Vincent Murphy gave an excellent presentation on the life of circumnavigator Conor O’Brien at the club last Friday evening. Vincent is a member of Kinsale Yacht Club, a native of Clonmel, living in Cork, and a retired Chartered Engineer. He has written a number of books i.e. Goodbye Kit, The Wild Patagonian Way, Me and my Relations (a family history), Southwards, Picos de Europa, to name but a few. He has to be commended on his presentation last Friday evening on the Life of circumnavigator Conor O’Brien, great content and very informative.
O’Brien was born in Cahermoyle House, Ardagh, Co Limerick, on the 3rd November 1880. He was educated in Winchester College and Oxford University in England, and in Trinity College, Dublin. He was an heroic sailor with a huge commitment to Irish Home Rule – a fluent Irish Speaker – In 1914 he assisted Erskin Childers in the famous gun running saga of irish history, and then went on to circumnavigate the world in an amazing voyage. After the war he retired to his sister’s home on Foynes Island, Co Limerick where he lived and continued to write books until his death on the 18th April 1952.
Professor Patrick Frawley, a member of the Club, and a native of Foynes, donated an unedited version of one of Conor O’Brien’s books together with a number of first edition books that he had purchased from all over the world, to Foynes Yacht Club on the night. We are absolutely delighted and honoured to receive these books and can’t thank Patrick enough for this very generous donation.
Commodore Bev Lowes thanked everybody for attending on the night and was delighted to see the O’Brien family from Foynes Island among the crowd. He thanked Vincent for his very informative presentation and Patrick for his very generous donation of Conor O’Brien’s books to Foynes Yacht Club.
€1,045 was raised for the RNLI on the night!
