Kieran O'Connor (31 May 197915 July 2020) was an Irish

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 ...

er. At club level he played with

Aghada Aghada () is a village and civil parish in County Cork, Ireland. It is situated on the eastern side of Cork Harbour, around 12 km by road south of Midleton. The civil parish of Aghada consists of several small villages and townlands inclu ...

and was an All-Ireland Championship-winner as a member of the extended panel with the

Cork senior football team The Cork county football team represents Cork in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Cork GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Sen ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. After beginning his career at club level with Aghada, O'Connor joined the Cork under-21 team as a 19-year-old in 1999. He was promoted to the Cork senior team under Billy Morgan in 2004. From his debut, O'Connor became a regular in defence and made a total of 25 championship appearances in a career that ended with him leaving the panel in March 2011. During that time he was a panellist when Cork won the All-Ireland Championship in 2010. O'Connor also secured three Munster Championship medals on the field of play and back-to-back

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

medals in two separate divisions.

Playing career

Agahda

O'Connor joined the

club at a young age and played in all grade at juvenile and underage levels as a

dual player Dual player or dual star is a term used in Hiberno-English to describe someone who competes in multiple sports — for example, in Victorian Ireland, cricket and hurling. The term today in Gaelic games typically describes a male player who plays ...

. He made his first appearance for the Aghada senior football team on 18 May 1997 when he lined out at right corner-back in a 5–05 to 4–07 defeat by Mallow in the 1997 Cork County Championship. O'Connor also hurled with the Aghada intermediate team, and lined out in defence when the club lost the 2005 PIHC final to

Ballinhassig Ballinhassig () is a village in County Cork, Ireland, situated south of Cork City just off the N71 Bandon road and near the source of the River Owenabue (''Abhainn Bui'', meaning "Yellow River"). Traditionally an agricultural area, Ballinha ...

Cork

Under-21

O'Connor first played for Cork as a 19-year-old when he was drafted onto the under-21 team for the 1999 Munster Under-21 Championship. He made his debut on 31 March 1999 when he lined out at left corner-back in a 4–12 to 1–07 defeat of Tipperary. He was again named in the same position for Cork's subsequent defeat by Kerry in the

Munster final Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

. O'Connor was again eligible for the under-21 team the following year, but ended his underage inter-county county career without silverware.

Senior

O'Connor joined the Cork senior team under Billy Morgan, and made his first appearance on 17 July 2004 when he came on as a 60th-minute substitute for Owen Sexton in an 0–18 to 0–11 defeat by

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh (), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of alleged Laigin or ...

in the All-Ireland Qualifiers. He was again included on the panel for the following season and was introduced as a substitute in all but one of Cork's championship games, including the 1–11 to 0–11

defeat by Kerry. He broke onto the starting fifteen during the 2006 Munster Championship and claimed his first Munster Championship medal that season after lining out at left corner-back in Cork's 1–12 to 0–09 victory over Kerry in a final replay. Following a two-point defeat by Kerry in his third successive

appearance in 2007, O'Connor was again selected at left corner-back when Cork faced Kerry in the 2007 All-Ireland final. Marking

Colm Cooper Colm "the Gooch" Cooper (born 3 June 1983) is an Irish Gaelic footballer whose National Football League (Ireland), league and All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, championship career at senior level with the Kerry county football team, Kerr ...

, he ended the game on the losing side after a 3–13 to 1–09 defeat. After starting Cork's opening game of 2008 Munster Championship on the bench, O'Connor was reinstated to left corner-back for the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

and claimed a second winners' medal after the 1–16 to 1–11 victory over Kerry. After claiming the Division 2 title of the 2009 National League after a defeat of

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

in the

, he later won a third Munster Championship medal in five seasons after Cork's 2–06 to 0–11 win over

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

. Cork subsequently qualified for an All-Ireland final-meeting with Kerry, with O'Connor named on the bench. He was a late addition to the match-day starting fifteen as a replacement for Ray Carey, in a match which Cork lost by 0–16 to 1–09. O'Connor was an unused substitute when Cork defeated Mayo to claim the Division 1 title of the 2010 National League and later remained as a panelist rather than a member of the starting fifteen during Cork's championship campaign. On 19 September 2010, he claimed a winners' medal as an unused substitute when Cork defeated Down by 0–16 to 0–15 in the All-Ireland final. He rejoined the Cork senior team at the start of the 2011 season, however, injury curtailed his game time. On 28 March 2011, it was reported that he had opted out of the panel, effectively retiring from the inter-county game.

Munster

O'Connor was first selected for the

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

inter-provincial team in advance of the 2005 Railway Cup. It was the first of three successive seasons with the team, with defeat at the semi-final stage in the first two seasons. O'Connor lined out at left corner-back when Munster suffered a 1–12 to 1–08 defeat by

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

in the 2007 Railway Cup final.

Illness and death

O'Connor was first struck with illness when a rare type of

bone cancer A bone tumor is an neoplastic, abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as benign, noncancerous (benign) or malignant, cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body su ...

called Ewing's sarcoma was discovered in October 2017. The diagnosis stemmed from a throbbing pain in his right ankle, which he mistook as the long-term effects of his football career. Four months of aggressive

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

followed in an effort to shrink the tumour enough so that surgeons could proceed with an operation in February 2018. Intensive chemotherapy resumed after a month and went on until the end of July 2018. O'Connor had planned on returning to work in December 2018; however, he was suffering from persistent pains in his leg and the wound was not healing fully. In January 2019 he had another serious operation and his lower leg was amputated. While trying to recover from the amputation, he started experiencing bad back pains, only later to find out that his cancer had spread and further chemotherapy was required. A

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

page, set up by Friends of Kieran, raised over €270,000 in just four days after being set up in March 2019, while the wider GAA community also contributed funds through challenge matches, bucket collections and other sponsored activities. On 15 July 2020, O'Connor died at age 41. Survived by his wife and three children, he was the first member of Cork's 2010 All-Ireland Championship-winning team to die. There were numerous tributes from O'Connor's former teammates, including Conor Counihan and

Eoin Cadogan Eoin Cadogan (born 1 September 1986) is an Irish hurler and Gaelic footballer who plays for Cork Senior Championship club Douglas and at inter-county level with the Cork senior hurling team. He usually lines out as a full-back. Playing career ...

, the Cork County Board and the GAA president John Horan, as well as people from the world of politics and other sports, such as

Davy Russell David Niall Russell (born 27 June 1979) is an Irish retired National Hunt jockey. He was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey three times, and won the Grand National (twice), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. Childho ...

Honours

;Cork *

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

(1):

Munster Senior Football Championship The Munster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship and shortened to Munster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Munster GAA, Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Associatio ...

(3):

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

* National Football League Division 1 (1):

* National Football League Division 2 (1):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Kieran 1979 births 2020 deaths Aghada Gaelic footballers Aghada hurlers Cork inter-county Gaelic footballers Munster inter-provincial Gaelic footballers Deaths from cancer in the Republic of Ireland Deaths from bone cancer Irish amputees