Early Life
O'Connell was a star swimmer when he was younger, starting his training with Seal Swimming Club under the watchful guidance of John Dempsey and Jerry Ryan, before moving on to the Limerick squad. O'Connell attended the Model School and Ardscoil Rís in Limerick, and played rugby under Des Harty's tutelage, representing Irish Schools in 1997–98 along with international teammate Gordon D'Arcy. He also played five consecutive games with the Ireland U21s with Donncha O'Callaghan as his second row partner. O'Connell has completed 3 out of 4 years of a Computer Engineering degree at the University of Limerick, deferring the remainder of the degree in order to concentrate on rugby.
Read more about this topic: Paul O'Connell
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)