Brennan mourns death of ‘iconic’ O’Brien
GAA president Nickey Brennan has today expressed his deep sadness on learning of the death of Louth’s 1957 All-Ireland winning captain, Dermot O’Brien.
Mr Brennan described Dermot O’Brien as “an immensely talented man who had left a huge impression on the many thousands of people who had seen him play football and entertain at the highest level”.
“Everyone in the GAA would be saddened to hear of the death of such an iconic figure,” he said.
Brennan added that O’Brien’s death would be a massive and grievous loss to his family and he expressed his condolences on behalf of everybody in the GAA to the family, friends and former teammates.
A member of the St Mary’s club in Ardee, O’Brien won three Louth Senior Football championship medals in 1951, 1956 and 1960 and also played for one year with Navan O’Mahony’s.
In 1953, he won a Leinster Senior Championship medal as part of the Louth team that defeated Wexford in the Leinster final.
In 1957, he won his second Leinster Championship medal when Louth defeated Dublin in the Leinster final and in September of that year lifted the Sam Maguire cup.
O’Brien was a renowned musician and singer and his recording of “The Merry Ploughboy” went straight to number 1 in the Irish Charts in 1966.
He hosted his own Television programmes, including “The Dermot O’Brien Show” on RTÉ television and his talents as an accordion player were respected the world over.
He also had a great love of the Irish language and his All-Ireland winning speech in 1957 was delivered primarily in the native tongue.
