Sean O’Connell

SUE WARDS

A quote by Albert Einstein hangs in Sean O’Connell’s office: "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” It serves as a reminder to Sean and his staff to look at things a bit differently, helping Sean, an Irishman in Wanaka, live a creatively practical life.

Sean is a busy man, running a design business, helping build his family home, and poking fun at Wanaka issues once a week as his cartooning alter-ego, Penbroke.

He was born and raised on the Irish-speaking west coast of Ireland, in Connemara.

"Where I grew up was probably 99 percent Catholic. If you weren’t Catholic you probably wouldn’t admit it.” Ireland was "well shackled to the Catholic Church” in those days, Sean said.

"For hundreds of years the fight for independence and the fight for the church went hand in hand. Now the pendulum has swung the other way.” The exposure of years of sexual offending by Catholic priests has played a large part in people’s distrust of the church, Sean said.

In his own boarding school, the students knew which priests to avoid. One of those priests was later imprisoned.

"The Bishop of Galway used to come and give us lectures on the evils of sex before marriage,” Sean said. It turned out the Bishop was having a relationship with his housekeeper, fathering her son.

"The rank hypocrisy annoyed Irish people the most,” Sean said.

Sean studied industrial design in Dublin for two years and Limerick for a further two years before working for a design consultancy in Dublin. After a couple of years he moved to London to make enough money to travel. His work as a freelance industrial designer there covered everything from infrared sensors to beer taps.

In 1988 he and a mate made it to Sydney, where Sean spent the next 16 years. He was joined by wife Claire (they had met at college), and they had two of their sons in Sydney, Oisín, 18, and Ferdia, 16. (Rory, 11, was born in Dunedin.)

Sean’s design work led him to New Zealand. While in Sydney he worked mostly for General Electric, visiting New Zealand to work with Fisher & Paykel. He and Claire were thinking of moving to hinterland NSW, where they would have more space, but after a 10 day holiday in New Zealand they decided to move here instead, choosing Wanaka as their favourite place over Karitane, Clyde and Glenorchy.

Sean’s first job in Wanaka was selling real estate. Commission-only sales meant an erratic income, and the experience was a crash course in how the Wanaka community operated.

"I was a bit naive thinking I could move into a small community and form those trusted relationships straight away,” he said.

When Wanaka Signs came on the market, he and Claire thought it would be a good business in a growing town, and they were right. "We also thought it was one of the few creative businesses we could do in Wanaka.” That was 2007, and the O’Connells recently clocked up 10 years in the business.

"I enjoy it. No two days are the same.” One day it’s graphic design, the next he’s putting signs on cars, or climbing ladders to put them on a building. The business weathered the recession in 2008/9, and in the past 18 months, Sean said, "Wanaka has found its sixth gear.”

While Sean’s training was in product design, he always liked drawing and illustrating. So when Nikki Heath, co-owner of the Wanaka Sun, approached him about seven years ago to ask if he would draw a weekly cartoon for the community newspaper, Sean was keen.

They came up with the name ‘Penbroke’ - a play on Wanaka’s former name Pembroke - and Sean reckons he’s only missed five or six editions since then.

There have been surprisingly few controversies about his weekly cartoons. A cartoon about tourists’ driving attracted hate mail from overseas (well, one letter from Australia), and his cartoons about the rowing club’s search for a home provoked comment (Sean acknowledges the rowing club’s proposed waterfront home is a controversial site, but is happy with the decision).

His cartoons often feature a salty old bloke, partly inspired by Wal in Footrot Flats: the Speights-drinking, shorts-year-round, Southern Man. "Everybody knows people like that.” He has noticed a "southern uniform”, and Southern Man’s cartoon wife is usually wearing it.

A Penbroke cartoon from 2014.

Sean has a tight timeframe for the weekly cartoon: the editor lets him know the stories for the week on Wednesday afternoon and he has until early evening to deliver. Sometimes it takes him 15 minutes, sometimes 45. "Sometimes it will come straight to you.” The criteria: it has to be funny and not offensive.

People sometimes ask him to do a cartoon about Trump, or women’s rights, he said. "But it has to be topical and funny - not necessarily related to Wanaka, but it has to be in that week’s newspaper.”

He admires British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe and Ireland’s Tom Mathews, but believes: "Down south there’s not an appetite for that sort of cutting political stuff. Gerald Scarfe was the ultimate cartoonist - the stuff he did of Maggie Thatcher was brutal. But withering is not on the menu down here.”

Sean said he doesn’t see people with a cartoonist’s eye, but his observations suggest he does. ("I’ve always seen John Key, with his high forehead and long nose, as a vampire”, for example). He won’t be drawn on specific "eejits” around town, though. "I haven’t done any scathing cartoons. The ones that people will say something to you about, the ones people relate to more, are the jokey ones.”

So he’s "not on any moral crusade”, it’s just good clean fun. He has drawn more than 400 cartoons by now, and hopes to one day compile the best 100 or so in a book, maybe to mark 10 years of work.

Sean hasn’t returned to Ireland for eight years (he misses it, but is always glad to leave after a few weeks, he said). He’s part of this community, he’s been on the Montessori board of trustees, coached soccer and rowing, and has watched the town dealing with growing pains.

"Everybody lives in Wanaka for a reason. We didn’t want to live in Queenstown, we thought it was too busy.” Wanaka is getting busier, but Sean said the development will continue whether we like it or not. "The challenge is affordable housing and infrastructure.”

Retaining Wanaka’s town centre and a sense of community is important to him. "I like that you can go into town and you’re always going to meet people. That seems to be the thing most people talk about - wanting to retain a sense of community.”

Sean’s mix of fantasy and abstract thinking are helping maintain that sense of community too, through his business - and his cartoons, which give us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves.

PHOTO: Supplied