![\"Donal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4910957_3_articleinlinemobile_1108816.jpg\" "\\"Donal")
Donal O’Sullivan, then the Beara chairperson, presenting the Cormac O’Sullivan Cup to his namesake, Glengarriff captain Donal O’Sullivan, in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe late Donal \u2018Butcher\u2019 O\u2019Sullivan has been remembered as \u201ca man who packed a lot into his life\u201d, not least when it came to Castletownbere, Beara and Cork football.<\/p>\n
Manager of the last Beara side to win the county SFC, in 1997, O\u2019Sullivan also led the division to county minor glory in 2003 and U21 in 2006. He also managed the Cork minor team in 2014 and 2015 and served as chair of the Beara board.<\/p>\n
Former county board PRO and outgoing Beara secretary Joe Blake says that O\u2019Sullivan leaves a strong legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, condolences to Aisling and the kids, Cormac and Niamh,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re going to feel the loss the greatest. His family has been steeped in football \u2013 his brother Miley was part of the 1967 Beara panel that won the county, then Martin was on the 1997 panel, and obviously Andrew, his nephew, was captain of Cork when they won the U21 All-Ireland in 2007.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonal was a man who had an iconic status down here – very few people in Cork have managed teams to win minor, U21 and senior county titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk about people being glass half-full or half-empty \u2013 with Donal, the glass was always over-flowing with enthusiasm and positivity, what could be done, and it didn’t matter if it was for Castletown or for Beara or for Cork, he was always full of positivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no negativity in his life; he had an absolutely massive can-do attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d be most famously known for 1997 \u2013 they had leaders all over the field on that team, but he was the man who pulled it together.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had great selectors in Barry Murphy and Johnny Houlihan, but he was the general, he was the gaffer. I think he was ahead of his time in terms of his organisational skills; he looked out for so many of that team and for Beara people. He\u2019ll be a massive loss to everybody in Beara who knew him and the greater football circle and the greater football community in Cork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donal O’Sullivan, then the Beara chairperson, presenting the Cormac O’Sullivan Cup to his namesake, Glengarriff captain Donal O’Sullivan, in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A selector of the Cork minor side that reached the All-Ireland final in 2010, O\u2019Sullivan was never found wanting when action was required.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven back in 2022, I remember taking a call from him and meeting himself and Barry Murphy in Ballincollig to discuss what could be done for P\u00e1draig Crowley in the situation he found himself in,\u201d Blake said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no feeling sorry, it was a case of P\u00e1draig was in this scenario and we needed to help him \u2013 \u2018This is the gameplan and this is what you’re going to do.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a great way of getting people to do stuff – very few people would say no to Donal. He had a great way of bringing people together from all the clubs, especially in 1997. He was fighting on three fronts, effectively, because Castletownbere got to the intermediate final and the Beara U21s won the county that year as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had everybody training together and it was a case of whatever team was playing that week got priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Beara final that year, Garnish beat Adrigole and, after the game, lads hopped into cars and went off and played a challenge game together for Beara!<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was assistant manager at the Fisherman’s Co-op and he was great for giving young fellas summer jobs and everything. He was great that way – he kept everybody around him on the straight and narrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the 25-year anniversary of 1997, in 2022, Donal made sure that they were the best togged-out team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got ill at the start the year and it was a great shock for everybody. He didn’t have too many years of retirement but he packed a lot into his life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The late Donal \u2018Butcher\u2019 O\u2019Sullivan has been remembered as \u201ca man who packed a lot into his life\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-208238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}