Mr Patrick Denis O'Connell was born on 24 May 1893 in Kingwilliamstown (modern-day Ballydesmond), Co Cork, Ireland.

He was the son of Denis Timothy O'Connell (b. circa 1858), a farmer and publican, and his wife Johanna "Hannah" O'Connor (b. circa 1859) who had married on 22 February 1887.

One of six surviving children from a total of seven, Patrick's siblings were: Mary Anne (b. 4 August 1888), Timothy (b. 22 March 1890), Hannah (b. 11 August 1891), Catherine (b. 2 March 1895) and Julia (b. 22 October 1896) and he grew up in a Roman Catholic household which, for the time in Ireland, was financially comfortable.

Patrick first appears on the 1901 census living in house 5 in Kingwilliamstown. By the time of the 1911 census, he was described as a farm servant and still living with his family, then at house 1 in Kingwilliamstown.

Patrick boarded the Titanic at Queenstown as a third-class passenger (ticket number 334912 which cost £7, 14s, 8d). His reason for travelling or his exact destination is not known but he was travelling with a group of others from his locality, including his cousin Daniel Buckley, alongside Bridget Bradley, Patrick O'Connor, Nora O'Leary and Michael Linehan. He is believed to have shared a cabin with his fellow Cork men.

Daniel Buckley, the only survivor from the Cork men in his cabin, awoke after the collision to find seawater ankle-deep on the floor. 

"I heard some terrible noise and I jumped out on the floor, and the first thing I knew my feet were getting wet; the water was just coming in slightly. I told the other fellows to get up, that there was something wrong and, that the water was coming in. They only laughed at me. One of them says: "Get back into bed. You are not in Ireland now."

He hurriedly dressed and his three bunkmates eventually got out of bed; with it being a small cabin, Buckley left to give them room to dress whilst he waited outside. Two crewmen passed by shouting "All up on deck unless you want to get drowned!" and Buckley immediately hastened to the upper decks and never saw his friends again. 

Patrick O'Connell died in the disaster and his body, if recovered, has never been identified.

His parents remained near Ballydesmond; his father died on 14 August 1939 and his mother on 24 April 1951.