Background
Born in Millom, Cumberland, England on 24 October 1872, O'Connor grew up in Wicklow, County Wicklow, Ireland.
Born in Millom, Cumberland, England on 24 October 1872, O'Connor grew up in Wicklow, County Wicklow, Ireland.
He joined the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1896. Over the next ten years he consistently beat British athletes in international competitions. The (British) Amateur Athletic Association invited him to represent Britain in the Olympic Games in 1900, but he refused as he only wished to represent Ireland.
In 1906 O'Connor and two other athletes, Con Leahy and John Daly, were entered for the Intercalated Games in Athens by the IAAA and GAA, representing Ireland. They were given green blazers and cap with a gold shamrock, and an Irish flag (the ‘Erin Go Bragh’ flag). However, the rules of the games were changed so that only athletes nominated by National Olympic Committees were eligible.
Ireland did not have an Olympic Committee, and the British Olympic Council claimed the three. On registering for the Games, O'Connor and his fellow-athletes found that they were listed as Great Britain, not Irish, team members. In the long jump competition, O'Connor finally met Myer Prinstein of the Irish American Athletic Club who was competing for the U.S. team and whose world record O'Connor had broken five years previously.
The only judge for the competition was Matthew Halpin, who was manager of the American team. O'Connor protested, fearing bias, but was overruled. He continued to protest Halpin's decisions through the remainder of the competition.
The distances were not announced until the end of the competition. At the flag-raising ceremony, in protest at the flying of the Union Flag for his second place, O'Connor scaled a flagpole in the middle of the field and waved the Irish flag, while the pole was guarded by Con Leahy. He remained involved in athletics all his life.
He died in Waterford on 9 November 1957.