Don O'Leary, former director of Cork Life Centre, dies aged 68

Don O’Leary outside the Cork Life Centre in 2022. File picture: Darragh Kane

Don O’Leary, the former director of the Cork Life Centre, has died at the age of 68.

Mr O'Leary, who was a former member of Cork City Council, had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021. 

In the 1980s, he served three years in Portlaoise Prison for IRA membership. Remarking on the case to the Irish Examiner, he said: “When I got to court, a superintendent said I was a member of the IRA, I said I was not and the judge took the word of the superintendent.”

He won a seat for Sinn Féin on Cork City Council in 1999 but was forced to stand down in 2000 following ill health. 

In 2021, Mr O'Leary was awarded an honorary doctorate by UCC for services to the community and education.

He spent 18 years as the director of the Cork Life Centre, which caters for young people who are not properly served by the education system. He resigned from his position at the end of 2023. 

In 2022, Mr O'Leary appeared on The Mick Clifford Podcast to discuss his life and career. You can listen to that conversation below. 

More to follow...