David Connellan has fitted many activity successes into his life. He comes from a sporting dynasty, and his father Paul played numerous sports. David’s sister, Eimear played football with Westmeath GAA – the club where his brothers, Ray and John are household names.
David played GAA, golf and schoolboy soccer with St. Francis. After he left other sports he went fully into rugby.
He studied at Clongowes, mostly for the rugby after moving there from Athlone Community College. Encouragement from home was always there for him, and while his parents wanted David more involved in team sports, they never steered him towards a particular sport.
BUCCANEERS
“Buccaneers were getting really successful when I was a teenager and I travelled with them in 1997-1999 as a ball boy,” he said.
In his 5th and 6th year in secondary school, David played for Leinster and Ireland, and the Six Nations playing took up the guts of five weeks out of school. He enjoyed it all, and his parents, Paul and Mary travelled to most of David’s games, as well as being busy travelling to the games of their other three children. The obvious sporting DNA is through Paul, but Mary also came from a huge sporting background.
“I had a very competitive upbringing, and Mum’s family were big into rugby and her brother was in a Connacht u-20 team, but it is more the support they have shown us all in terms of sport that stands out,” said David.
He scored 143 league points in his breakthrough season at Buccs of 2003/04. He also kicked some well-placed balls in his final season to help the club move clear of the relegation/promotion play-off. At the time, David was also studying Business at GMIT.
Following a shoulder dislocation just prior to the u-21 World Cup, David returned to training with just three months left in the season and in a returning game he had the most pressured kick that he ever had in his life against Lansdowne, which kept Buccs up that year.
When John McKee joined Buccs as coach, he and David hit it off, and McKee helped the Coosan lad take the next club move of his career, in France.
“I was not being kept on with Connacht and thought I could play professionally, so John suggested playing in France,” said David. “I was in a place called Chalon, and that went really well, and I was the top point scorer in France that season in that division, which led to getting a contract with Aurillac in ProD2. France was unbelievable, and I loved it, and had five great seasons there with the top players. I was the kid living out his dream.”
SHOULDER AND HAMSTRING PROBLEMS
He was at his peak of fitness when he noticed problems in his shoulder and hamstring, and put it down to the usual aches and pains, particularly because he was a kicker.
David returned to Ireland to play a season with Buccaneers, and had a couple of bad injuries, and tears, and knew that something was off in his body.
“I wasn’t the world’s biggest tackler, and that was why I got so disillusioned, and I knew something just wasn’t right, so eventually I had to go to a neurologist, Professor Orla Hardiman,” said David.
David was diagnosed with FSH in 2013, a form of muscular dystrophy and unfortunately some fifty percent of sufferers end up in a wheelchair by the age of fifty.
“I had trained very hard in my last season as a pro, but my strength and speed numbers were down, although I was 28 years old then, and should have been at my peak, but physically I wasn’t,” he said. “Prof. Hardiman told me I’d be absolutely crazy to continue rugby because I’m dealing off a curtailed deck of cards. I needed to do sport, and then the Ironman triathlon came up.”
David studied for a Masters in Finance in University of Limerick in 2013, and moved there for a year with money he had saved up from his rugby years. The same year, he did an Ironman Triathlon in Germany, in 13 hours.
“I probably would still be playing rugby if things hadn’t started to feel off, because I had been offered a two year deal in France and I turned it down, but also, real life had to start,” said David. “I have a very mild form of FSH and it wouldn’t have been picked up only for I was so involved in sport. I do think about it every day, but I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff going and you realise it’s really not that big of a deal in a wider context.”
IRONMAN IN BARCELONA
David is currently training for an Ironman competition in Barcelona in October, and last week he did 13 hours of training.
“That’s the standard training week at the moment, but it keeps you disciplined,” said David. “I find the training hugely enjoyable but also very difficult at first, because my body is not wired for Ironman or endurance sport. It’s something I want to do well, because I’ve a competitive nature and I’ve a time in mind, 11 hours 15 minutes. Saying the time I would like reminds me of the amount of work to be done.”
David has been working in Google since last November and in the Dublin building there is a gym and a swimming pool, which suits his training requirements.
“It allows a great work/life balance and is a fantastic place to work, full of great people,” he said.
David has recently taken to broadcasting, and had been doing some sports interviews and commentary with Midlands Radio 3.“I like broadcasting, and like to hear the human interest side of sports stories,” said David.
David has his own website/blog, https://davidconnellan.wordpress.com where he has included audios of many of his interviews from the world of sports and beyond.
“I’m speaking to someone about doing a mini documentary about the Ironman, which will be a human interest piece, so it would be nice to add that to the mix” said David
