John O'Connor

Who was John O'Connor?

John O'Connor was an Irish nationalist politician who was elected in 1885 as Lord Mayor of Dublin and also as a Member of Parliament for South Kerry.

O'Connor was the son of a farmer at Staplestown, Co. Kildare, and owned several public houses. He married the daughter of a pawnbroker, a Mr White. He was an alderman of Dublin Corporation and Lord Mayor in 1885.

At the general election in December 1885 he won the newly created South Kerry constituency for the Irish Parliamentary Party by more than 20 to 1 over the "Loyalist" candidate, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. O'Connor was re-elected unopposed in 1886, but resigned his seat in September 1887.