O'Kelly, George Cornelius (‘Con’) (1886–1947), wrestler and boxer, was born 4 March 1886 in Gloun, Dunmanway, Co. Cork; nothing is known of his parents. He was educated at St Patrick's national school in Dunmanway and took part in boxing, cycling, and wrestling locally. He left Ireland in 1902, emigrating to Hull, Yorkshire, where he joined the local police force in September of that year. It was a colleague in the fire brigade division, attached to the police, who encouraged O'Kelly to join a local wrestling club, and in 1905 he won the British heavyweight freestyle (then called ‘catch-as-catch can’, to separate it from the Greco-Roman variety) championship. In 1908, while representing Great Britain, he became the only Irishman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, winning the Olympic freestyle wrestling super-heavyweight (over 161 lb./73 kg) title. After beating the American Lee J. Talbot in the first round, he beat his British team mate Harry Foskett in the second round before defeating fellow Irishman Edmond Barrett (qv), who was also representing Britain, in the semi-final. Barrett had beaten O'Kelly to win the British title earlier that year. In the final O'Kelly triumphed over his Norwegian opponent Jakob Gunderson, the Scandinavian and US champion, by two falls to nothing. Although O'Kelly was much the heavier man, and did all the work, his slighter opponent managed to wriggle out of a succession of seemingly impossible situations, till finally being pinned after 13 minutes 27 seconds, and a second time 3 minutes 35 seconds later. O'Kelly was afforded a hero's reception on his return to Hull, when 12,000 people turned out to see him being paraded through the streets.
The following year he resigned from the police and took up professional wrestling, winning the British Championship and the so-called ‘Championship of Great Britain and Ireland’, and travelled to the US in 1910 with the intention of competing on the American professional circuit. Following advice from Bob Fitzsimmons, the legendary world heavyweight boxing champion, he took up professional boxing instead. Standing at over 6 ft 4 in. (1.93 m) and weighing just over sixteen stone (101.6 kg) at his fighting peak, he lost only one of his professional fights in America; but he was probably too slow and clumsy on his feet in the ring to be a serious championship contender, and he decided to return to England. His US career had left him financially sound and he retired from professional boxing in 1914. He remained a popular and well-known figure in the Hull area, having married (1906) a local woman, Mary Cecilia Larvin (d. 1958), and been a pub landlord for a time. They had two children. Later he had a pot and crockery shop, and also worked for some time as a foreman for his father-in-law's stevedore company, where he amazed his co-workers with demonstrations of his strength. O'Kelly remained heavily involved with boxing after his retirement and eventually fulfilled his ambition of opening a gymnasium at the back of his home in Hull. After the death of his daughter Mona (b. 1912) in the early 1930s the family returned to Ireland and ran a poultry farm in the Cork area for a few years before returning to England to live in Stockport, Cheshire. O'Kelly died 3 November 1947 in Stockport and is buried in Dunmanway.
His son, Con O'Kelly , jr, ‘Young Con ’ (1907–68), was also a wrestler and professional boxer, representing Britain at the 1924 Olympic games in amateur boxing before turning professional. He also won the heavyweight boxing title at the 1924 Tailteann games in Dublin. A game, if sometimes rough, fighter, he was regarded as one of the most promising young boxers of the late 1920s in England, possessing speed, stamina, and a good punch. His career also brought him to box in the US, mainly in the New York, Boston, and Philadelphia areas, but he did not have the height or reach to be a heavyweight champion. In 1938, at the end of his career, he won the British North Area Heavyweight Title. He later became a priest (ordained 1945), and subsequently a monsignor, based in the Manchester and Liverpool areas, till his death on 3 November 1968.