Sean O'Connell (1930s – July 2003) was a Gaelic football manager and player who featured for the Derry county team in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and was on the Derry side that finished runners-up to Dublin in the 1958 All-Ireland Championship – winning an Ulster Championship with the county that year, and three more in 1970, 1975 and 1976.
He was instrumental in helping Ballerin reach the 1976–77 All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship final, where they were defeated by Austin Stacks of Kerry.
[3] In the centenary year of the Gaelic Athletic Association (1984), O'Connell was named in the Football Team of the Century comprising players who never won an All-Ireland.
[1] His other brothers Paddy and Gerard played at Under 21 level for Derry, while Cahir was a decent club player in the 1960s and early 1970s.
[1] That year O'Connell as was part of Derry's first ever Ulster Senior Football Championship winning team,[1] beating Down in the final by four points (1–11 to 2–04).
[6] On 24 August, Derry caused one of the biggest shocks in the history of Gaelic football[7] when the first-time Ulster Champions beat Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final 2-06 to 2–05[6] – O'Connell's "brilliant solo goal" proving decisive.
[6] The 1950s was a decade of very high standards of football and was a very difficult era to win an All-Ireland, with the likes of Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Louth, Cavan, Meath and Dublin having very strong teams at the time.
[6] Unfortunately for Derry, they never quite managed to keep that team together, and only O'Connell from that starting 15 would ever win another Ulster title and play in another All-Ireland semi-final.
[2] In the 1976 Ulster decider replay against Cavan, he came off the bench in extra-time and played a vital role in securing the title for Derry.
[1] Ballerin won their second ever Derry Championship in 1976, this time defeating Dungiven in the final by 0–09 to 0–03, with O'Connell playing a starring role.
[1] They went on to win that year's Ulster Senior Club Football Championship – defeating St. Joseph's (Donegal) in the quarter-final, Enniskillen Gaels (Fermanagh) in the semi-final and Clan na Gael of Armagh in the decider – O'Connell's performances once again proving vital to the club's success.
[1] The team easily beat Killererin of Galway in the 1976–77 All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship semi-final, setting up a final clash with Austin Stacks of Kerry.
His role in bringing Ballerin to the All-Ireland final cannot be underestimated – with two seventeen-year-olds, an eighteen-year-old and a nineteen-year-old among the six forwards, his experience and ability were irreplaceable.