the IRA caused him to make the near-fatal mistake at Cashel.
O'Connor was severely injured, with a broken kneecap and 82 stitches to his head, having been struck several times by his heavy Ariflex camera. He never again worked as a cameraman and, at the age of 41, a burgeoning career was ended on the gallops of Ballydoyle.
Thereafter, he dabbled with still photography and, as an entertainer and funny man, toured the US with his Irish cabaret act. For the past 26 years he lived at Deerfield Beach, Florida, during the winter, returning each summer to Killaloe, Co Clare.
Eamon O'Connor is survived by his wife Theresa, son Eugene, who directs the Killinaskully TV series (in which O'Connor appeared in the 2006 Christmas special as Canon Heggarty), and daughters Maria, Deirdre, Gráinne and Aisling.
Eamon O'Connor: born May 2nd, 1933; died May 17th, 2007