Final farewells to Old Head Links founder who had ‘a heart of gold’

Those who knew him well saw globe-trotting millionaire John O’Connor as a dynamic, complex, mercurial, and generous man and paid their due tributes yesterday.

However, it was his son Ben who, Mr O’Connor’s friends agreed, described him most accurately at his funeral service in a quiet corner of wet and windswept Kerry.

According to Ben, the man who founded the internationally-famous Old Head Golf Links, Kinsale, Co Cork, should be remembered as he was — “a strong, bull-headed character with a heart of gold’’, who enjoyed drinking fine wines with his friends and creating spectacles for the whole world to see.