Brendan O'Kelly

Apart from being an Olympic footballer, Brendan O’Kelly was a well-known Irish public servant and businessman. Educated at a Dublin secondary school, O’Kelly went on to study commerce at University College Dublin, and during that time played both Association and Gaelic Football.

An inside-forward with Bohemians, O’Kelly played for the League of Ireland against the Scottish League in 1948 and was then a member of the last Ireland team to play at the Olympics, when they were beaten 3-1 by the Netherlands in a qualifying match at Portsmouth. Some sources incorrectly say that O’Kelly scored Ireland’s goal that day, but the scorer was Bobby Smith.

O’Kelly was invited to go for a trial at the leading English club of the day, Wolverhampton Wanderers, but his father thought it better that he continued his education. O’Kelly played for Bohemians against the visiting Manchester United side in 1948 and scored one of the “Bohs” goals in a 2-1 win over the reigning FA Cup holders. After the Olympics, O’Kelly’s form dipped, and following moves to Shamrock Rovers and Waterford United he returned to Bohemians and played his last game for them in 1952.

Upon leaving University, O’Kelly worked for Lever Brothers and then became managing director of David Brown Tractors in Northern and Southern Ireland. During John F. Kennedy’s visit to Ireland in 1963 O’Kelly learned about the advanced marketing course at Harvard Business School from the US president and subsequently joined it. That helped him in his role as chief executive to the Sea Fisheries Board (BIM), as he was passionate about Irish fish stocks. He later worked as a fisheries and economic development advisor to the United Nations and was responsible for the creation of Ireland’s Department of Marine. He also served as a director of the giant Spanish fishing company Pescanova, who had an Irish subsidiary. O’Kelly was rightly regarded as being “the father of the modern Irish fishing industry”.