With everyone away from the Oval for an undetermined period, we have decided to bring Glentoran supporters some of the most compelling content from the multi award winning Glentoran Gazette. We hope you will enjoy the stories and player interviews we bring and that it will encourage you to buy a Gazette at our home matches when football returns. Many thanks to the Glentoran Supporters Committee (1923) for use of this material. The "Team Talks" series will consist of interviews with current squad members with John Grayden this season.
Ciaran O'Connor
interview with John Grayden
It’s fair to say that Ciaran O’Connor’s world has turned upside down in the last three months.
From a man preparing to play Leinster League football he’s back in the full-time game and looking to chase top tier trophies.
Much of the impetus for the change has come in events away from the pitch. Ciaran was wrestling with his commitments to training and playing for Warrenpoint and his job in car sales at home in Dundalk when his partner Gillian was taken into Dublin’s Rotunda hospital at 29 weeks pregnant with the couple’s twin girls.
“I was looking to get out of my contract at Warrenpoint and drop down to Leinster league level or maybe even give up the game altogether when Gillian was hospitalised. By the time the girls were born prematurely at the start of November, I’d decided to take a break from football,” Ciaran said.
A little over a month later a full-time offer from Glentoran was on the table – a deal he describes as a “no-brainer” – and his Oval move was completed at the start of January when he became a free agent.
If he makes the panel for today’s game Ciaran hopes there won’t be any ill feeling from his former coaches and teammates over the manner of his departure from Milltown.
“I was juggling football, a full time job and my partner being taken into hospital. The Glens offer of full time football makes things much easier from a personal point of view. Now I only have to worry about the family and the game,” Ciaran added.
“I know Barry Gray well and have a lot of time for him. I hope he feels the same way about me.”
On the domestic front with Gillian recovering from the birth of the girls, the couple are looking to the future. Their twins – Ava and Mia – are doing well. “They are perfect and they are absolutely flying,” said Ciaran who spoke to the Gazette after doing the night shift with his daughters.
He revealed that Paul Millar’s move for him was not the first time the Glens chief recruiter had tried to sign him. “He tried to persuade me to sign for Glenavon when he was coaching there.”
Unlike Millar, most Glens fans are not aware their latest midfielder has considerable European and big game experience from his time at Dundalk after being signed for his local club from school by Stephen Kenny, now the Republic’s under21 boss.
“I did my Leaving Cert at the age of 16 and Stephen signed me for Dundalk. I had been in the full time game until I signed for Warrenpoint in 2018 and didn’t know much about other work until I went into car sales,” the midfielder said.
“I had some great times with Dundalk when the club reached the group stages of the Europa league in 2016 after being beaten in the play-off round of the Champions League. I was on the bench against sides like Zenit St Petersburg and Maccabi Tel Aviv. I also played a lot of cup games for Dundalk and was on the bench twice in FAI cup finals,” Ciaran added.
His time at the Airtricity champions was peppered with loan spells at Warrenpoint, Derry City, Finn Harps and Bohemians before a full time move to Finn Harps and his part-time spell at Warrenpoint when fellow Dundalk man Stephen O’Donnell persuaded him to re-join the Milltown club.
Still only 23, he arrives at the Oval with a clear aim. “I’ve always known Glentoran to be a massive club and it’s important for them to be challenging for trophies, Ciaran said. “It won’t be all plain sailing in the short term, but things are starting to click. The fans deserve success and I’m here to do well and to win trophies if I can.”
“Mick has been building a squad and there’s now strength in depth. We can take players out of the team now and replace them with others of similar calibre and not every club in the league can do that,” he added.
And although he has only been around the club for a few weeks, he has an interesting take on the McDermott-Millar partnership. “They are two different characters. Mick picks the team and takes any blame for the way things are going on the pitch.
“Paul tries to keep us all calm, it’s important to have someone like him around the club, they are two sides of the coin and I would say that’s one of the reasons why things have turned around so quickly at the club,” said Ciaran who admits he is still a bit red-faced over his penalty miss last weekend.
He has settled quickly at Glentoran and travels to Belfast three times a week with Gavin Peers and Conor Pepper. “I live close to Exit 17 on the M1 so I meet them there on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On the other days I drive up myself to link up with the other full-timers.”
“I know another of the Glens new signings, Keith Cowan, from my time at Harps. He was a big figure for them. He will do well at the Oval,” said Ciaran.
“I lived in Donegal during my time there. Living away from home makes you grow up quickly and if you have the right mentality it can only benefit you. I also lived in Derry during my time there and I still think I played my best football at that time.”
With his experience of the Airtricity and NIFL competitions, he views them as different animals. “The game in Northern Ireland is a lot more physical. You could say the game down south is much more technical but most of the clubs there are full time so they have time to work on their shape and tactical approach to games,” he said.
