Killarney

<p>By Sean Moriarty</p>
<h3>A Glenflesk man who died in tragic circumstances at Christmas is to be forever remembered in a book.</h3>
<p>The Glenflesk community woke to the worst possible news on St Stephen’s Day when they learned that Johnny &#8216;The Rock&#8217; O&#8217;Brien, had died in a house fire.A passing motorist alerted emergency services after seeing the fire in the early hours of December 26.A popular local figure, ‘The Rock’ was a farmer who lived his entire life at the roadside farmhouse near Glenflesk.He was well-known to passing motorists, a friendly honk of a car’s horn was always met by an equally happy salute from the bachelor farmer.His love of his animals made national headlines a few years ago as he saved them from flooding after a severe storm.A central part of the local community, ‘The Rock&#8217; was supposed to climb The Paps with a group of locals on the Monday morning of his death to raise funds for two charities.Now&nbsp;a friend and neighbour wants to remember him and she is looking for old photos and anecdotes to compile into a book.“The idea is to gather stories and anecdotes from as wide a group of Johnny&#8217;s friends and neighbours as possible and combine them with as many photos as possible.“[Photographer] Valerie O&#8217;Sullivan is completely behind this project and has promised to help with photos of Johnny,” said his neighbour and friend Lucy Chisholm Greenfield in a social media post.“The plan is to self-publish a little book to keep Johnny&#8217;s memory alive. I will absorb the costs and the price will be set low to encourage everyone who knew him to buy a copy.“All money from the sale of books will go to the two charities that Johnny was intending to raise money for by walking to the summit of one of The Paps with Sam McGuire on St Stephen&#8217;s Day. The walk went ahead in the snow but without Johnny and with heavy hearts.”The two charities that the book will support are the Kerry Cancer Support Group and The Brian Lawlor Trust.</p>


Book to remember Johnny ‘The Rock’ O’Brien

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