Gemma O'Connor (born 1985) is a

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

player. She is the most decorated player in the sport. Born in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, O'Connor won

All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship The All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship is a competition for inter-county teams in the women's field sport of game of camogie played in Ireland. The series of games are organised by the Camogie Association and are played during the summer mo ...

medals in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018. She is a ten-time Camogie All Star award winner, six of which she received in succession: (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017). She was also a member of the Team of the Championship for 2011.

Career

O'Connor

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

ed the Cork senior team in 2007, and is the holder of All-Ireland Minor and Senior Championship honours along with National League Senior and Junior medals. She represented Cork in the

Féile na nGael Féile na nGael (; Irish for "Festival of the Gaels") is an annual tournament comprising the sports of hurling, camogie and handball organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. Its stated aim is to bond communities, forge friendships, provid ...

skills in 1998 and was camogie player of the year in 2005, as well as winning one county senior camogie championship title.

Personal life

O'Connor's brother,

Glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower ...

, lined out with Cork in the

2009 National Hurling League The 2009 National Hurling League (known as the Allianz National Hurling League for sponsorship reasons) was the 78th season of the National Hurling League. Structure The National Hurling League saw a major restructuring of the usual four divis ...

while her uncle, Bill Geaney, captained Cork to an

All-Ireland Under 21 Hurling Championship The GAA Hurling Under-20 All-Ireland Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Bord Gáis Energy GAA Hurling Under-20 All-Ireland Championship) is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association ...

title. 2009 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final programme. In her autobiography, ''Why not a Warrior'' (written with Sinead Farrell), O'Connor stated that she met her wife Aoife, a teacher, in 2012 as a result of O'Connor playing

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

for Knockavilla Celtic in

West Cork West Cork ( ga, Iarthar Chorcaí) is a tourist region and municipal district in County Cork, Ireland. As a municipal district, West Cork falls within the administrative area of Cork County Council, and includes the towns of Bantry, Castletownbe ...

, around thirty minutes from where she lived (Knockavilla's manager was Aoife's father). O'Connor is a soldier in the

Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The Ar ...

References

External links

* Video highlights of 2009 championship and * * Report of All-Ireland final i
Independent
an

1985 births Living people Cork camogie players Irish Army soldiers Lesbian sportswomen LGBT hurlers Irish LGBT sportspeople {{Cork-camogie-bio-stub