Welcome to the website of Orla O'Connell Irish Writer  (Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill)

Orla O'Connell Books

Cover. The Way of the Seabhean by Amantha Murphy with Orla O'Connell

The Whelming Tide 

The story I was born to write!

The Lusitania tragedy inspired Orla O'Connell's book

The Sinking of the RMS Lusitania May 7th 1915

On 7th May 1915, the luxury passenger liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the south coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,201 lives (officially 1,198).

My grandfather, Jerome B. Murphy, was area manager of the Cunard Line in Cobh (then called Queenstown). The responsibility for dead bodies and bereaved relatives fell on him. He was subsequently awarded an MBE for his "Service to Humanity", but his heroism came at great personal cost to him and his family.

Jerome B. Murphy's MBE MEDAL

Jerome B Murphy's MBE medal

The Whelming Tide is my fictionalised version of his story. It will be published soon. Read an excerpt here.


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What terrors lurk in the old house?

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