Life
1883-1922; b. Dublin, ed. St. Mary’s College, Clongowes Wood College,
and UCD (Arts and Engineering); College of Science diplomas; worked as
railway engineer in Canada, 1911-15; returned to Ireland in answer to
IRB summons; wounded in 1916 Rising; quit IRB after internment on the
grounds that a secret movement could not gain popular support; Director
of Engineering in IRA, and close associate of Collins; opposed Treaty,
and became Chairman of IRA Military Council, March. 1922; occupied Four
Courts with Liam Mellows and others, 13 April 1922; rejected de Valera-Collins
election pact of May 1922; remained in Four Courts under truce conditions
with Free State up to government bombardment with guns supplied by Churchill,
28 June 1922; captured and later executed with other Republican prisoners,
8 Dec., along with Liam Mellows, Richard [“Dick”] Barrett and
Joseph McKelvey, in retaliation for the assassination of Sean Hales, TD.
DIH
[ top ]
Notes
Hugh Kenner founds his treatment of modern Irish history in Cast
a Colder Eye (?1987) on the fact that O’Connor was best man at
the wedding of Kevin O’Higgins, whose order as Minister of Home Affairs
brought about his execution.
Peter Megennis (Sup. Gen. of Calced Carmelites, writing to Mgr.
John Hagan): “I received the news of the shooting of the four, amongst
which was my dear friend Liam [Mellows] … I knew these fellows [the
Free State govt.] were contemptible curs, but it never occurred to me
that they were such vampires, drunk with their sudden greatness. Their
one idea is to revel in human blood.” (papers in Irish College, Rome,
quoted in Dermot Keogh, review of Patrick Murray, Oracle of God: The
Roman Catholic Church and Irish Politics, UCD Press 2000, in The
Irish Times, 11 March 2000.)
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)