Art O'Connor

Who was Art O'Connor?

Arthur O'Connor was an Irish politician, lawyer and judge. He was born in 1888, the second son of Arthur O'Connor of Elm Hall, Celbridge, County Kildare and his second wife Elizabeth. He was educated at Blackrock College, County Dublin. He obtained the dispensation which was at that time required by Catholics in order to study engineering at the then almost exclusively Protestant Trinity College, Dublin, from which he duly graduated in 1911.

O'Connor was elected Sinn Féin MP for Kildare South at the 1918 general election. In January 1919 Sinn Féin MPs, who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled as a unicameral, revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann. In the 1st Dáil, he was appointed Substitute Director of Agriculture during the absence of Robert Barton. In the 2nd Dáil he held the position of Minister of Agriculture from 26 August 1921 to 9 January 1922. O'Connor subsequently opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and joined the Republican side. He lost his Dáil seat in 1923 general election and failed to be elected again in 1927.