Turlough O'Connor (born 22 July 1946) is an Irish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and manager. He is a member of the

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

Hall of Fame. His two brothers Padraig O'Connor and Michael O'Connor also played for Athlone Town.

Playing career

He has spells as player at

Limerick F.C. Limerick Football Club was an association football club based in Limerick, Ireland who played in the League of Ireland and currently have teams competing in the underage National League of Ireland. The first Limerick Football Club was founded ...

, where he made a scoring debut in a League of Ireland Shield game at Sligo on 25 August 1963,

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, Bohemians again,

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

and

Athlone Town Athlone Town Association Football Club is an Irish football club from Athlone who are playing in the League of Ireland. The club is the oldest in the League as it was founded in 1887. First elected to the League of Ireland in 1922, they play t ...

. He made 191 league appearances (scoring 120 times) and 15 appearances in European competition for Bohs (scoring 1 goal) against

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

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He was top scorer in the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

in 1973/74 and 1977/78. O'Connor scored 24 times in 29 league appearances in the latter season. He was Bohemian's top scorer in 7 different seasons, his first being in 1964/65 when he scored 8 goals in just 7 games.Bohemian FC match programme, Vol. 52, no. 19 As of the end of the 2012 season, O'Connor is fourth in the all time

goalscoring chart with 178 league goal

- 120 with Bohemians, 54 with Dundalk, 4 with Athlone. He also netted 15 goals in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

(14 with Bohs, 1 with Dundalk) and 2 goals for the Irish full international team. O'Connor was capped twice at youth level.

Managerial career

He was also a very successful manager and has managed

and

. His best period as manager came during his 5-year tenure at

where the League Championship was won twice and the League Cup was won three times, with the Tyler All-Ireland Cup also making its way to St. Mels Park. O'Connor then took over

in time for the 1985/86 season. He picked up more silverware during his time at Dundalk winning 2 League Championships, an FAI Cup and 2 League Cups until he left

Oriel Park Oriel Park is a UEFA Category 2 football stadium located on the Carrickmacross Road in Dundalk, Ireland. The stadium is the home ground of Dundalk Football Club and is owned and operated by the club on land that has been leased from the Casey ...

in October 1993. He was not out of football long as he returned to Bohemians on 14 December 1993 where he stayed until the summer of 1998. During this time he also managed the Republic of Ireland under-17 team in the 1994 European Under-16 Championship held in Ireland in May 1994.

Career statistics

International goals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Turlough 1946 births Living people Association footballers from Athlone Men's association football forwards Athlone Town A.F.C. managers Athlone Town A.F.C. players Bohemian F.C. managers Bohemian F.C. players Dundalk F.C. managers Dundalk F.C. players League of Ireland managers League of Ireland players League of Ireland XI players Fulham F.C. players English Football League players Limerick F.C. players Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland association football managers 20th-century Irish sportsmen