CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
May 2019
Obituary: Brian O’Connell (1936-2019) Brian was born in Dublin on 7 July 1936. He was educated at Belvedere, Clongowes, and UCD, where he graduated in History. He taught in Drogheda Grammar School, Kilnacrott Abbey in Cavan, and finally in Belvedere where from 1969 until retirement he taught history and geography. It was in Belvedere that his passion for rugby gave expression to that open-hearted generosity of spirit which characterised all his activities, when he chose to coach and foster for many years the lowest-rated team in the school. Brian’s serious interest in the Classical world begin with an Open University course in Classics which he took up after his retirement. He served as Chair of the Dublin Branch of the Classical Association for several years. His introduction of speakers and votes of thanks were always memorable and bore witness to his enthusiastic intellectual curiosity. Readers of the Newsletter will recall his articles on postage stamps with Classical themes – Brian was also a dedicated and well-respected, prize-winning philatelist. During his time as Chair of the Dublin Branch Brian began to organise discovery outings to the counties of Ireland, which then became a regular annual feature of the Branch spring programme. A feature of these outings was the carefully-researched choice of stopping places for ‘coffee and scones’ and hearty lunches, informative handouts, and entry into monuments which were often closed to the general public. Some of the highlights included Clonmacnoise, Wicklow Jail, Coolattin House, Lutyens’ Heywood Gardens, Trim Castle, the New Ross emigrant ship, and Tintern Abbey. He was a devoted participant in the CAI’s biennial Classical tours, including those to Syria, Jordan, Spain, Libya, and Turkey. His mischievous sense of humour was always in evidence, none more so than when visiting the Roman theatre in Leptis Magna (2008), where he gave a spirited rendering of a Mussolini anthem before an audience which included our Libyan security guards, or when supplying the missing head and arm to a mass-produced senatorial statue in Basra (Syria, 2000). Despite the often daunting roughness of the terrain Brian always managed to reach the
inaccessible and intriguing parts of the sites we visited, as when we all struggled up to the mountain-top theatre of Termessos (Turkey, 2012). In recognition of his determination, two athletic students from New Zealand lifted him up over the rear supporting wall of the theatre to reveal to him the commanding view over the countryside below. Brian regarded life as an exciting journey, no better expressed than in one of his favourite poems, Ithaka by the Greek poet Cavafy, which concludes: Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you’re destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you are old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you have gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you would not have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, 11