The Cherries triggered a release clause in his contract, which had been activated earlier in the summer by Crawley Town, but O'Kane turned down a move to the Sussex side, that pipped the Gulls to automatic promotion from League Two.
Instead, he will be heading to the Fitness First Stadium where he will be looking to develop his promising career, whilst Martin Ling will assess the options open to him regarding his replacement.
“There has been an expectation that Eunan may leave
and I did plan ahead for life without him when he was talking to
Crawley,” said Ling.
“I always felt, after the
season Eunan had last year, that a club from League 1 or above would
come in and pay the release clause in his contract.
“I would have loved to keep him but, in the same breath, it is a good move for him personally and good for our club financially.
“My final word on Eunan would be, as I’ve always said, he is a player who reminds me of myself. He can unlock defences and likes to use the football.
“As a person and a player, I have nothing but admiration and goodwill for Eunan O’Kane.”
O'Kane first arrived at Plainmoor in January 2010 as a raw recruit from Irish League side Coleraine looking for his second chance in English football after being released by Everton as a youngster.
He made his debut away to Chesterfield on January 16th 2010 as a substitute and by the end of the 2009-10 campaign had made 16 appearances and scored once away at Darlington on March 6th 2010.
During this time he had sufficiently impressed the then Gulls boss Paul Buckle to offer him a two-year contract.
The following season saw Eunan build on the progress he made during his first campaign as he scored eight goals in 55 appearances in all competitions, as Torquay reached the League Two Play-Off final where they were beaten by Stevenage.
One of his eight goals included the winning strike in the Gulls FA Cup third round win over Carlisle United, a moment which Eunan described as a childhood dream come true.
After their Play-Off final heartache and the departure of Paul Buckle to Bristol Rovers, Eunan became a pivotal figure for his successor Martin Ling as he looked to rebuild the side after the departures of key individuals such as Guy Branston, Chris Zebroski and Scott Bevan.
Perhaps the greatest memory Gulls' fans will have of his time at Plainmoor would be the two goals, which he scored in Torquay's 3-1 win over Plymouth Argyle on November 19th 2011.
After a turgid first half the game sprung to life in the 47th minute when Eunan fired home a stunning opening strike from distance.
If that goal was merely a good goal, his second, two minutes later, was a fusion of beauty and intelligence as he spotted Argyle keeper Romain Larrieu off his line and struck from 40-yards to double the Gulls' lead as they eventually ran out as 3-1 winners.
As well as being the Gulls' first first win over the Pilgrims in 40 years, it was also their biggest ever win over the Pilgrims.
Unfortunately, the 2011-12 season would end in a similar manner to the previous one as Torquay missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season to Crawley before losing to Cheltenham Town in the Play-Offs.
However, this shouldn't diminish Eunan's displays in midfield, which compare favourably to those of Alex Russell and Jason Fowler during the Gulls' automatic promotion winning side of the 2003-04 season.
During the summer prior to his move to the Cherries, Eunan completed his switch of international allegiance from Northern Ireland, whom he had represented at Youth and Under-21 level, to the Republic of Ireland and represented their Under-21 side twice during the close season.
It's fair to say O'Kane did more than OK during his two-and-a-half seasons at Plainmoor, he did pretty darn good.
