From the Archives: Owen Connolly, Veterinary College Caretaker

Owen Connolly (pictured below with Vet College porters/switchboard operators John Bolton (left) and James McMahon (right)) is as old as the College buildings and is wearing his age much better than they are. In his 77th year, Owen is still working as Caretaker of the College. He is from Cootehill, Co. Cavan and his brother, aged 85 is still up there.

Born in 1901, he joined the Depart­ment of Agriculture as an agricultural apprentice in 1918. He later went to Athenry Agricultural School, returning afterwards to Ballyhaise where he was Resident Experimental Overseer before coming to the Veterinary College on October 1st 1927 as a groom/caretaker.  

‘I've always enjoyed working here. Before I came I knew a lot about cows and baby beef and pigs and sheep but didn't know much about horses. I had an interview here for the job from the late Professor O'Connor who was Professor of Surgery at the time. There were three professors, one lecturer, and forty students in all here when I joined. The rest of the staff was made up of one laboratory attendant, one anatomy attendant and one groom/caretaker - me. I looked after the feeding and maintaining of horses, cats and dogs and attended the Professor of Surgery during his opera­tions. The first year I was here there were four students in final year and the second there were only two. We got to know them so well we knew their ancestors!’

Every vet who has qualified since 1927 knows Owen. ‘I was standing in Dun Laoire one day looking into a window when a fellow walked up to me and says 'Aren't you Owen Connolly?' I said 'Yes' and he said 'Many's the time I ran messages for you.' He was a vet who had emigrated to New Zealand bought a sheep farm there and was back on a holiday.’

He remembers that Johnston Mooney's had seventy-five horses in the old days, many of which were treated for ailments such as lameness. Also he remembers the foreign students who attended courses, particularly some from Jugo­slavia and India.

He played football, hurling, and handball in his early days for the College. Nowadays, greyhounds are his main spare time interest and exercis­ing them keeps him fit. With a twinkle in his eye he remembers winning the City Plate in Shelbourne Park in 1928 with a dog called ‘Cootehill Lass.’ He has ‘a fairly good one at the moment as well’ he says. But he only goes 'to the dogs' now when he has one running, as he finds it too cold.

Owen lives with his wife in the Col­lege buildings and they have a son who is a schoolteacher in Burnside in England and a daughter married in Surrey.

As caretaker, he locks up the build­ings and inspects them each night and over weekends. He walks through the buildings in his care with an easy familiarity and authority - the famil­iarity of a half-century of experience and the authority of a man at ease with the environment he has chosen for his life's work.

From UCD News, February 1978