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English architect and builder who made his career in Limerick city.

English architect and builder who made his career in Cork city; younger brother of James Pain, with whom he often collaborated.

Journalist, author, bibliophile and aviator Michael O’Toole was born in 1938 in Hospital, County Limerick. He was educated by the Presentation Sisters and the De La Salle Brothers and then in the Polytechnic in Central London. He was a postgraduate student of literature at Trinity College, Dublin.

O’Toole worked as a journalist with the Limerick Weekly Echo, Leinster Leader, Limerick Leader and Limerick Chronicle before joining the staff of the Irish Press Group of Newspapers in Dublin. Here he worked as a senior reporter, aviation correspondent (during which time he learned to fly), news editor, features writer and columnist, winning a national award for his writing. He was a long time ‘Dubliner’s Diary’ columnist with the Evening Press. He also worked for the Daily Telegraph, RTÉ and the BBC and was Ireland correspondent for The Tablet for a number of years.

Following the closure of the Irish Press Newspapers, O’Toole was appointed as a columnist in the Evening Herald and also contributed to the ‘Irishman’s Diary’ in the Irish Times. His rich and varied journalistic career is aptly captured in his best-selling book, More Kicks than Pence (Swords: Poolbeg Press Ltd, 1992).

Although he lived in Dublin, O’Toole never forgot his Limerick roots. He had a holiday home in Kilkee in Co. Clare, from where he paid frequent visits to Limerick. He was deeply interested in the Limerick writer, Kate O’Brien (1897-1974), particularly her early career as a playwright and her journalistic work. He championed the resurgence in interest in Kate O’Brien as one of the most important and influential Irish writers of the twentieth century. He wrote and broadcast on her work, wrote the foreword to the 1994 reissue of Presentation Parlour by Poolbeg and was actively involved in the annual Kate O’Brien Weekend in Limerick.

In the early 1990s, O’Toole began the compilation of a Kate O’Brien bibliography and collaborated with her long-term friend Lorna Reynolds, who at the time was working on a biography of Kate O’Brien. Regrettably, both died before the work could be published. O’Toole’s second book, Cleared for Disaster: Ireland’s Most Horrific Air Crashes, was published posthumously by Mercier in 2006.

Michael O’Toole died on 17 April 2000 at the age of sixty-one. At the time of his death, he had been married for over 30 years to journalist and communications consultant Maureen Browne, with whom he had a daughter, Orla and two sons, Feargal and Justin.

Cliodna O’Riordan and her sister Sally were among the first pupils of the Irish National Ballet School, which was set up in 1954 by Blanaid and Eoin O’Brolchain and Cecil ffrench Salkeld. The school was located at 19 Ely Place, Dublin, and its first director was Valentina Dutko. Dutko was replaced in 1956 by Patricia Ryan, during whose directorship the school evolved into the National Ballet Company.

Member of sales and catering staff at Shannon Airport.

Photographer Gerard O’Meara was born in Cork City in 1944 and lives in Mallow. He took up photography at the age of 14 and received his first professional commission just four years later. Over his long and varied career, theatre and fashion photography have remained closest to his heart.

Stephen O'Mara was born on 5 January 1884 as the second-youngest son of Stephen O'Mara, managing director of O'Mara's Bacon Factory. He entered the family business in 1903, when he travelled to Canada to work in the bacon factory established by the O’Mara family in Ottawa. In 1923, he became Managing Director of O’Mara Limited and created numerous employment opportunities by establishing bacon factories in Claremorris, County Mayo, and Letterkenny, County Donegal, in the 1930s. The three bacon companies were amalgamated in 1938 and formed into the Bacon Company of Ireland.

Throughout his life, Stephen O’Mara played a prominent role in both local and national affairs. When George Clancy, Lord Mayor of Limerick, and his predecessor Michael O’Callaghan were murdered by the British military forces in March 1921, Stephen decided to stand for election and became Mayor. He was re-elected in 1922 and in 1923 but resigned before the expiration of his term of office. Unlike his father and elder brother James, Stephen was opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty but in a conciliatory manner. He was prominently identified with the Sinn Fein movement after the Easter Rising. He was one of Eamon de Valera’s strongest supporters and a member of his Fianna Fail Party since its formation in 1926.

In 1921, Stephen O’Mara was selected to go to America as Special Envoy appointed by Dáil Éireann to the United States to oversee one of the country’s biggest fundraising drives to finance the first Dáil and was made Trustee of the funds. The funds-drive was terminated following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Considering himself as the exchequer to the Irish Free State, O’Mara refused to hand over the collected funds to the pro-Treaty administration which resulted in his imprisonment in 1922-1923. He had also been imprisoned for seven days in 1921 for refusing to pay a fine of £10 for non-compliance with a military summons.

The bulk of the money collected during the Bond Drive was left in various banks in New York and remained untouched for a number of years. In 1927, following legal action between the Irish Government and Eamon de Valera, a court in New York ordered that money outstanding to bond holders must be paid back. Having anticipated such a ruling, de Valera’s legal team invited bond holders to sign over their bonds to de Valera, for which they were paid 58 cents to the dollar. The monies so accumulated were used to launch the national daily newspaper, Irish Press. Stephen O’Mara served on the paper’s Board of Directors until 1935.

In 1932, Stephen O’Mara was once again sent to America on a mission involving the various consular and diplomatic offices maintained in the country by the Irish Government. Two years later, he was appointed a member of the Commission on Vocational Organisation, on which he served until 1943. In 1959, he was created a member of the Council of State following de Valera’s inauguration as President of Ireland. Stephen O’Mara died less than two months after his appointment, on 11 November 1959.

Stephen O’Mara married in 1918 Anne O’Brien, third daughter of Thomas O’Brien of Boru House, and the couple had an adopted son, Peter O’Mara.