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Dave Oconnell

Dave Oconnell

Connacht Tribune

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A flame that flickers but will never go out

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Back in the early 1980’s, in Rathmines’ College of Commerce supposedly training to be a journalist, a few...

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Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Political departures on a number of different fronts

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s been a week for political departures – and Galway for sure has lost a couple of people who made a...

14.11.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

DDP and lessons in life learned from a true pro

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The best education isn’t always consumed in the classroom – and, as with everything, sometimes the best...

07.11.2024 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Doing the decent thing in time for it to really count

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The death of former Galway Rovers player/manager Tommy Callaghan on the morning of the club’s last home game...

31.10.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Taking time away from the glare of the tablet screen

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Wistfully wishing that you could turn back the clock to a time before social media, gaming, and instant access...

24.10.2024 9

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

The rapidly changing face of children’s birthday parties

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There was a time when the essence of a children’s birthday party was twenty rugrats belting each other with...

17.10.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Light goes out but the beat goes on

A Different View with Dave O’Connell To all who knew him, he was just Viggy – no need for formalities because Viggy suited him to a tee…the...

10.10.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Whatever format, Marty is well capable of conducting himself

A Different View with Dave O’Connell At first glance, it should be like trying to mix oil and water – an evening with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra...

03.10.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Flicking to kick our way to dreams of Wembley epics

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There was no good reason that Subbuteo should ever have been a success; little one-inch footballers mounted on...

26.09.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Different sort of support for sports stars of the past

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The reason we love sport is because of the extremes it throws up; the chasm between winning and losing – the...

19.09.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Lloyd Cole proves the dreams do come true

A Different View with Dave O’Connell When you were a small fella tuning into Radio Luxembourg or the fledgling 2FM on your plastic earpiece, it...

12.09.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Uphill battle in banning smartphones for teens

A Different View with Dave O’Connell he irony of youngsters looking for expensive mobiles almost as soon as they can walk and talk is that the last...

05.09.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

School day memories as a new academic year begins

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s funny how – even more than 40 years after exiting the gates for the final time – the return to...

29.08.2024 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

New season, new dreams – and echoes of old memories

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s the time of year when hope springs eternal, when the old slate is wiped clean, the failings and...

22.08.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Hard to see the justification for Croker ticket price hike

A Different View with Dave O’Connell For all of those giving out about the price of All-Ireland Final tickets, the truth is that we’d probably...

15.08.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

ABBA Voyage was unreal – in every sense of the word

A Different View with Dave O’Connell In terms of the weirdest experiences you could image, few would rival a jam-packed musical arena where fans...

08.08.2024 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Letting the train take the overnight strain

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Maybe it was a subliminal ambition triggered by some version of Murder on the Orient Express or perhaps...

01.08.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

In praise of grandparents and their role in our lives

A Different View with Dave O’Connell I never knew any of my four grandparents because they were all gone to their reward before I was born, and our...

25.07.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Sports commentators painting pictures with words and voice

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Good radio is the art of painting pictures for the mind – most of all when it comes to sports broadcasting....

18.07.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

We don’t always get a say on the timing of our departure

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Tragic though it was, Tommy Cooper probably had the death that all stars secretly dream of – to die on live...

11.07.2024 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

For all the news you never knew you needed to know

A Different View with Dave O’Connell For as long as I can remember, I’ve read and loved newspapers; even back in boarding school, I used to...

04.07.2024 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Little inside knowledge is a good and dangerous thing

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It was a normal news day way back in 1997 when the call came through around lunchtime to the RTÉ desk. Not...

27.06.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Take a walker’s view to slow the driving down

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Here’s a mad idea to curb the speed of cars on our roads; make every driver sign up for a five-mile walk...

20.06.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Volume should never be equated to mass

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There’s a well-worn cliché that politicians always return to when public opinion isn’t going their way...

13.06.2024 9

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Not everything has to come at a price after all

A Different View with Dave O’Connell They say there’s nothing for nothing anymore, that everything has to have a price or it’s just worthless....

06.06.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

It takes real conviction and courage to stand for office

A Different View with Dave O’Connell I will never forget the moment that Mary O’Rourke’s fate was sealed as an outgoing TD and Government...

30.05.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

So long OT – it just transformed into something we didn’t need

A Different View with Dave O’Connell So Operation Transformation is gone – and not a minute before its time. This public humiliation of people...

23.05.2024 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Easy access to info is not always the answer

A Different View with Dave O’Connell I’ve no problem remembering our home phone number from 50 years ago, but I have to look up my own home number...

16.05.2024 50

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Beauty is best seen in nature’s imperfections

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There’s a little gem of a walk on the east side of Galway city that sort of meanders through some of the...

09.05.2024 40

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Going to gigs to hear the singer – not the audience

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The Workman’s Club on Dublin’s Quays is a wonderful live music venue not dissimilar in size and style to...

02.05.2024 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

There’s brass in muck and in sporting memorabilia too

A Different View with Dave O’Connell A great old friend of mine – all be he a man with more money than sense – was out one night in Kinsale...

25.04.2024 40

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Record reflections as vinyl reaches its 75th anniversary

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s 75 years ago this June that a small seven-inch or twelve-inch piece of black plastic, timed to rotate...

18.04.2024 40

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Can Rwanda show Gaza how to come back from the brink?

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s exactly six months since the barbarity carried out by Hamas triggered a completely disproportionate...

11.04.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Big heavy overcoats are just wasted on the young

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The new coat was designed to keep the worst of the rain off the bottom half as well as the top, but it’s had...

04.04.2024 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Banksy proves beauty is in the eye of the beholder

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It has always been true that one man’s thrash is another man’s treasure, but it was terribly evident on...

28.03.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Docs can’t save lives but they can prolong them indefinitely

A Different View with Dave O’Connell A well-known medical consultant corrected me many years ago when I suggested it must be unbelievably rewarding...

21.03.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Waxing lyrical on candles and scent of strange things

A Different View with Dave O’Connell A small candle has mysteriously appeared in a tiny can on the kitchen table, proudly proclaiming itself to...

14.03.2024 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

What’s in a name when it comes to sports arenas?

A Different View with Dave O’Connell When you think of the hallowed old sporting venues around these islands, your mind immediately turns to Croke...

07.03.2024 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Best to live experiences – not just see them through a phone

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Galway is not a city to see; it’s a city to do; it’s not that we don’t have loads of places that are...

29.02.2024 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Fronting up is the best way to mind your back

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Ben Dunne knew he was in trouble when police pulled him in from the balcony of an Orlando hotel, paranoid...

22.02.2024 60

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Beer goggles still don’t give you 20/20 vision

A Different View with Dave O’Connell By now almost those New Year Resolutions to give up the drink have, like yourself, fallen off the wagon –...

15.02.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Siblings drive you crazy – but you wouldn’t be without them

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It turns out that the Waltons were the exception rather than the rule – because while John Boy and the crew...

08.02.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Slip-on shoes and driverless cars are a feat for the feet

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It may have escaped your attention, but there’s a new shoe on the market that, on one hand, is designed to...

01.02.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Day Ian Bailey rang to offer coverage of Sophie’s murder

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It was Christmas Day 1996 and a skeleton staff was looking after affairs of news and sport in the old Terenure...

25.01.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Memories of Eurovision glory in a rural showjumping area

A Different View with Dave O’Connell The annual publication of State Papers 30 years on from the events that they refer to always makes for...

18.01.2024 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

We’re further from 1984 than Orwell was when he wrote it!

A Different View with Dave O’Connell It’s now 40 years since 1984 – meaning that we’re now four years further away from that year than George...

11.01.2024 40

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

New soles can’t take the old soul out of your shoe

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Fans of classic comedy need no introduction to the Only Fools and Horses sketch – the one where Trigger...

04.01.2024 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Dipping into highs and lows over the last twelve months

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Understandably, when historians look back on the year 2023 in a century’s time, the bookmarks will be the...

28.12.2023 30

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

You don’t have to be born in a place to be from there

A Different View with Dave O’Connell Ours was never the most adventurous of families; we did what every other west of Ireland family did and had a...

21.12.2023 20

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

Don’t write it down unless you want it haunting you forever

A Different View with Dave O’Connell There’s an old piece of advice that’s often offered – particularly to journalists but also to...

14.12.2023 10

Connacht Tribune

Dave Oconnell

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