W. H. Conn

Who was W. H. Conn?

William H. Conn was an Irish cartoonist, illustrator, watercolourist and poster artist. The son of a lithographer, he was educated at the Ulster Provincial School, now Friends' School, Lisburn. From 1936 he was a staff artist for the Belfast Telegraph and its sports sister paper Ireland's Saturday Night, creating a regular strip, "The Doings of Larry O'Hooligan", for the latter. He drew a monthly full-page illustration for Dublin Opinion magazine, sometimes satirical, sometimes observational scenes of rural and urban Irish life, sometimes ghostly gothic scenes, and also contributed spot cartoons. He created colour posters for Northern Ireland Railways and exhibited his watercolours and black and white drawings. He died on 25 August 1973 after a three-year illness. He was a lifelong bachelor.