A conversation about Conor's life.

Conor was born and grew up in Dublin. After studying Business, Economics and Social Studies in Trinity College Dublin he went to Sandhurst to train as an officer in the British Army. He served in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in the winter of 2012/2013 - a Lieutenant and Police Advisory Commander - and later rose to the rank of Captain as he travelled the world conducting training exercises as a Forward Air Controller. He left the army in 2017 and after a tricky couple of years figuring out what he wanted to do and an MBA in Edinburgh, he has arrived in his current role as a Vendor Operations Manager at Google - running a team of about 500 people around the world who make sure the advertising mechanisms and metrics of google partners’ websites are working as they should.

We delve into a lot of fascinating subjects in this interview - with particular focus on Conor’s time in Afghanistan.

When so much of what we hear about the events unfolding there is filtered through the media, it was a privilege for me to have a conversation with someone who’d seen it with their own eyes. Obviously no one perspective can be definitive - and the most important perspective would have to be that of Afghan people themselves - but nevertheless I really enjoyed hearing Conor’s very honest take on what he saw and experienced.

Episode guide:

0.00 Intro

4.00 Decision to train as an officer in British army as an Irish guy.

12.00 Relationship with fear. Incident involving one of his men being injured in Helmand Province. Injured man's later success.

22.45 Military training - is it as elite as general populace thinks? His time at Sandhurst and a vivid story from a training exercise. Do soldiers grumble to commanding officers?

40.50 Afghanistan. The mission. What has happened lately is no surprise to anyone who served there. A medieval world. Insider threat. Good people who wanted change. Agrees with Biden's point on the original intent being anti-terrorist. Lost their way. Is it ever appropriate for Western powers to intervene elsewhere?

1.01.17 Conversations with Afghan people. Poppy fields. Don't stand down wind of burning hash fields. The women of Afghanistan. Brief mention of the darkness involving children.

1.08.22 Post-Afghanistan life in the military. Forward Air Controller. Most fun he had in military. The strange phenomenon of military operatives feeling like they're in a video game. Adventure. His awkward moment of being an Irishman in the British army. Pisstakings - Captain Potato. Thoughts on UK and Ireland.

1.24.30 Decides to leave military. Trying to figure out what to do. Brexit made up his mind to leave UK. Tries out finance, not his cup of tea. MBA in Edinburgh. Opts against a career involving Saudi weaponry that's a little too evil. Gets job at Google.

1.31.15 Describes job at Google. Did being a former army officer make him shit hot at his job? Taking a leading role in preparing his teams to work from home around the world. Company culture. His thoughts on the controversial aspects of Google. Data etc.

1.50.10 Does he miss the military? Did he fire a gun in anger?

1.58.13 Outro.

Guest: Conor O'Shea

Host and producer: Donal Gallery 

Artwork by Anna Obert https://www.instagram.com/annaobertillustration/ 

Music by Donal Gallery 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PathsPodcast 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PathsPodcast 

Get in touch with stories of people who've lived unusual lives at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening