Charles Andrew O'Connor, (31 December 1854 – 18 October 1928) was an Irish judge who served as a Judge of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

from 1924 to 1925. His judgment in a case of ''R. (Egan) v. Macready'' is still influential.

Background and education

Born on 31 December 1854, he was the third son of Charles Andrew O'Connor, solicitor, of

Roscommon Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads. The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who built ...

.Walford (1919), p. 1008 His mother Catherine was the daughter of C. G. Smyth. O'Connor was educated at

St Stanislaus College St Stanislaus College (often called Tullabeg College) was a Jesuit boys boarding school, novitiate and philosophy school, in Tullabeg, Rahan, County Offaly. St Carthage founded a monastery of 800 monks there in 595 before founding his monaste ...

and went then to

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1876, and in 1877 was elected Auditor of the

College Historical Society The College Historical Society (CHS) – popularly referred to as The Hist – is a debating society at Trinity College Dublin. It was established within the college in 1770 and was inspired by the club formed by the philosopher Edmund Bu ...

.Ball (2005), p. 383 In 1876, he was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

and two years later he was called to the

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...

.Debrett (1922), p. 350 In 1890, he obtained his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

Judicial career

O'Connor was appointed a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1894 and was chosen a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can ...

after two years. He was appointed First Serjeant in 1907 and became

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On rar ...

two years later. In 1911, he took over as

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

, on which occasion he was sworn of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

. In the following year, he succeeded as

Master of the Rolls in Ireland The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was respons ...

, which he held until the establishment of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

in 1922. O'Connor retained the position in the new state for the next two years until its abolition in 1924. Subsequently, he received an appointment as a judge of the

Supreme Court of the Irish Free State The Supreme Court of the Irish Free State was the state's court of final appeal. It was created in Article 64 of the Irish Free State Constitution. It was presided over by a Chief Justice. The number of judges on the court was laid down in th ...

, retiring after one year in 1925.Who's Who (1926), p. 2176 He was one of only two judges of the old regime who were thought worth retaining by the new Irish Government, which acted on the advice of

Hugh Kennedy Hugh Edward Kennedy (11 July 1879 – 1 December 1936) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedheal politician, barrister and judge who served as Chief Justice of Ireland from 1924 to 1936, a judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland, Supreme Court from 1924 t ...

, the first

Chief Justice of Ireland The Chief Justice of Ireland ( ga, Príomh-Bhreitheamh na hÉireann) is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland. The chief justice is the highest judicial office and most senior judge in Ireland. The role includes constitutional and admini ...

, who believed that O'Connor had demonstrated his integrity and independence of mind in the ''Egan case'' (below).

Notable judgments

Although his training had been in Chancery, O'Connor is best remembered for two notable judgments in the field of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

, both a product of the political turmoil of the period 1919–1923. In ''R. (Egan) v. Macready'' he found that the power to declare

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

imposed by the

Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920 The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 31) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 9 August 1920 to address the collapse of the British civilian administration in Ireland during the Irish War of Inde ...

did not confer a power to impose the death penalty, and ordered the release of the applicant Egan, who was under sentence of death. When

Nevil Macready General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, 1st Baronet, (7 May 1862 – 9 January 1946), known affectionately as Make-Ready (close to the correct pronunciation of his name), was a British Army officer. He served in senior staff appointments in ...

, the Commander in Chief refused to comply, O'Connor caused a sensation by ordering his attachment for

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...

. Egan was then released. The judgment was extremely influential, although one crucial finding that there is no limit to the number of habeas corpus applications which can be made by a single applicant has been much debated, and in Ireland itself was modified by the

Second Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Second Amendment of the Constitution Act 1941 (previously bill no. 40 of 1941) is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland that was in the form of omnibus legislation affecting a variety of articles on a range of subject matters. It was ...

. His judgment in ''Application of Childers'' is a striking contrast. Erskine Childers, one of the leaders of the Anti-Treaty side during the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...

, was captured by Government forces,

court-martialled A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

and sentenced to death in November 1922. O'Connor refused to interfere, finding that the formative

, unlike General Macready, did have power to establish military courts that could impose the death penalty. He summed up: While O'Connor was universally regarded as a man of integrity, who would never consciously bend the law, it is possible that his attitude had hardened since ''Egan''; certainly it cannot have helped Childers that his allies had destroyed the

Four Courts The Four Courts ( ga, Na Ceithre Cúirteanna) is Ireland's most prominent courts building, located on Inns Quay in Dublin. The Four Courts is the principal seat of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Dublin Circuit ...

, a fact to which O'Connor drew attention in stressing the magnitude of the problems which the new Government faced. Childers appealed, but before this could be heard, he was executed three days later.

Family

In 1890, O'Connor married Blanche, the daughter of James Scully. He died in 1928.The Law Journal (1928), p. 215

Character

Maurice Healy Maurice Healy (3 January 1859 – 9 November 1923) was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP). As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was returned to in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Gre ...

praised O'Connor as "the greatest gentleman at the Irish Bar" and an extremely popular judge, even if he did not fully live up to expectations.Healy, Maurice, ''The Old Munster Circuit'', 1939 Mercier Press reissue, pp. 269–70 O'Connor was modest about his own abilities, noting in ''Egan'' that if he differed from colleagues with more experience of criminal law, it was not because he thought himself in any way superior to them. His main personal foible is said by Healy to have been his pride in belonging to the Clan O'Connor and a tendency to bore listeners with its history.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Charles Andrew 1854 births 1928 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Attorneys-General for Ireland Irish Queen's Counsel Members of the Middle Temple Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Solicitors-General for Ireland Judges of the Supreme Court of Ireland Members of the Privy Council of Ireland People from County Roscommon Masters of the Rolls in Ireland Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)