In an all too short life, Gobnait O'Connell managed to make a huge impression on a large number of people and, more importantly, make a difference for the better. Wherever she went in life she made friends. With her passing she has left behind a whole community of people with only one thing in common - the fact that Gobnait O'Connell passed through their lives.
Gobnait was a nurse who trained in the South Infirmary Hospital in Cork and gained a reputation with patients and colleagues alike for incredible dedication and an ability to relate to people. She was immensely proud of being a nurse and the standing of her profession was always a key concern for her.
Her friends in the Irish Nurses Organisation, where she was industrial relations officer, will remember a woman who was a passionate advocate of the nursing profession with a real commitment to its further development, an objective she had set herself in her last role as adviser to the Minister for Health, Micheal Martin. Gobnait was a formidable political activist will be remembered by her friends in the Fianna Fail organisation in Cork North West, where she played a key part in the election of Michael Moynihan to Dail Eireann in 1987, securing the election of two Fianna Fail TDs and reversing the historic party balance in the constituency.
Her friends and former colleagues in Fianna Fail headquarters will remember a young woman who hit No. 13 Upper Mount like a tornado. In the three years she worked in headquarters she revamped Ogra Fianna Fail and played a central role in the party's successful local election campaign in 1999. There are councillors, now elected, who would not have been on the ticket but for Gobnait's dogged persistence. In particular she was a vocal and successful champion of younger candidates.
Gobnait O'Connell was the most gifted political operative of her generation and her appointment to the position of adviser to the Minister for Health was almost inevitable.
She believed it was Fianna Fail's job to look after the underdog. She had a strongly rooted belief that her party's role was as a progressive force and she wanted to help build a health service which valued and used the talents of all health professionals. In her relatively short time in this position Gobnait had already set out the framework for substantial change and this, in time, may prove to be her most lasting political legacy.
Above all, Gobnait will be missed by her family: her mother Christina, her sister and brothers, and all the people in the small community of Derrinagree, in north-west Cork, where family and friends gathered again just over a week ago for her month's mind commemoration. They are rightly proud of the substantial legacy that Gobnait leaves behind.
Above all we remember Gobnait for her great humour. A resilient sense of humour is one of the most important qualities anyone who works in politics can possess. Gobnait had a keen eye for the absurdities and vanities of political life and it was this sense of humour that lifted her colleagues' spirits on so many occasions. For Gobnait the craic was paramount and this Christmas we will sorely miss her company and her laughter.
Slainte, Gobnait.
M.M. & P. McD.