Born on Inishmaan to a fisherman and housewife, Ó Conaola trained in the 1960s as a craftsman and woodwork teacher, his subsequent travels including Galway and Dublin, where he met his wife, Pacella, from a family of artists including Albert Power and May Power.
She having trained at The Grafton Academy of Fashion Design in Dublin, they settled on Inisheer and raised their four children.
[3][4][5] On Inisheer, having taken over his deceased uncle's house and land, they ran it as a craft shop producing, amongst other things, traditional red Aran skirts and shawls.
In 1992, Ó Conaola's novella Misiún ar Muir/Sea Mission was first published in 1992 by Ceard Shiopa Inis Oírr Teo., Inishere, Aran Islands, County Galway.
His work has been translated into English, German, French, Croatian, and Romanian, while the short story, Amuigh Liom Féin, is on the Irish Leaving Certificate curriculum.