Though time and generations have passed since High King Brian Boru, our blood still runs with the ambition, passion, and skill, and perseverance that turn the ordinary in to the extraordinary. To honor and commemorate the extraordinary O’Briens throughout history, we recognize these individuals in The O’Brien Clan Hall of Fame.

*O’Brien, Kate – Novelist and Dramatist

Born in Limerick, 1897; educated at Laurel Hill Convent, Limerick, and UCD. Worked in London as a jounalist and then as a teacher. After a period in Washington as secretary to James O’Mara, who was organising a Dail Eireann loan for De Valera, she went to Spain as a governess. In 1924 she returned to London and married a young Dutchman, Gustav Renier, author of ” Are the English Really Human?” The marriage was not a success. Her writing career began in 1926 with a play, “Distinguished Villas” which ran in London for three months. Her first novel, “Without My Cloak”, set in Limerick among the prosperous merchant class, appeared in 1931 and received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. It was followed by ” The Anteroom” (1934) and “Mary Lavelle” (1936). In 1937 she published a travel book “Farewell Spain”. Her novel “The Land of Spices” (1941) was banned by the Censorship Board. During the Second World War she worked in the Ministry of Information in London. “The Last of Summer” appeared in 1943, and a historical novel set in Spain “That Lady” was published in 1946. She was refused entry to Spain for some years because of her treatment of Philip II in that novel. It was dramatised in 1949 and played on Broadway with Katherine Cornell in the lead. In 1946 whe won the Irish Women Writer’s Club prize for her novel “For One Sweet Grape”, and in 1947 she was elected a member of the IAL. In 1950 she bought a house at Roundstone Co. Galway, and lived there until 1961. She continued to write novels, publishing ” The Flower of May” in 1953 and ” As Music and Splendour”, her last in 1958. ” English Diaries and Journals” appeared in 1943 and “My Ireland” in 1962. She returned to England in 1961 and lived in the village of Boughton, not far from Canterbury. She visited Ireland and Spain regularly, having been allowed into Spain in 1957 through intervention of the Irish ambassador. Died in hospital in Canterbury on 13 August 1974.

*O’Brien, Davey – American Football Player

American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles, Robert David O’Brien won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award in 1938. Today, The Davey O’Brien Award, given annually to the best quarterback in collegiate football, is named for him. O’Brien began playing college football at Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1935; he became the starter in 1937, and was named to the first-team All-Southwest Conference. In 1938, O’Brien threw for 1,457 passing yards — a Southwest Conference record that stood for ten years. He had only four interceptions in 194 passing attempts, and his NCAA record for most rushing and passing plays in a single-season still stands today. That season, he led the Horned Frogs to an undefeated season, as they outscored their opponents by a 269-60 margin and held nine of their ten regular-season opponents to seven points or less, including three shutouts. They finished the season with a 15–7 victory over Carnegie Tech in the 1939 Sugar Bowl and the National Championship title. O’Brien was named to 13 All-America teams and became the first player to win the Heisman, Maxwell and Walter Camp trophies in the same year. He was also the first Heisman winner from TCU and the first from the Southwest Conference. In his first season in the NFL, drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1939, he led the NFL in passing yards as a rookie with 1,324 yards in 11 games, breaking his old TCU teammate Sammy Baugh’s single season passing yardage record. hHe retired after the 1940 season. O’Brien retired from football to become an agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he worked for ten years. In 1971, he was diagnosed with cancer, to which he succumbed on November 18, 1977.

O’Brien, Dan – Olympic Athlete

Deemed one of the best decathlon athletes of the 1990s, winning an Olympic gold medal after winning three consecutive world titles, Portland, Oregon’s Dan O’Brien has broken athletic records throughout his career. Of African American and Finnish heritage, Dan grew up as an adopted child in an Irish-American family in Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA. His name is today attached to the outdoor track and field venue at the University of Idaho, where he quietly trained for his Olympic and world championships under the aid of Idaho’s track coach, Mike Keller. O’Brien won the Olympic gold medal for decathlon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and also won gold medals at the 1991, 1993, and 1995 World Championships in Athletics. In 1992 he set a world record of 8,891 points, and appeared in a popular TV advertising campaign for Reebok. In 2009, O’Brien broke the world record for the fastest game of hopscotch on Chelsea Piers with a record of 1 minute and 21 seconds, breaking the old mark by two seconds. He has been a resident of the Phoenix, Arizona, USA area since 1997. He owns Gold Medal Acceleration, a gym in Scottsdale, is a volunteer track coach at ASU, and does commentary for track and field events on television.