J. F. X. O'Brien

Who was J. F. X. O'Brien?

James Francis Xavier O'Brien was an Irish nationalist Fenian revolutionary. He was later elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as a Member of Parliament in the Irish Parliamentary Party.

O'Brien was born in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford to the merchant family of Timothy and Catherine O'Brien. In September 1849, he participated an attack, organised by James Fintan Lalor, on Cappoquin police barracks and evaded arrest.

In 1854 he won a scholarship to study medicine at Queen's College, Galway. However, a year later he left for Paris, with his friend John O'Leary, where he continued his studies, attending the École de Médecine. Health problems did not allow him to graduate, however.

Returning to Ireland in 1856, he embarked for New Orleans in the same year. He took part in William Walker's filibuster in Nicaragua. After returning to New Orleans, he met James Stephens in 1858, and joined the Fenian Brotherhood. He was an assistant surgeon in the Confederate Army in New Orleans in the early stages of the American Civil War.

In late 1862, he returned to Ireland, where he enrolled in the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Cork. He participated in the 1867 Fenian Rising. On 3 March, he took part in an IRB attack on Ballynockan police barracks, which surrendered. His group was later dispersed by a unit of British Army infantry and he was arrested near Kilmallock. In May 1867, he was tried for high treason, convicted, and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted, and he was placed in solitary confinement for much of his sentence. He was released in 1869 as part of an amnesty for Fenians.