Two dreams made real - Lives worth celebrating

THOUGH brought together by the coincidental timing of their deaths, Vincent O’Brien and Danny La Rue have more in common than is immediately apparent.

Born a decade apart – O’Brien on April 9, 1917, La Rue on July 26, 1927 – hardly 35 miles separated their places of birth. O’Brien was born at Churchtown, Co Cork. La Rue, or Daniel Patrick Carroll as his mother named him, was born in Cork city.

Both were born in an insular, impoverished country where opportunity called but once if it called at all. These men, born just either side of Irish independence, overcame these challenges and lived lives of considerable achievement. La Rue, like more or less everyone else on the planet, would not feel slighted by having to stand in O’Brien’s shadow if the scale of their achievements were considered.