Ann O’Connell RIP

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ANN O’CONNELL

An Irish couple died in a tragic accident leaving three orphaned young children in Iowa yesterday. A sporting couple former All Ireland medal winning Kerry hurler Joe O’Connell and his wife Ann, a former Galway camogie player and All Ireland medal winner with Galway and Glen Rovers died when the car in which they were driving collided with another car about an hour from Chicago.

The youngest of their three children is believed to be in a critical condition in a Chicago hospital.

Ann Coleman – O’Connell was well known in camogie circles nationally won an All Ireland Club medals with Glen Rovers of Cork in 1992 and 1993. Ann had played for Athenry and Galway for many years winning an All Ireland Junior Camogie medal with Galway in 1988 and county and connacht medals with Athenry in the 1980’s before taking up work in Cork in the early nineties.

Formally Ann Coleman from Abbeyknockmoy parish in Co. Galway, Ann was a member of a well known sporting family with her brother Michael winning All Ireland hurling titles with Galway in the eighties and Mattie having a distinguished career with Galway footballers. Ann’s nephew Niall Coleman is currently a member of the Galway senior football panel.

The couple have lived in Chicago for a number of years and it is believed that they were traveling to the west coast of the United States on a holiday. They leave three young children age with the oldest aged 16 with the others aged 13 and 10.

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