Don was the director of the Cork Life Centre, an institution that touched the lives of many across Leeside
Don O’Leary pictured in at the Cork Life Centre School(Image: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision)
With the bridge between Proby’s Quay and South Main Street due to open to the public later this year, Cork City Council has asked Leesiders to help give it a name. This has sparked calls for the new bridge to be named after the late Don O’Leary, the former director of the Cork Life Centre, who has been described as a ‘contemporary hero’ and ‘charitable stalwart’ by friends and former pupils.
The Cork Life Centre is a volunteer organisation that provides education to young people aged 12 to 18 who have encountered difficulties in mainstream education. The centre helps them prepare for state examinations and works to provide those from disadvantaged backgrounds with all the opportunities they need to succeed.
Don served as the director of the Cork Life Centre from 2006 to 2023, during which time he changed the lives of countless pupils through his tireless work. In 2022, Don received the Lord Mayor’s Civic Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to empowering young people. Don was the first person to receive a Lord Mayor’s Civic Award outside of City Hall itself.
Don passed away in October, four years after receiving a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Lord Mayor Cllr Fergal Dennehy led tributes to Don, describing him as a fearless advocate who didn’t shy away from challenging authority with honesty and conviction.
A close friend of Don’s, Brian Madden, described him as a ‘contemporary hero’ who made a huge impression on everyone he met.
He said: “Don made a huge impression on everyone he met. I’ve met a lot of impressive people in my life, but Don resonated with me more than anyone in terms of the empathy he had for people, the extraordinary courage and strength he had in dealing with problems or obstacles he faced.
“He basically just took a certain strata of society – children who were struggling with mainstream education – and wanted a safe haven, a holistic learning centre where they could reach their full potential. Don, in his role as director of the Cork Life Centre, was a friend to all of these children and a very important figure in their lives. Don was what I consider to be a contemporary hero; he went out and protected children. He spent 18 years doing that; he wasn’t seeking fame or reward.
“Don truly was a compassionate person, and after he passed away in October, we were engaging with councillors and the Lord Mayor about having a monument erected in Don’s memory in the city. As part of these discussions, it was suggested that maybe we should consider proposing that Don’s name be linked to one of the two new pedestrian and cycle bridges that had been erected near South Main Street. So that’s the purpose of us being on the show: to ask the city of Cork to consider Don as a contemporary hero,” he told the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM.
Brian was joined by William Hosford, a former pupil of the Cork Life Centre, who outlined the immense impact Don had on his life. William paid a heartfelt tribute to Don and described how his time at the Cork Life Centre helped him reach his potential as a child who had been deprived of opportunities growing up.
“[Don] was a man of many caps; he was an advocate for education, a tenacious children’s and human rights activist, and he was trusted by young people, asylum seekers, and refugees so that their voices could be heard by those at the top. He served as a councillor for Sinn Féin and worked with charitable causes for many years. He served on the board of Oberstown, and the man was a UCC lecturer for youth and community work, for which he was awarded an honorary doctorate and last but not least ,he was the director of the Cork Life Centre.
“Don O’Leary was a stalwart of charitable causes over many years, giving a lot of us deprived of opportunity and potential [the chance to] flip that on its head. It’s incredible what just one man was able to do for so many.”
William says that Don was like a second father to him growing up, playing a pivotal role in his upbringing after he had a difficult time in mainstream education.
He continued: “I had a chaotic time in mainstream education. I was one of the few who fell through the cracks, and he threw us a lifeline. It was fascinating what Don was able to do for me, but it wasn’t just what he was able to do for me; it was the opportunities that he was able to give me that I was completely deprived of. Sometimes, you just have to give someone a platform or a louder voice to be heard, understood, or to feel seen.”
Typically, public structures are only named after people who passed away more than twenty years ago – a rule William described as a ‘load of malarky.’ William said that it’s important for Don’s family to see his lifetime of charitable contributions recognised and called on the people of Cork to submit a request to the council for his name to be used for the bridge.
“For me, Don was the bridge between myself and my untapped potential. For many, he was the bridge between achieving and not achieving a second-level education, for many, he was the bridge between addiction and sobriety, and for many, he was the bridge between being suicidal and prospering. So that’s why it’s so important that we come together as a community and give back a percentage of what Don gave us by honouring him in this way,” he concluded.
Submissions for the bridge at Proby’s Quay can be made on the Cork City Council website here.
