‘Any day if I caught a few good balls and kicked a few good balls, that was success’
Looking back, he doesn’t like to use the word “career” and when asked if the battles with the famed Galway of the 1960s were what come back to him most he replied: “I enjoyed all games whether it was here in Cahirsiveen, Tralee, Fitzgerald Stadium or New Ross, Tuam or any other place I was.
“Any day if I caught a few good balls and kicked a few good balls that was success.
“I played in 10 All-Irelands and lost a bigger percentage than I won (four victories). So be it, I had involvement.
Success is a bit sweeter when you taste a bit of defeat as well.
“That was my view. Looking back on it, it gave me a great association with people from different parts of Kerry and different parts of Ireland and abroad as well. Sport was a great dimension to my life but not everything.”
O’Connell also returned to 1959 when he captained Kerry to an All-Ireland crown and left the Sam Maguire Cup in the dressing room.
“I got the cup from Dr (Joseph) Stuart who was the president of the GAA at the time and my knee was injured the same day. I left the cup in the dressing room and I came home on the train and people asked me the reason I didn’t take the Sam Maguire with me.
"It was the team’s cup, I was no bigger than any other member of the team. The people who were in charge should have taken it home. It came home to the island a few weeks or so afterwards.”
He doesn’t know the location of his four Celtic Crosses.
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t know. I gave one of them to somebody. There was a raffle or something on years ago.”
