Tag Archives: Robin O’Connell

POTEEN maker, Gaelic Football fanatic, Ladies’ Football coach, storyteller and member of Kilkishen Wren Boys – Robin O’Connell was one of the most colourful characters in South-East Clare. The father-of-three celebrated his 86th birthday recently with a function in the Tail Race Bar, Parteen, where he was feted by family and friends, but on Friday, August 26, he died peacefully in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) following a stroke four days earlier. Robin was prosecuted at Sixmilebridge District Court on numerous occasions for making poteen in a still at a derelict cottage on his uncle’s farm near the sprawling South-East Clare village. In 1997, Robin was fined €1,000 or in default three months in jail after he was convicted for the manufacture of alcohol without a licence. In early September that day he was visited by a Garda who informed him he would have to take him to prison unless he paid the fine. However, Robin volunteered to go to prison …

The Clare Champion newspaper has for the first time received three nominations at the annual Local Ireland Media Awards. For the third successive year, Clare Champion journalist Peter O’Connell has been nominated for a Local Ireland Award. This year he is shortlisted for the second time in the Best Sports Story of the Year for an interview with Cooraclare’s Tom Morrissey. In the article Tom reflects on his life and times 25 years after he helped Clare win the 1992 Munster Senior Football Championship. Multi-award winning Clare Champion photographer John Kelly was also nominated this year for Photograph of the Year for an image taken of Meelick man Robin O’Connell. The Clare Champion has also been nominated in the Best Designed Newspaper of the Year category. The awards will be held on Thursday May 24 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Athlone where the winners will be announced.