James O'Connor (1836 – 12 March 1910) was an Irish journalist and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1892 to 1910, first for the anti-Parnellite

Irish National Federation The Irish National Federation (INF) was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in 1891 by former members of the Irish National League (INL), after a split in the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) on the leadership of Charles ...

and then (from 1900) for the re-united

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nati ...

(IPP).

IRB

O'Connor was born in the

Glen of Imaal The Glen of Imaal ( or ; ) is a remote glen in the western Wicklow Mountains in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is ringed by the Lugnaquilla massif and its foothills, including Table Mountain, County Wicklow, Table Mountain and Keadeen Mountain ...

, County Wicklow. In 1863 or thereabouts he was recruited by

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (; 4 September 1831 (baptised) – 29 June 1915)Con O'Callaghan Reenascreena Community Online (dead link archived at archive.org, 29 September 2014) was an Irish Fenian leader who was one of the leading members of t ...

, business manager of the

Irish Republican Brotherhood The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; ) was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924.McGee, p. 15. Its counterpart in the United States ...

newspaper, '' The Irish People'', as his assistant manager and book-keeper. His younger brother John acted as office messenger and later devoted his entire adult life to secret work for the IRB. James O'Connor was responsible for the commercial side of the paper during Rossa's prolonged absences. He was imprisoned from 1865 onwards along with other Fenians who worked on the paper and was released with them from Portland prison on 4 March 1869. He then found employment on ''The'' ''Irishman''. By 1870, he was treasurer of the IRB Supreme Council. In 1869 he was present at the talks in Moore Hall and the House of Commons to discuss a New Departure. Constitutional and physical force Nationalists would work together and separately to promote an independent Ireland. In 1878, he acted as an intermediary between the American Fenians and

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1875 to 1891, Leader of the Home Rule Leag ...

Political career

He was elected as the MP for West Wicklow at the general election in July 1892. He was re-elected as anti-Parnellite in

1895 Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

, and as an IPP candidate in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

and January 1910, and died in office in March 1910, aged 74. While an MP in 1907, he helped to carry the coffin at the funeral of the old Fenian John O'Leary.

Family

In 1890, O'Connor's wife Mary and four of his daughters – Annie, Aileen, Kathleen and Norah – died after eating poisoned mussels in what became known as the Seapoint tragedy. His other daughter Moya Llewelyn Davies only ate a few and was violently ill, but survived. Moya was a close ally of Michael Collins during the War of Independence. He was married a second time, in 1892 to Jane McBride, with whom he had a daughter.

References

External links

* 1836 births 1910 deaths Politicians from County Wicklow Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Wicklow constituencies (1801–1922) Irish Parliamentary Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 Anti-Parnellite MPs {{Ireland-UK-MP-stub