Úna O'Connor (1938 – 4 March 2020) was an Irish sportsperson who played senior

camogie Camogie ( ; ) 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 "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

with

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

from 1953 until 1975. She is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, a member of the team of the century. the first camogie player to win a Caltex award in 1966,Irish Press 16 December 1966 and the Gaelic Weekly all-star award winner in 1967.

Early life

Úna O'Connor was born in Fairview,

in 1938. The youngest of eight children, her mother died when she was just eighteen years old. O'Connor grew up in Dublin at a time when the county's

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

ers were successful. She was a great admirer of Kevin Heffernan and often received coaching advice from him before she played in big games.

Playing career

Club

O'Connor played her club

with the Celtic club in Dublin. She had several successes with Celtic, winning ten Dublin county camogie championship titles in all. She was also one of the key players when the club won the first All-Ireland Club Camogie Championship in 1964.

Inter-county

In 1953 O'Connor won her first

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

medal with

. Although she was only fifteen years old, she showed exceptional talent by scoring three goals in the defeat of Tipperary. After that, O’Connor collected two additional All-Ireland medals in 1954 and 1955. In 1957 Dublin reached the All-Ireland final once again. However, O’Connor was out of favour with the management and was not in the starting line-up for the game. With Dublin struggling with ten minutes left in the game, O’Connor was brought on and showed her talent once again by scoring the winning goal. Although she was only 19, she had just won her fourth All-Ireland medal. This victory began an amazing run of success that by 1966 saw O’Connor win ten All-Ireland medals in a row. This achievement is unique to O’Connor and one that is unlikely to be ever equalled. In 1963 and 1964 she had the honour of captaining her native county to back-to-back victories. In 1967 O’Connor appeared in another All-Ireland final. However, Antrim gained revenge on Dublin by beating them in the All-Ireland final replay. In spite of this, she received the Caltex Award for best player of the year, thus becoming the first camogie player to be so honoured. In 1975 O’Connor came out of retirement to play in the

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

championship against

Wexford Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

. Once again she showed her versatility by playing as a full-back, while she previously played as a forward.

Retirement

In retirement, O'Connor's reputation as one of the greatest players of all time has grown. Her haul of thirteen

medals is a record that stands second to her county colleague Kathleen Mills, who heads the honours list with fifteen medals. In 2004 O’Connor was named in the wing-forward position on a special team picked to celebrate the

centenary A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

of Cumann Camogaíochta na nGael.

References

;Notes ;Sources * Brendan Fullam, ''Captains of the Ash'', (Wolfhound Press, 2002). {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Una 1938 births 2020 deaths Dublin camogie players Gaelic games players from Dublin (city) People from Fairview, Dublin