Tullamore mental health advocate is 2021 Offaly Person of the Year

MENTAL health activist and founder of Accessible Counselling Tullamore (ACT), James O'Connor has been selected as the 2021 Offaly Person of the Year.

Mr O'Connor will be presented with the prestigious award at a gala dinner in the Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore on Saturday, April 9 next, commencing at 7pm.

The businessman, who runs the company fititout.ie, and founded a charity has spoken publicly in the past about how he needed psychiatric care after suffering a breakdown when his baby daughter died.

The little infant Leah Victoria passed away in 1999 and after first opening up about his mental health difficulties in 2015, Mr O'Connor has become a prominent campaigner.

“A lot of people around me started to take their own lives, young people. The age group was similar to when I had my own issues,” he said.

Mr O'Connor became active in battling the stigma associated with mental health struggles and became an ambassador for the See Change Green Ribbon campaign.

He then decided to found Accessible Counselling Tullamore (ACT) as a community-based response.

“The whole idea is early intervention, we’re not a crisis centre so we look at grabbing a problem when it’s small and dealing with it,” he explained in an interview on the Late Late Show last year to RTE 1 viewers.

Mr O'Connor was a guest of Ryan Tubridy after receiving a €20,000 donation from AXA Ireland under its Community Hero awards programme.

In addition to receiving €20,000 from Axa for ACT, Mr O'Connor was given another €5,000 personally and he decided to donate it to nine organisations – Offaly Domestic Violence Support Services, Tullamore Men's Shed, Dochas Offaly Cancer Support, Offaly Hospice, Good 2 Talk Westmeath, Anam Chara Counselling, Living Links, Offaly Down Syndrome Association and Feileacain (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association of Ireland).

“I am so thankful to everyone that fund-raised and donated to ACT since we opened. I am so thankful for each and every donation ACT has received and I thank you all for your generosity and for investing in the mental health of our community,” he said.

Speaking following the announcement of the award Mr O'Connor paid tribute to the hard-working team at ACT and also thanked his partner Lisa Guing: “I may have had the idea but she is the one that did all the hard work behind the scenes and continues to do so every day.”

He said the team at ACT had been very busy during the Covid period and now had almost 950 clients on their books.

The 2021 Offaly Person of the Year also extended his grateful to the HSE Suicide Prevention Officer for the region, Jospehine Rigney for her ongoing support for ACT.

The recipient of the 2021 Unsung Hero of Offaly Award will be announced next week.

Both awards are organised by a sub-committee of the Offaly Association (Dublin).

Tickets for the event will be available in the coming weeks and can be purchased from any member of the organising committee or from the Bridge House Hotel and the Tullamore Tribune.

In all 21 people were nominated by the public for the 2021 award: James O'Connor, Tullamore, Declan Kelly, Kilclonfert, Michaela Morkan, Shinrone, John Cronin, Tullamore,

Seamus Boland, The Island, John Jones, Rhode, Sr Genny, Tullamore, Nicole Turner, Portarlington (Gracefield), Darragh Kenny, Belmont, Daingean GAA, Pullough Community Shop, John Feehan, Birr; Abdul Hafiz, Tullamore; Geraldine O'Neill, Daingean; John O'Connor, Durrow; Paul Galvin, Tullamore; Bertie McMahon, Clara; Jack McDermott, Tullamore; Brian Sheridan, Clara; Peter Ormonde, Shinrone, Ken Smollen, Tullamore and Clara.